So we come to the halfway point of what has been a somewhat disappointing season in the ACC thus far though it can be argued things have picked up from the early few weeks. This week provides us the fullest conference schedule we have seen so far with only Virginia and Boston College scrimmaging against to lower tier non-conference foes. They both should win easily. There are two upset picks that seem to be en vogue this week and that is Duke over Wake Forest and UNC over Miami. I am on board with the latter but think Wake can handle Duke. I also realize that makes no logical sense either since those games are virtually the same in nature. Georgia Tech should deal with Maryland and all the Terps offensive woes. And I am not sure why Chuck Amato was able to beat FSU so consistently while at NC State. I theorize that since Bobby Bowden had been at FSU so long and establishes such a consistent way of doing things an assistant coach who had been there 15 years would have such a handle on how his former team works it gives him a certain advantage. Couple this with the fact I think Bowden's skills as a coach historically has had more to do with simply overpowering other teams with talent rather than coaching genius. That talent pool at FSU has eroded significantly which makes the Seminoles an easier target, especially if you are facing one of your coaches. That basically means that FSU should not schedule Georgia and since Tom O'Brien never worked for Bowden FSU should win handily. And the big game of the weekend in the ACC is Virginia Tech traveling to Clemson. The real question here is whether the loss to GT last week was the beginning of the annual Clemson spiral downward or simply a hiccup. I am leaning towards spiral but VT is so bad on the offensive side of the ball I can see Clemson dealing with the Hokies.
Boston College 33 Bowling Green 10
Georgia Tech 21 Maryland 13
UNC 31 Miami 24
Wake Forest 30 Duke 20
FSU 35 NC State 17
Clemson 21 Virginia Tech 16
Virginia 40 Middle Tennessee 7
Record Last Week: 5-3
Record This Season: 35-11