Provided by ACC Campus Correspondant Chad Floyd.
Better news for the ACC in this week’s slate of games. The conference went 2-0 vs. BCS opponents, and its only nonconference loss came against potential BCS buster and top-15 team TCU (and Virginia was playing them- no real expectations there). Bad news does exist, however. Florida State needed a 4th quarter rally to top Jacksonville St., and Maryland delivered the conference’s first win against the CAA by the skin of its teeth. The top of the league held serve, and for the first time since expansion, there is a noticeable gap between the really good, mediocre, and bad teams in the conference.
1) Miami (1-0, 1-0 ACC, bye): No reason to penalize them for not playing. Going back and re-watching part of their opener against Florida State makes me a little nervous, as their defense was shaky. The winner of their Thursday night tilt against Georgia Tech will probably take over #1 in these rankings next week.
2) Georgia Tech (2-0, 1-0 ACC, defeated Clemson 30-27): A few breaks gave them a big early lead, and then their offense stagnated as their defense gave up some big plays. What impressed me was the ability of the team to bounce back when they were backed into a corner, as all three phases stepped up for them. Josh Nesbitt HAS to be more accurate for Tech to be a legitimate title contender, however. (Side note: Derrick Morgan: PHENOM.)
3) Virginia Tech (1-1, 0-0 ACC, defeated Marshall 52-10): Ryan Williams and David Wilson each went over 150 yards, and these Hokies are following the usual blueprint of power running and a strong (we think) defense. They could inch back towards the top with an impressive showing against Nebraska this week.
4) North Carolina (2-0, 0-0 ACC, defeated Connecticut 12-10): I don’t think UNC is getting enough credit for this win, as Connecticut ranked 6th in the nation in total defense last year, was playing their home opener, and the Heels were playing without 4 offensive starters. To win on the road and drop 5 spots in the AP poll is laughable. I will concede that Ga. Tech and Va. Tech looked better than them this week, thus the drop. A win over ECU this week may push them back up.
5) Clemson (1-1, 0-1 ACC, lost to Ga. Tech 30-27): I thought they were dead in the water when they went down 21-0 in the first quarter at Bobby Dodd. To their credit, Kyle Parker got the ball to their playmakers and the defense stepped up the intensity to bring the Tigers back. I thought they were going to leave Atlanta with the win, but the team definitely showed promise.
6) Boston College (2-0, 0-0 ACC, defeated Kent State 34-7): Do I think they are the ACC’s sixth-best team? Absolutely not, but they have been among the most impressive teams (albeit against poor competition) to this point. I’ve got Clemson beating them badly this weekend.
7) Wake Forest (1-1, 0-0 ACC, defeated Stanford 24-17): Another week, another close game vs. a perennial bottom-feeder from a BCS conference. This week, the Deacs took care of business on the strength of 251 rushing yards against Stanford. Among the mediocre teams I mentioned in the opening paragraph, look for the Deacons to remain between 6 and 9 all year long.
Florida State (1-1, 0-1 ACC, defeated Jacksonville State 19-9): You can’t scrape by an FCS opponent and not suffer a significant drop in your power ranking because of it. This is an embarrassment to the league, as one of its power programs goes down to the wire against a no-name. They’ll need to tighten up on D and hold on to the football to climb out of the early season funk they seem to be in. The ACC needs a good performance from the Noles at BYU this week.
9) N.C. State (1-1, 0-0 ACC, defeated Murray State 65-7): Russell Wilson and the offense cured whatever was bugging them against South Carolina, and the Wolfpack should gain a lot of confidence from this performance and this Saturday’s game against Gardner-Webb. One still has to worry about which State team shows up against real competition.
10) Maryland (1-1, 0-0 ACC, defeated James Madison 38-35): Inexplicable that this game would even be close after the Terps saw what happened to Virginia and Duke in week 1. The fact that they won keeps them in the top 10, barely.
11) Duke (1-1, 0-0 ACC, defeated Army 35-19): Maybe Duke just goes undefeated in FBS play? I was impressed by backup QB Sean Renfree’s performance (7/8, 106 yards, 2 TD) and wonder if a quarterback controversy may not be underway in Durham. Coach Cutcliffe insists that this is not the case, but I’ll be watching for that as the Blue Devils travel to Kansas this weekend.
12) Virginia (0-2, 0-0 ACC, lost to TCU 30-14): Respectable score, still hasn’t proven to be a respectable team. I expect them to get smoked against Southern Miss this week.
You may note that my top 4 and bottom 2 teams make up the Coastal Division, while the 6 in between make up the Atlantic. This tells me that there are really only two teams you can count out of the ACC race before conference play begins in earnest. Both divisions are WIDE OPEN, and the Coastal picture will begin to take shape in the next two weeks as we have 3 games (GT @ Miami this week, UNC @ GT and Miami @ VT the next) between some of the top teams. Things are about to get interesting in the ACC.
