The Virginia Tech Hokies vs. the Virginia Cavaliers winner will decide the ACC Coastal and who the Clemson Tigers will devour in Charlotte next week.
Fate would have it that the biggest game of the ACC season on the gridiron will take place in Charlottesville on Friday afternoon. This year, the Commonwealth Clash will decide who will win the ACC Coastal this year: Justin Fuente‘s Virginia Tech Hokies (8-3) or Bronco Mendenhall’s Virginia Cavaliers (8-3). It will also decide who the Clemson Tigers will destroy in Charlotte.
Not since Matt Schaub was the Hoos’ star signal-callers has Virginia defeated its in-state nemesis on the football field. Virginia Tech has dominated this rivalry series for the last 15 years, having won every contest since 2005. The Hokies won every game over Virginia during Frank Beamer‘s last decade in Blacksburg and the last few years since Fuente left his Memphis Tigers’ post.
Virginia has come alive under Mendenhall after he and his family left a strong BYU Cougars program to take over an ACC bottom-feeder. Should the Cavaliers knock off the Hokies for the first time since the George W. Bush Administration, Virginia will win its first-ever division title in football and will have an impossible shot at winning its first ACC Championship since 1995.
Unfortunately for both the Hoos and Hokies, neither Virginia state school will beat the behemoth that is Clemson Football at Bank of America Stadium in early December. Clemson has essentially cruised through its ACC schedule this season. While an early-season scare against the North Carolina Tar Heels in Chapel Hill was frightening, Clemson again won’t be tested by the ACC.
A win on Friday afternoon will be one of the best wins in Virginia football history this century, if not the biggest. Should the Hokies keep the streak alive, Virginia Tech will be playing its seventh ACC Championship Game since 2005, in position to maybe do the impossible and win its fourth conference championship since leaving the Big East.
But let’s be real for a few seconds. The ACC outside of Clemson is dreadful in 2019. Though both Virginia and Virginia Tech, along with a few other teams like the Louisville Cardinals and the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, have been respectable this season, the winner of the Commonwealth Cup will end up just being cannon fodder for Clemson in the ACC title bout. That’s just the truth.
Fortunately for both Virginia and Virginia Tech, a win in this rivalry series will assure themselves of a top-25 ranking by the College Football Playoff Selection Committee heading into Championship Weekend. Though a fourth loss in 13 games won’t be great, perhaps a decent showing against Clemson will result in this rivalry game’s getting to play in the Capital One Orange Bowl? Not bad.
Virginia Tech might be the better on-field matchup against Clemson, but Mendenhall might be the better in-game coach to potentially keep pace with Dabo Swinney at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte in two weeks. Sure, both Virginia schools could look to keep it close vs. Clemson in the first half, but do you really think Trevor Lawrence and company won’t end up blowing them out?
Overall, the winner of this game in Charlottesville the day after Thanksgiving should be very excited about clinching a division title over a bitter rival. They should 100 percent celebrate after winning the Commonwealth Clash. However, nobody outside of the commonwealth thinks the Hoos or Hokies have any shot to beat the Tigers. They’ll be Tiger bait in two weeks. Just watch.
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