ACC power rankings: Syracuse, Miami and North Carolina continue to stumble

Another week of ACC football, another week of messy games. This time, Georgia Tech got a much-needed conference win.

Geoff Collins might actually be the best new head coach in the ACC and he’s coaching the worst program within the conference. Collins and Georgia Tech got just their second win of the season over Miami on Saturday, proving that there is potential for the Yellow Jackets. It also proved that the ACC is constantly a jumbled mess in 2019.

While Clemson sits at the top, many of the teams throughout the rest of the conference are seemingly content to lose bad games against bad teams in bad ways. Take North Carolina, for example. Just a few weeks ago, Mack Brown was guiding his team in a close game against Clemson. Now, North Carolina is reeling from a two-point, six-overtime loss to Virginia Tech.

Staying in the state of North Carolina, we’ve got another great example of a painful loss as North Carolina State was demolished by Boston College, who in turn was demolished by Kansas a few weeks back.

So, in summary, everything is bad and nobody is good, except for Clemson and maybe Virginia and Wake Forest.

Syracuse is bad. And by bad, I mean that the Orange will have a very hard time winning another game this season. Losing to the Pittsburgh Panthers isn’t the worst thing in the world, just ask Central Florida. But, with Tommy Devito dinged up, beating Florida State, Boston College, Duke, Louisville, and Wake Forest will be rather difficult.

It feels like it’s been ages since we’ve had anything good to say about the Miami Hurricanes. Manny Diaz looked like a solid coach in his debut against Florida, but so many things have gone wrong for the Hurricanes since the season opener. Losing in overtime to Georgia Tech is one of those things.

Speaking of Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets finally broke through and got a conference win! It seems like the only teams Georgia Tech is capable of beating this season come from the state of Florida. Seeing as the Yellow Jackets have beaten South Florida and Miami, there’s a chance that this is true. Regardless, Geoff Collins and his team finally beat an ACC team.

NC State fell in an absolutely embarrassing loss to the Boston College Eagles. North Carolina State lost to Boston College by 21 points who in turn previously lost to Kansas by 24 points about a month ago. So, the Wolfpack has a transitive loss to Kansas, which is always bad to have.

Speaking of Boston College, the Eagles get the perfect chance to make their name known a little bit better with that win over NC State. Of course, it’ll still be brought up that the Eagles lost to Kansas, probably for the rest of this season.

The North Carolina Tar Heels took a frustrating loss to Virginia Tech over the weekend. In what was a thrilling game that went into six overtimes, North Carolina simply couldn’t come out on top of the Hokies. Mack Brown’s team has shown some legitimate potential that it can eventually be good down the road, but the Tar Heels aren’t good this year.

Losing to Virginia may not be the worst thing ever, but it sure isn’t a good thing. Getting blown out by the Cavaliers, however, is certainly a very bad thing. Duke looked dull against Virginia and the Blue Devils were unable to keep up with a decent team.

Scott Satterfield and the Louisville Cardinals are going in the right direction. Satterfield has this program going in the right direction as he works to rebuild Louisville. Against Clemson, even the best teams in the country can look flat-out bad, and Louisville is still very far from being one of the best teams in the country, so it wasn’t a shocker that Satterfield’s team struggled.

Florida State came so close to getting a solid win on Saturday. But that’s been the story for the Seminoles this season. They get close to winning but just can’t seem to close things out. FSU had a golden opportunity to gain some respect and upset Wake Forest but was unable to do so.

The Virginia Tech Hokies haven’t looked all that great all season, but they’ve been winning more than they’re losing, and that’s ultimately what matters. It took the Hokies quite a while to come out on top of North Carolina, but six overtimes later and Virginia Tech had its fifth win of the season. One more and the Hokies are bowl-eligible.

Pitt doesn’t exactly look like a great team on paper, but the Panthers just keep winning. Like with Virginia Tech, this team is just about bowl eligible and will have plenty of opportunities up ahead to cement a bowl trip and possibly earn a chance to play in a better than average bowl game. Pitt had difficulties locking up a win against a very, very bad Syracuse team, but the Panthers still came out on top.

Wake Forest continues to impress in the win column, even if the way that the Demon Deacons get that win is rather unimpressive. Beating FSU by two points wasn’t exactly anything to brag about, but the Demon Deacons are now ready for a bowl game and can continue to have a great year if they keep winning.

The Virginia Cavaliers dominated Duke in a way that they needed to in order to continue gaining respect from poll voters and prospective bowl games. If UVA continues to win, they’ll have a nice bowl destination ready for them at the end of their season. Given how weak the ACC is this season, that’s very doable for this team.

Trevor Lawrence is having a bit of a sophomore slump in 2019. He shows flashes of greatness but has thrown too many interceptions. Part of that has to do with some injury issues. But, at the end of the day, Lawrence has overcome his struggles and is helping his team stay in the playoff picture.

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