The ACC field narrowed to just three teams still in contention for the College Football Playoff and ACC Championship. Virginia Tech earned validation that their program is on the rise while Clemson’s season appears spoiled in October yet again. It could be worse though. NC State lost at Stanford and fired their coach while Georgia Tech was blown out by Boston College. Yikes! As always, be sure to check out the accompanying video and support us by supporting our sponsor, Section 103. Discount code
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16. NC State (Prev 11): A week after getting blown out by Wake Forest, NC State drops to 3-4 with a Friday night loss at Stanford. Stanford outgained the Wolfpack on the ground and through the air. Stanford led by 14 points in the fourth quarter and held on for a 31-28 win over the Wolfpack. NC State was 1-1 on 4th down and had no turnovers. This was no fluke. Stanford QB Davis Warren threw for 4 TDs. The Wolfpack are just bad and showed no signs of growth or improvement ahead and they have been consistent losers in the portal scramble. As a result, NC State pulled the plug on Dave Doeren’s long tenure in Raleigh.
While many Clemson fans still dislike Coach Doeren for his cigar celebration, laptop complaints, and “we knocked their tailback out” comments, I’ve really moved on from that. Listening to him on the Eric & Mac Lain podcast showed another side of him — a humble coach who cares about his players personally. Nevertheless, the program had lost momentum and fans and boosters needed new hope. Things could certainly get worse, but when you look at what Will Stein has done at Kentucky, you have to bet on re-energizing things and take a risk.
16. Georgia Tech (Prev 16): The Yellow Jackets allowed just 101 passing yards, but allowed QB Mason McKenzie to run for 170 in a 49-27 home loss to Boston College. The wheels have completely come off in Atlanta. The 2-5 Yellow Jackets will not make a bowl. They lost four of five to end last season and five of seven to begin this year. The wins are Boston College (2025), Mercer, and Duke. Brent Key will need to make major changes, but the challenge here is it seemed he was building his roster well, using resources efficiently, and adapting. That makes this all the more painful. The problem isn’t as obvious.
15. Syracuse (Prev 17): Steve Angeli was back under center and had a nice game throwing for 256 yards and 2 TDs. The Orange pounded UNC on the ground and didn’t settle for field goals. They escaped Chapel Hill with a 31-30 overtime win to improve to 3-4 (1-4). They host SMU next. Win that and they’ll rocket up these rankings, but I don’t foresee it.
14. California (Prev 12): Cal made it dicey in the first half, but got outscored 42-0 by SMU in the second half. Jaron Keawe-Sagapolutele had a good stat line, but the Bears averaged 1.4 YPC and finished with 40 total rushing yards. Will JKS transfer? Would Dabo be interested in an extremely talented QB who also just so happens to be a devout Christian. One could dream.
13. Pittsburgh (Prev 14): Miami shot ahead 17-0 and didn’t look back. Pittsburgh is not a good team and Miami is a great one.
12. Stanford (Prev 15): Stanford has mastered these middle of the night games. Earlier in the season they hosted Georgia Tech and I woke to find a lot of sad Yellow Jackets at church. This game was on a Friday night, and NC State’s little blip of encouraging play came to an end. They go to Louisville next week. If they win there, maybe I’ll believe they’ve truly figured something out.
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11. Virginia (Prev 10): Virginia’s offense is bland, boring, and not at all explosive. They are not good in the red zone where they get super conservative and their only semblance of creativity is direct snaps to the running back. When you combine that with the inability to score from further out, you’ve got yourself a team that only scored 16 points in a Friday night home loss to Duke a week after being held to 13 in a loss at SMU. The 4-4 Cavaliers seem to have given away any gains made in last year’s successful season. They go to Winston-Salem next week and if the Deacs are as good as I think, it will be a blowout.
