Between bye weeks and bad teams, the ACC had a rather uneventful weekend. For a conference that only has a handful of decent teams and one great team, uneventful is a good thing.
Things almost got chaotic in the ACC when Clemson was challenged by North Carolina. But, the Tigers came out on top of an intriguing game and made it to a bye week this past Saturday. Like much of the rest of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the bye week was much-needed for the Clemson Tigers.
But it wasn’t a complete and total snoozefest out on the Atlantic coast. Boston College and Louisville combined to score 80 points in their match up. Pitt and Duke put up 63 combined points. Miami and Virginia Tech scored 77 together.
There were plenty of points scored in three very close, exciting games. There just wasn’t a singularly good team involved in any of them. But that’s the nature of the ACC this year.
Georgia Tech technically had a better day offensively against North Carolina than Clemson did. But that doesn’t mean that Georgia Tech is good. In fact, Georgia Tech is very much so the opposite of a good team. The Yellow Jackets gave up 38 points to North Carolina and lost their fourth game of the season. It’s technically possible that Georgia Tech could still make it to a bowl game, but don’t bet anything on that happening.
Miami is a mess. A complete and total mess. The Hurricanes had a great opportunity to get their third win of the season and just could not complete a comeback. After falling behind by three touchdowns in the first quarter, Miami had the game tied up late in the fourth quarter. And then the Hurricanes lost.
Boston College is halfway to being bowl eligible, but the Eagles may not get much closer than that. Against a rebuilding mess of a Louisville team, Boston College simply couldn’t outscore the Cardinals. Not being able to slow or outscore Louisville is an issue for any team.
Just because the Virginia Tech Hokies found a way to beat the Miami Hurricanes doesn’t mean that they’re a good team. Virginia Tech was up big in this game and gave up a large lead over Miami. The Hokies came out on top, but this game should have been a blowout win for Virginia Tech.
Nearly half of the ACC took the week off. North Carolina State was one of the six teams to get a bye week this past weekend.
Just like North Carolina State, Florida State also got a bit of a break this past weekend. Willie Taggart’s team needed the bye week more than most though. The Noles will head up to Clemson for their next game.
Syracuse is the third ACC team to have gotten a bye week. The Orange will get back to the gridiron against North Carolina State on Thursday.
Louisville got a conference win! The Cardinals, for the first time in over a year, defeated a conference opponent! It wasn’t a huge win by any means, and the Cardinals aren’t really any good, but Louisville defeated Boston College in a high-scoring affair on Saturday. Scott Satterfield and the Cardinals are halfway to being bowl eligible now.
Things went poorly for David Cutcliffe and the Duke Blue Devils on Saturday. The Blue Devils fell behind Pitt and, despite an impressive comeback attempt, couldn’t keep up with the Panthers. Pitt might actually be a decent team (that’s yet to be determined), but Duke still probably should have beaten the Panthers, especially considering the Blue Devils scored 20 in the fourth quarter.
The Tar Heels got a solidly dominant win over a conference opponent. Beating an ACC team 38-22 is a fairly impressive feat most of the time. Beating Georgia Tech 38-22 this year doesn’t fall under that category. It’s a decent win for Mack Brown and his rebuilding team. It’s not a great win that Brown and the Tar Heels should really feel great about.
The Pittsburgh Panthers might be a good team? Maybe? I’m not totally certain about this. What I do know is that Pitt defeated UCF last week and then survived a trip to Duke this past weekend. Neither of those wins means Pitt is a great team, but the Panthers are 4-2 on the year so far. They’ve got a chance to keep winning in a relatively chaotic conference like the ACC.
Virginia, like five other teams in this conference, rested over the weekend. The Cavaliers could be good. The Cavaliers could also be overrated. That’ll be determined down the stretch.
Wake Forest is undefeated and has moved on up in the world. The Demon Deacons got a bye week, sit at 5-0, and will get three straight winnable home games before taking back-to-back road trips. The second of those road trips is to Clemson. This is the stretch that will show the college football world just how good this Wake Forest team is.
And of course, Clemson is still the best team in the ACC. This conference doesn’t have many good teams and right now there’s only one great team. Clemson certainly needed its bye week to be this past weekend after it almost had its record tarnished against North Carolina. But the Tigers beat the Tar Heels and they made it through their bye week and welcome Florida State to town where they are four-touchdown favorites.
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