The ACC's No Good, Very Bad Weekend

Rough weekend for the Atlantic Coast Conference

One of the biggest questions going into this weekend's slate of football games was wondering who falls behind Clemson in terms of power rankings in the ACC. Of course the Tigers are considered miles ahead of the other teams, but out of the other teams, who is near the top. We got that answer for the most part this weekend. Wake Forest and UVA clearly are the top schools in the conference as of Week 4. But after that, it seems to be a huge drop off, and this weekend's games was a shining example of how mediocre the conference is right now behind Dabo's team. 

Friday Night:

UNC Falls: At home Wake Forest took care of business in a non-conference game, and UNC a team that many had thought would step up loses their first game. It wasn't a bad loss for the Tar Heels but it was a bad look for the conference as the refs messed up when time ran out on the Heels, when there was clearly one second remaning on the clock, a mistake the conference had to admit after the game.

BC Gets Trucked By Kansas: We have already gone over this ad nauseam on the site. The Eagles made Carter Stanley, a QB who managed 107 passing yards look like Johnny Manziel while the combination of Khalil Herbert and Pooka Williams thrashed a completely overwhelmed BC defense for 350 yards on the ground. As mentioned before, this was Kansas's first road win against a P5 opponent on the road in 11 years! BC has Rutgers next, which all of a sudden has become a must win for the Eagles. 

NC State Gets Clobbered By West Virginia:  In any other year this wouldn't be considered a horrible loss, but this was against WVU a team that just snuck by James Madison and got their doors blown off by Mizzou. Just like what happened with BC , the NC State defense made Austin Kendall look amazing throwing for 270 yards and 3 TD's, while Matthew McCay was completely ineffective. 

Georgia Tech Loses To FCS Squad Citadel: Georgia Tech never led against the Bulldogs but forced over time when Brenton King hit a field goal to tie it. But the GT missed in OT, and Citadel capitalized to win. I think a lot of us expected it to take a while for GT to be competitive, their roster is built for the triple option and that is not what Geoff Collins is running, but this is a catastrophic loss for the Yellow Jackets. 

VT Barely Sneaks By Furman: The Hokies were trailing at halftime 14-3, and it took a Tre Turner touchdown in the 4th quarter to give Justin Fuente the victory. It is a really bad sign when an FCS squad can stick around, especially one that isn't one that is not considered elite. 

UVA Finishes Off FSU: The Seminoles looked better, but in the end they couldn't punch it in from the goalline and the Cavaliers storm the field. I saw a statistic that was pretty damning, FSU has 34 4 and 5 star recruits on their  team, UVA has two. 

Pitt Coaches Their Way Out Of A Win: There is nothing wrong about losing to the #17 school in the country, especially on the road. The defense played their tails off. However, there is something wrong with being down 7 on the PSU one yard line and attempting a field goal with 5 minutes left. This loss is all on Pat Narduzzi. 

Syracuse Can't Protect Devito: Again there is nothing wrong with losing to Clemson at home, but Syracuse's offensive line is going to be a major problem going forward. Clemson was only rushing three or four defenders for most of the game and got to Devito 8 times. Heck even on the other side of the ball Trevor Lawerence made some incredible passes, but he threw two interceptions that should have been points for the Orange. Against better opponents (maybe the Playoffs) this may bite him.