What Did We Learn
The ACC went into full swing this week and unfortunately, the quicker Clemson can move to another conference, the better off they will be.
The conference as a whole appeared to be stronger on paper, but then the inevitable happened. They had to go out and prove it. The usual suspects, Clemson, Miami, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, held up their end of the bargain and Florida State, surprisingly, looks like a team to be reckoned with. The rest of the conference? Not so much.
Thursday night, Virginia Tech fell to Group of 5, Old Dominion. They outgained ODU 340-245, VT QB Grant Wells had four interceptions and the team was penalized 14 times for 100 yards. What made matters worse, the Hokies traveled to ODU to play. ODU scored the go ahead touchdown with :33 left in the game, handing new coach Brent Pry a loss in his first game with the Hokies. VT will host Boston College September 10th, and speaking of Boston College.
Phil Jurkovich and the BC Eagles welcomed Big 10 foe Rutgers. BC was favored by 9 points going into the game. The offensive line did not play as expected, and in essence, neither did the Eagles. Jurkovich completed 23-41 passes for 283 yards, with 2 interceptions, but the Rutgers defense held BC to only 29 yards rushing. Jurkovich was also sacked four times. The Scarlet Knights scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 22-yard run with 2:43 seconds left in the game.
Wake Forest hosted the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) on Thursday night and treated the cadets the way they were supposed to, winning the game 44-10. WF outgained VMI 508-222, and bested them in first downs 24-13. The Demon Deacons did this without starting quarterback Sam Hartmann, who is out indefinitely. WF will head to SEC foe Vanderbilt next week in what looks like a high scoring affair. Vandy is currently in rarified air for them, being 2-0 and averaging 52.5 points a game, albeit against Hawaii and Elon (who scored 31 against this SEC defense).
The NC State Wolfpack and North Carolina Tarheels both traveled to instate Group of 5 schools and both left with their tails between their leagues, pulling out close wins.
NC State traveled to East Carolina University and thanks to a missed extra point and a last minute missed field goal, the Wolfpack failed to live up to their ranking but starts the season 1-0. Devin Leary did not exactly light up the stat sheet, He finished 17 of 33 for 211 yards with one TD pass and one interception. The Wolfpack hurt themselves with eight penalties for 73 yards. The 13th ranked NC State team will surely fall in the rankings, it’s a trait for ACC ranked teams that don’t perform the way Vegas or the media thinks they should.
The North Carolina Tarheels exploded for 63 points against Chase Brice and the Appalachian State Mountaineers. The problem is, Brice threw for 361 yards and six touchdowns as UNC held on to a 63-61 victory, thanks to App State failing on two 2-point conversions on their last two touchdowns. A total of 62 points was scored in the 4th quarter of this game, 22 by UNC and 40 by App State. Can we say NO defense? Yes we can.
68 first downs, 713 passing yards and 503 yards rushing, pretty much sums it up. North Carolina is now 2-0 after the victory, having beaten Florida A&M (minus 23 players due to academic issues) last week 56-24. UNC has now scored 119 points in two games, but given up 85. Hiring Gene Chizik to coach the defense, a good idea? The Tarheels take on Georgia State, another Group of 5 school next Saturday.
The Pitt Panthers renewed the “Backyard Brawl” rivalry with West Virginia on Thursday night, hosting the Mountaineers and coming out on top with a 38-31 victory. The game was back and forth all night with the Panthers outlasting WVU in a loud, sold out Acrisure Stadium. The Panthers got a 56-yard pick six with 2:58 remaining in the game to seal the victory. New quarterback Kedon Slovis (USC transfer) threw for 308 yards and one touchdown, but more importantly, zero interceptions. The 17th ranked Panthers could move up with the hard fought win. Next Saturday, the Panthers welcome SEC opponent Tennessee. Pitt went into Neyland Stadium last year and left with a hard earned victory, 41-34.
