ACC power rankings, Week 1: Who is Clemson’s biggest threat (if they have one)?

ACC power rankings for Week 1 sees no surprise with Clemson at the top, but who is the biggest threat to the reigning national champions in the ACC?

Miami had an opportunity to earn some respect on the national landscape and in the ACC during its game against Florida. Instead, the Hurricanes fell short.

The first ACC team to play a game in 2019 looked foolish against the No. 8 Florida Gators. That game was horrendous and full of mistakes, but it was still, technically, a college football game. And it was against a top-10-ranked in-state rival.

And Miami lost in gut-wrenching, heartbreaking fashion.

Still, even if the Hurricanes had found a way to win that game, there’s no way that they’d be at the top of these power rankings at this point. Right now, the throne in this conference belongs to the team that absolutely eviscerated Alabama in the national championship game, the Clemson Tigers.

Clemson is the clear No. 1 right now. They’re the best program in the country at the moment and they’re definitely the best team in the ACC.

But how does the rest of the conference stack up?

The Louisville Cardinals were abysmal last year. There’s little reason to believe that they’ll be significantly better this year. There’s a lot of work to do for new head coach Scott Satterfield as he attempts to rebuild and clean up after former head coach Bobby Petrino.

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are entering the first year of a new era. Out with Paul Johnson, who was not so excitable, and in with Geoff Collins, who might be the epitome of the word excitable. Collins still has to find a way to switch from a purely option-based offense to whatever it is he wants to install in Atlanta. Good luck with that scheme switch. It probably won’t be an easy one.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are yet another ACC program with a new head coach. But instead of hiring an actual new head coach, the Tar Heels turned to an old friend in Mack Brown. What’s great about Brown is that he’s coached in national title games and has a wealth of experience. What’s not great about Brown is he’s been out of coaching for a few years.

Boston College could be a solid team this season. The Eagles have won seven games a season for the past three consecutive seasons as well as five of the past six seasons. BC could probably do that again. If nothing else, Steve Adazio’s teams are notably consistent in their level of success year in and year out, typically have solid defenses and just enough output on offense to win more than they lose. There’s something respectable about being a decent team and being relatively predictable, right? Given the fact that most of Boston College’s offense doesn’t return from a season ago, the Eagles will almost certainly lean on their star running back, A.J. Dillon and their defense.

The Duke Blue Devils are having to replace first round pick quarterback Daniel Jones. In most cases, the team that has to do that takes a notable step back. However, Jones was good, but he wasn’t great last season, completing just 60.5 percent of his passes for 2,674 yards and 22 touchdowns against nine interceptions, according to sports-reference.com. The shoes he left behind are relatively easy to fill, all things considered. Duke could realistically find a path to a moderate amount of success this season.

The North Carolina State Wolfpack will take a considerable step back on offense. But, on defense, eight starters return. Given how much NC State relied upon its offense to win games in 2018, that’s probably frustrating for Wolfpack fans. North Carolina State loses its starting quarterback in Ryan Finley as well as its best receivers, Kelvin Harmon and Jakobi Meyers. That’s probably really frustrating for Wolfpack fans.

Wake Forest was admittedly one of the most entertaining teams in the country when the Demon Deacons were firing on all cylinders. At 7-6, Dave Clawson’s team had a respectable season. Sure, they lacked a decent defense, but the Demon Deacons still succeeded more than they failed last year, and that includes a bowl win over Memphis. Now in 2019, Wake Forest will need to get off to a hot start in order to be able to sustain that level of success. Can this team make it back to another bowl game? Better yet, can this team win a fourth consecutive bowl game?

For Florida State fans, 2018 was something that never happened and is something that nobody wants to speak about. While 2019 might be better than the year that came before it for the Seminoles, that’s not a high bar to hurdle over. Willie Taggart still needs to find an offensive line (or his offense will continue to fail), but the Noles should boast one of the best defenses in the conference this year. It remains to be seen if that’ll be enough to get FSU back on track.

In 2018, Pitt was technically the runner-up in the ACC. However, that does not mean that Pitt was the second-best team in the ACC. Pitt, through the magic of tiebreakers, made it to the ACC Title Game, where the Panthers were pummeled by Clemson in a game that actually could have ended in a much more lopsided manner. All that said, Pat Narduzzi and the panthers could see themselves finishing with seven-eight wins if they get some breaks.

The Virginia Cavaliers ended 2018 with eight wins. They’re hoping to do that, or better, and beat Virginia Tech this season. With Bryce Perkins leading the Cavaliers’ offense and a stout defense on the other side of the ball, year four of the Bronco Mendenhall era has the potential to be a special one.

The Virginia Tech Hokies have seemingly stalled out. Year three of the Justin Fuente era was, well, pitiful. The Hokies had their worst season since 1992, which was actually long before all of the players on Virginia Tech’s roster were born. But the Hokies have some experience coming into this season, and that could solve many of the issues this team faced last season. Quarterback Ryan Willis was solid as a junior and could conceivably be even better as a senior. Plus, an uncharacteristically shaky Virginia Tech defense should improve this year due to the amount of youth that played on it last year.

Miami: the only ACC team to actually play a game in 2019. It was technically a game, even though it was a really, really ugly game. And despite Miami’s multitude of errors, the Hurricanes actually came close to upsetting the Florida Gators. That’s worthy of a decent amount of respect, even though the game still resulted in a loss. Miami and Manny Diaz need to do some reflecting on their errors, but the Hurricanes have plenty of potential and promise this season. If this team can limit its mistakes, it can easily find itself in the ACC Title Game at the end of the year.

The Syracuse Orange shocked many by winning 10 games last season. Now, with a new quarterback, the trick is to find a way to repeat that accomplishment this season. Dino Babers has the unenviable task of replacing a prominent starter in Eric Dungey. He wasn’t always the best quarterback in the conference, but he was a key reason Syracuse shocked Clemson in 2017 and was a big reason for all of the success that Babers’ team saw last season. After all, it wasn’t Syracuse’s defense that carried them through many games last year. Syracuse starts the season with plenty of potential, but there’s also plenty of potential for the Orange to take a notable step back this season.

Clemson is the king of this conference. Clemson very well might be the king of all of college football at the end of the season yet again. There’s a very real chance that the Tigers take home yet another national title this year. And given how most of the rest of the ACC is deeply flawed in some way, it’s a safe bet to pick the Tigers to run through the conference again this season. Trevor Lawrence should be able to put up Heisman caliber stats yet again and the Tigers recruit at such a high level that any voids left by departing stars are relatively easy to fill.