Now things are taking shape. Miami might be worse than anyone thought. Georgia Tech jumped into the driver's in the Coastal division. Wake Forest moved to 5-0 probably for the first time ever and Duke made Virginia look like Louisville and I did not think that was possible. There were also three shutouts in the ACC today.
Georgia Tech 38 Virginia Tech 27
Most important stat line from this game: Calvin Johnson, 6 receptions, 115 yards, 2 touchdowns. Second most important stat line: Virginia Tech had 5 punts for a net average of 22.6 yards. In fact the first quarter saw VT punter with onen 14 yard punt and one punt that was blocked. This was Frank Beamer getting a taste of his own poison. The Yellow Jackets raced out to a 21-0 lead and that was all the cushion they needed. Reggie Ball did not look great, in fact it was comforting to see another ACC quarterback throwing the football right to VT defenders the same way Cam Sexton and Joe Dailey did. If I am Frank Beamer I have to be asking why for two straight seasons has my team laid an egg when a ranked divisional opponent comes to Blacksburg. The winner of this game jumped out to a slight advantage and once again the Hokies did not get it done.
Virginia 37 Duke 0
Duke has not scored in three out of four games it has played. And if that was not bad enough Duke gave up 37 points to a team which was averaging 10 points a game coming in. Duke had -1 yard rushing and committed five turnovers. Virginia, which had been fairly inept in finding the endzone found it five times today. Duke's trip to Alabama next week should be interesting and not in any way that Duke will find pleasurable.
Wake Forest 34 Liberty 14
Wake Forest is 5-0 with Clemson coming to town next week. And that's about it because Wake being 5-0 in football is shocking enough all on its own.
Boston College 22 Maine 0
One of the three ACC shutouts today. Nice rebound from the NC State loss though looking at the box score is any indication the game was boring with most of the scoring coming in the second quarter and no points scored in the fourth. Then again this is the definition of BC football. Consistent and, well, boring. But at least they win games.
Miami(FL) 14 Houston 13
How bad is Miami, I mean really. Houston is a good team but Miami should have won this game by two or three touchdowns but instead they needed a touchdown late in the third and some stingey defense just to hold on. This of course makes for an interesting game next week between UNC-Miami. Miami fans must be apolectic at this point since they nearly lost to the kind of team they routinely beat soundly. So nenxt week regardless of how bad UNC's defense has been, Miami's offense is horrible which may make that a wash. The UNC offense is decent but will face a tough Miami defense which is where the game will likely be decided. So if UNC finds a way to win, a possibility as this point, then the effect will be two-fold. One it will stave off all of those people calling for Bunting's head while simultaneously creating a storm far worse than anything Bunting saw last week for Larry Coker. A UNC win would automatically transfer the hot seat to Coker from Bunting. Of course if Miami wins then everything stays the same.
Clemson 51 Lousiana Tech 0
50+ points two weeks in a row. I am so glad to know UNC rates on about the same level as Lousiana Tech, at least when it comes to matching up to Clemson. Wake Forest should provide a little stiffer challenge. At least I hope they do.
So now that we have a few games in the standings how does the race for Jacksonville look. In the Coastal, GT beat the only other team in the division that should give them trouble save perhaps Miami. Both VT and GT have a two week stretch with Clemson and Miami on the schedule in that order. And since the ACC inexplicably counts the whole conference record and not divisional records alone to determine the division winner it means whichever team can handle both Clemson and Miami will get to go to Jacksonville. GT has a serious leg up by winning the head-to-head matchup because that breaks any tie between the two teams. So VT needs to beat both Clemson and Miami and hope that GT loses to both those teams. VT also has games at BC and Wake which are not cake walks by any stretch. GT's other ACC foes are less daunting with only NC State being a real threat. The dark horse here will be Miami which can hand losses to both teams and insert themselves back in the race AND own the head-to-head tiebreaker against either school in a tie.
The Atlantic division is a mess. Wake and NC State are sitting on top at 1-0 but the assumption is they will lose and join Clemson, BC, and FSU with one loss. Clemson has to face both GT and VT on top of Wake next week. BC has both FSU and Miami as well as a date with Wake Forest. FSU must deal with NC State on Thursday(never easy for them), BC and Wake. Since FSU already beat Miami I think the closing stretch favors the Noles followed by BC and then Clemson. Of course BC beat Clemson who beat FSU so we may not know for another month how this division will shake out. NC State could actually be a dark horse here if their offense and defense played as well as they did against BC. NC State's best chance to stay solvent in the race is beat FSU on Thursday and hope they can steal one from either GT or Clemson though that may not be necessary as 6-2 might be sufficient to win the division. Wake and UNC could also spoil the party for NC State.
This Week: 5-1
Season: 30-11