ACC power rankings, Week 3: Clemson holds on after uneventful week
With multiple teams out of action last weekend, there wasn’t much movement in the power rankings for the ACC as we head into the third week of the season.
The ACC had a bit of a weird weekend to deal with in Week 2 of the college football season, with a few of the top teams in the conference out of action due to Hurricane Irma. However, with chaos all over the place, one thing remained true on Saturday: Clemson is the team to beat in the ACC.
The Tigers found themselves in a tough battle with Auburn on Saturday night and proved that they haven’t missed a step since their national title win earlier in 2017 from last season. Now, with some of the other competition away from the field this past weekend, they got an edge on some of their rivals and staked their claim to the title of the ACC’s best of the best.
While there were some teams out of action, there were still plenty of other games to consider for this week’s power rankings, and plenty of movement continuing from last week’s edition as we get rolling this season and things begin to become more consistent.
For now, here’s the newest edition of the ACC power rankings, with some big jumps as we start to settle in on the new season.
Virginia Cavaliers 1-1
Last week: Lost 34-17 to Indiana
Last rank: 14
This ranking seems like something I can just pencil in at the beginning of every power rankings release this season considering how the first two weeks of the season have gone for Virginia in 2017.
The Cavaliers fell short against Indiana, losing a tough 34-17 game where Kurt Benkert threw the ball 66 times and only got one touchdown pass out of the entire day to show for it. Their offense couldn’t get anything going, their defense faltered and it just was an all-around bad day for the team. They’re struggling this season, even after a win last week in an easy game, and it doesn’t look promising for the Cavaliers as we get rolling in 2017.
Syracuse Orange 1-1
Last week: Lost 30-23 to Middle Tennessee
Last rank: 12
Syracuse didn’t look good in a game against Middle Tennessee, and finally found themselves on the move in the power rankings because of it as we head into a big Week 3 for the Orange.
They looked like they could find themselves sticking around at that 12 spot on the rankings as we looked ahead to Week 2 of the year, but the Orange just couldn’t get it done in a close game, despite Steve Ishmael’s crazy efforts offensively in the receiving game for the team. Now, they’ll battle Eastern Michigan in Week 3, and need to put a stop to their opponent’s momentum that they have rolling into the game if they want to get back up on the list.