ACC Power Rankings 2016: Does anyone want to win this conference?

As much as we’ve made fun of the Orange over the course of the last few weeks, praise is given when you go out and beat a top 20 ranked team in convincing fashion. Saturday’s win over the Hokies was just that and might wake the young men from Western New York up.

Eric Dungey was again the man for Syracuse, going for 311 yards and a score through the air and over 100 yards with another score on the ground. If the Orange are going to make a late bowl push, it’s going to be only if the man throwing the ball is on his game the rest of the way.

On the flip side, when you lose on the road to a team like Syracuse by two touchdowns just one week after looking like the runaway winner of the Coastal Division, you take a massive fall in these power rankings — that’s just how it goes.

For as much talk as there has been across college football (including by this author) about the Hokies defense being clutch this season, giving up over 560 yards and 32 first downs is unacceptable. With games against Miami and Georgia Tech coming up, it’s time to fix this and make sure what took place was a one-time thing.

Much like with Duke a couple of spots ago, I really feel bad for having to move the Wolfpack down in the rankings – considering the fact they were just one missed kick away from putting a gigantic money wrench in Clemson’s title plans.

With that being said, N.C. State is perfectly capable of beating Louisville this weekend and Florida State in two weeks. Ryan Finley isn’t a great quarterback, but he does what it takes to get the job done and Matthew Dayes is a quality running back that gives them a balanced attack on offense.