We discovered that the Miami Hurricanes are for real. Well, at least for real against Bethune-Cookman, who was 2-9 last year and gave up almost 40 points a game in their nine losses. Tyler Van Dyke looked really good today, and the 16-ranked Hurricanes pummeled the Wildcats, 70-13. They will probably rise in the rankings, especially with the loss by Oregon to the Georgia Bulldogs, 49-3 at a “neutral site” game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Neutral site. The Clemson Tigers will take on Georgia Tech in the same “neutral site” Monday night.
Two teams that are not expected to do great in the ACC this year both won their opening games.
The Duke Blue Devils opened up against the Temple Owls on Saturday under new coach Mike Elko. The Blue Devils came away with a good win, 30-0. Sophomore quarterback Riley Leonard completed 24-30 for 328 yards and two touchdowns in his debut as the starter. The Duke defense held the Owls to only 179 total yards. Yes, it is Temple, but, it is also Duke. This was a pretty good first game for Coach Elko. Duke will travel to Big 10 foe Northwestern next Saturday. The Blue Devils beat Northwestern last year 30-23.
The Virginia Cavaliers, under new head coach Tony Elliott, faced Group of 5 Richmond in a home game and came out on top, 34-17. Senior quarterback Brennan Armstrong threw for 246 yards and two touchdowns, and added 105 yards on the ground with another TD. The win was expected against the lower level Spiders, and the Cavaliers will travel next week to Big 10 opponent Illinois. Last year, Illinois visited Charlottesville and were treated pretty rudely, heading back home with a 42-13 loss.
In the first conference game of the year, Louisville traveled to Syracuse to play in the Dome, and the visitors were not treated very well.
Louisville is led by QB Malik Cunningham, who by all accounts, is one of the more talented quarterbacks in the country. The Dome was not kind to him. He passed for 152 yards, rushed for 34 yards, but was sacked three times and threw two interceptions. Garrett Shrader, on the other hand, had a night. He passed for 237 yards with two touchdown passes, and rushed for 95 yards and another TD. Syracuse winning a game at home in their Dome is not surprising. Winning 31-7 against Louisville was not expected. Coach Scott Satterfield spent so much time trying to out recruit Clemson, he forgot to coach what he had, and it showed.
The biggest game of the week in terms of “Conference Pride” had a thrilling ending with Florida State pulling out a 24-23 victory over LSU Sunday night. The game could have actually had a much calmer ending had FSU simply taken a knee three times inside the LSU five and kicked a field goal to make it a two score game, but noooooooooooo. They fumbled on the LSU 1 yard line, LSU recovered and drove 99 yards to make it 24-23. You guessed it. Missed extra point. Florida State wins the national championship!!!!!! The crowd goes wild!!!!!! No, they just beat an LSU team that was full of hype and playing at a “neutral site” in Louisiana. Welcome to the SEC, Brian Kelly.
Finally, the Clemson Tigers traveled to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to face the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.
When I say “all eyes are on the Clemson offense”, I mean ALL EYES were on QB DJ Uiagalelei. It’s easy for teams to get up facing a #4 team, but that usually lasts about a quarter. The Tigers took a 14-3 halftime lead into the dressing room and the skeptics were out in droves. Clemson pulled away in the 2nd half, and finished off the Jackets 41-10.
In summary, the ACC had its highs and its lows. It doesn’t take much to figure those out. Clemson, Miami, Wake Forest, Pittsburgh and Florida State are the Top Dogs in Week One, while Virginia Tech, Boston College, UNC and NCState had rough opening weeks.
Week two games of interest:
Louisville at UCF (-6.5)
Wake Forest (-13.0) at Vanderbilt Duke at Northwestern (-10)
North Carolina (-7.0) at Georgia State Tennessee (-6.5) at Pittsburgh Virginia at Illinois (-4.5)
Boston College at Virginia Tech (-3.0)
Games that should be blowouts:
Furman at Clemson (no point spread)
Southern Miss at Miami (-24.5)
Charleston Southern at NC State (no point spread) Syracuse (-23.5) at UConn
Western Carolina at Georgia Tech (no point spread)
