ACC Football 2018: Mid-season grades for every team – Clemson thrives, UNC fails

Miami (5-1): A-

Credit Mark Richt for putting his Hurricanes in position to make the ACC Championship game at the halfway point in the season. They’ve shown a lot of maturity by responding to an ugly early season loss to LSU by reeling off five straight victories. More importantly, this team has an excellent chance to hit double-digit victories in 2018. They should be favored in at least five of their six remaining games. An important road game against Virginia Tech will likely determine their ability to win the Coastal, but it’s been an excellent year for Miami so far.

Duke (4-1): B

David Cutcliffe’s team had a massive opportunity to knock off Virginia Tech at home but they whiffed on it. Even so, that’s their only loss of the year. In Durham, that qualifies as a pretty good start.

Virginia Tech (3-2): C

The Hokies opened up the year with a bang by dominating Florida State on the road. Looking back, that win wasn’t as good as we thought it was. Their upset loss to Old Dominion might be the biggest upset of the entire year. Their grade does get a bump for playing okay after the injury to Josh Jackson. The importance of their road win at Duke without him shouldn’t be underestimated. Virginia Tech remains in the thick of the division race and that’s a testament to Justin Fuente and his staff. It’s not going to be a storybook season in Blacksburg, but the program is still headed in a great direction.

Pittsburgh (3-3): B-

The Panthers are one of the most difficult teams in the ACC to evaluate at this point. They’ve been blown out by UCF and Penn State. Add that to an absurd loss at North Carolina and you might be inclined to give them a poor grade. On the other hand, they’re 2-1 in the ACC with wins over Syracuse and Georgia Tech. When you combine that with their modest preseason expectations it gives them an above average grade. As long as Pittsburgh makes a bowl game their grade should stay right in this range.

Virginia (3-2): A-

The Cavaliers deserve a lot of credit for their improvement from 2017 to 2018. They still aren’t a threat to win the division, but becoming respectable is a massive step forward for their program. Bryce Perkins has emerged as one of the best players in college football that no one talks about. The junior signal caller already has 1,125 passing yards to go with his 341 yards on the ground this year. Virginia’s season will be made or broken by their next five games. Four of those contests come at home. Keep a close eye on this team to move up in the standings in the next month.

North Carolina (1-3): D-

Larry Fedora is still a solid bet to get the ax at the end of the season. It’s just hard to see the signs of progress within his Tar Heels program. So far, their only win was a shootout at home against Pittsburgh. Carolina fans should savor that ACC victory. It might be the last one they get in 2018. They’ll have some chances to pull off an upset down the stretch, but this team just isn’t very good. Look for them to finish at or near the bottom of the ACC standings.

Georgia Tech (3-3): C

Paul Johnson is another coach who began the year under a lot of pressure. Through six games, his team has been exactly what we thought it would be. They’ve ground out wins against the three bad defenses they’ve faced and lost whenever they’ve faced a quality opponent. That isn’t enough to excite anyone in Atlanta, but things could be worse.

Look for the Yellow Jackets to finish the year right about .500. That might be enough to get Johnson some more time, but it’s only a matter of time before they look for a more exciting option. Of course, they’re still winless in the ACC. The Blue Devils will finish the season with eight straight games in the conference. How they play down the stretch will determine whether or not Duke limps into a bowl game or mounts a serious challenge on the Coastal division. Look for the results to end up somewhere in between.