10. Boston College (Prev 13): Coach Bill O’Brien took a risk. He went into the portal and got a DII transfer QB, Mason McKenzie. Then he allowed him freedom to run wild far more than he has done in the past (i.e., Thomas Castellanos). That risk is paying off. Boston College isn’t running the pro-style pocket passer style O’Brien may prefer, but after 170 rushing yards from his QB in a 49-27 win in Atlanta, he is enjoying adapting. Boston College is now 4-3 (2-2). O’Brien has likely saved his job and for the first time in a very long time the Eagles have a team they can truly enjoy.
9. Duke (Prev 9): Manny Diaz is a fantastic coach. His team doesn’t have the pieces they’ve had the past few years, but they have RB Nate Sheppard and find interesting ways to get the most out of him. The Blue Devils fell behind in the first half when QB Walker Eget was out with a hand injury. He came back in the second half and got them back in the game. Then, with under 2-minutes left, a perfectly drawn up running back pass from Nate Sheppard hit a wide-open receiver in the end zone to put Duke ahead. Their defense intercepted QB Beau Pribula to seal the 19-16 win. Duke is 5-2 with winnable games against Boston College and NC State up next.
8. North Carolina (Prev 6): UNC is the hardest team to rank this week. Their home loss to Syracuse is bad, but they also beat Duke, Pitt, and TCU already.
7. Clemson (Prev 4): Remember when Coach Swinney said “we could go 11-1” after the LSU loss? Remember when he scoffed at the idea that last year’s team could lose six games? I don’t know what he’s seeing, but I see a three-star freshman QB who shouldn’t be starting at this stage of his career. I see him playing behind an offensive line that fans — but not Dabo Swinney — foresaw would be a major liability. With two ACC losses and a third in non-conference play, all meaningful goals are now out of reach. With the transfer portal playing such a significant role in college football, the idea of carrying momentum into next year is largely a false narrative. At least basketball starts in about a week (11/2). There’s much more about Clemson in the video above.
6. Florida State (Prev 8): The Seminoles host Clemson on Halloween. We’ll see where each team’s head is at. Norvell hot seat watch makes FSU interesting.
5. Virginia Tech (Prev 7): The Hokies deserve credit for coming back late to win at Clemson. At the same time, Clemson is 2-8 in their last 10 home games against Power Four opponents so let’s not treat this win like more than it is. It is like beating Nebraska. Sure, they used to be great and the brand still carries some weight, but the team is no good.
Ethan Grunkemeyer is a good QB though and James Franklin will lead Virginia Tech back to the top echelon of the ACC quickly. I still think SMU (in Dallas) and Miami (in Miami) are likely losses. I now think VT will beat Virginia though which would make them 8-4.
4. Louisville (Prev 5): The Cardinals had off this week and host Stanford next weekend.
3. SMU (Prev 3): At 6-1 (4-1), the Mustangs are in the thick of the ACC Championship race and are rounding into form just at the right time. After trailing at halftime, they blew away Cal in a dominant second half. Kevin Jennings had 3 TDs and 0 INTs and they averaged 5.8 YPC. I’m starting to lean towards them to beat Wake Forest and finish 10-2 (with the loss at Louisville and an upcoming loss at Notre Dame). Nonetheless, I will leave Wake Forest ahead for at least one more week based on Wake’s offensive dominance being more consistent.
2. Wake Forest (Prev 2): The Deacons beat Cal by 34. SMU then one-upped them and beat them by 39. These are two legitimately good teams and one will try to contend with Miami in Charlotte. They’re the only 1-loss teams left in the ACC standings behind undefeated Miami. It’s probably a bad sign that these two programs are ACC #2 and ACC #3 whereas other conferences boast Indiana/UCLA, Georgia/Alabama, or BYU/Texas Tech. That’s a broader conversation though.
1. Miami (Prev 1): Darien Mensah was 31/37 with 387 passing yards, 4 TDs, and 0 INTs. The defense held them scoreless until the game was essentially over in the first half. With BYU losing, there’s not a whole lot of debate. Miami is the best team in the country. We could see Malachi Toney and Darien Mensah in New York for the Heisman ceremony.
