As we approach the halfway point of the college football season, it seems appropriate to take a look around the conference and reflect on what all has happened. In a season filled with the unexpected so far, the ACC has had their fair share of story lines. Through six weeks, I still do not have a concrete opinion about most of the ACC’s football teams.
The front runner as anticipated, is Florida State. But even they have had quite a journey. They handled Oklahoma State and sleepwalked past The Citadel before Jameis Winston decided to yell obscenities in the middle of the cafeteria. Then they miraculously survived the Clemson game in overtime, and struggled at NC State. The ‘Noles simply haven’t looked as dominant or complete as they did last year in their annihilation of the rest of the league. Despite all that, the Seminoles are 5-0 and represent the ACC’s best and potential only shot at the College Football Playoff.
Behind them in the Atlantic division are Louisville and Clemson, who face off at Death Valley this weekend. A Louisville win would keep them relevant in the conference race. Clemson has now switched from Cole Stoudt to freshman phenom Deshaun Watson at quarterback, and trounced NC State in their best performance of the season last week. Losses to Georgia and Florida State have left them largely out of the conference title picture, unless the Seminoles lose multiple ACC games.
Boston College, Syracuse, Wake Forest, and NC State all are winless thus far in conference play, though it is early. Boston College probably has the biggest win for the entire conference this year when they upset USC at home a few weeks ago.
In the Coastal division, Georgia Tech and Virginia have jumped out to 2-0 conference starts. Virginia Tech went on the road and beat Ohio State, then came home and lost to the Ramblin’ Wreck and East Carolina in back to back weeks. Ouch.
Those Yellow Jackets are the league’s only other unbeaten team through five weeks. Their schedule is quite favorable, as they avoid Florida State and get Virginia and Clemson at home. The Cavaliers have come to the rescue of head coach Mike London and stormed the field after a win against Louisville, who was ranked at the time. Their losses are to quality programs – UCLA and BYU.
Miami and North Carolina already have two losses and have struggled to find any level of consistency in the young season. Duke started 4-0 playing easy teams, then lost to Miami. Pittsburgh won at Boston College, but now has lost three in a row to Iowa, Akron, and Virginia. Ouch.
All this adds up to a very cloudy conference picture outside of the defending national champions. And even Florida State has a long way to go to play like one of the nation’s elite teams. It does seem like some teams are stepping up to provide the ACC with some better depth in the top half of the conference, but when Miami and Virginia Tech struggle, it really hurts the league from a perception standpoint.
I’m interested to see who emerges from the Coastal, and whether Louisville can mount any sort of challenge to Florida State’s chokehold on the Atlantic division. What are you looking for as the conference season continues to play out?
*Section Photo credit to Joel Auerbach, Getty Images; Featured Photo (above) credit to John David Mercer, USA Today Sports
