Clemson handled their business by embarrassing Florida State at home, but chaos reigned elsewhere in the ACC during Week 10.
The refrain of Clemson dominating the competition and everyone else in the ACC sputtering might be getting old, but it doesn’t make it less true. Dabo Swinney’s team only strengthened their vice grip atop the ACC standings with their dominating win over Florida State on Saturday.
The fact that the Tigers won at home wasn’t a big surprise, but the margin of victory raised a few eyebrows. This is absolutely a down year for Florida State, but they weren’t fit to be on the same field as Clemson on Saturday. If anything, it showed just how tall the rebuilding task ahead of Willie Taggart really is.
Credit Notre Dame for handling their business against Navy in San Diego. It wasn’t a dominating performance for the Fighting Irish, but it was a comfortable 44-22 victory. They are the only team that really look capable of challenging Clemson. They might get their chance in the College Football Playoff.
We’ll start this week’s ACC Power rankings with a new team at the bottom. That could be bad news for a highly paid coach.
Bobby Petrino should be very concerned about his job. His defense was an absolute disaster against Wake Forest on Saturday. The Deacons made putting up 56 points on the road look easy against Louisville’s disorganized defense.
The offense wasn’t exactly clicking on all cylinders either. Jawon Pass threw for 354 yards but it took him 54 pass attempts to get there. He doesn’t have the accuracy necessary to execute Petrino’s precise offensive scheme. The problems in Louisville’s program run deep.
Larry Fedora’s team moves up a spot this week on the back of a moral victory. They weren’t able to knock off Virginia in Charlottesville, but staying in the game was a decent result for the Tar Heels.
In the end, UNC’s inability to run the football cost them once again. Rushing for just 66 yards on 22 carries put too much pressure on Nathan Elliott and the passing attack. It’s still a miserable year for fans in Chapel Hill, but at least they’re not the worst team in the ACC as of this week.
Dave Clawson’s team headed to Louisville in desperate need of a win and that’s just what they got. The Cardinals aren’t good, but Wake deserves credit for doing what was required to get a much-needed ACC win.
Special credit goes to Demon Deacon running back Matt Colburn. He originally committed to Louisville out of high school but was asked to greyshirt just two days before National Signing Day. Wake gave him a spot to land and he tortured Petrino’s team on Saturday. Rushing for 243 yards and three touchdowns on just 20 carries was exquisite revenge for Colburn.