This week's menu.
#14 Georgia Tech at #20 Miami
Two ranked ACC opponents facing off in the first of many "game with HUGE Coastal Division implications." The main question here is whether Josh Nesbitt has figured out how to pass the football between last week and now. I get the feeling the Miami defense will be less judicious with the variety of overthrown passes and wounded ducks offered up by the Yellow Jacket QB. That is assuming Miami can stop the triple option which is enough to grind both clock and yards thus voiding the need to pass at all. At any rate between the seat-of-your-pants nature of GT's triple option and Miami's Jacory Harris at QB, I expect this game to follow in the footsteps of Miami-FSU and Clemson-GT on the entertainment scale.
Miami 30 GT 27
ECU at #24 North Carolina
Both teams are looking for an offense that can at least move the football. In UNC's case, as good as that defense has been, they cannot play the whole sixty minutes and score all the points. Actually I take that back, given the knack of the UNC secondary to pick off passes and take them to the house, it is possible the Tar Heel defense can score all the points but playing the whole game might leave a mark. UNC needs some yard churning, clock chewing drives to wear down the ECU defense and get the Tar Heel defenders fresh.
UNC 17 ECU 7
Boston College at Clemson
Clemson is the better team, playing at home in a divisional must win game. The Tigers cannot afford to fall to 0-2 in ACC play. Boston College gets a taste of reality after being on a sugar high for two weeks.
Clemson 31 BC 14
Duke at #22 Kansas
There is some talk that this could be the first time Duke knocks off a ranked opponent since the Nixon Administration or something. Really? On the road? Really?
Kansas 35 Duke 20
Middle Tenn St. at Maryland
*Yawn*
Maryland 23 MTSU 20
Virginia at Southern Miss
Metaphors like this are so rare and beautiful to behold.
Southern Miss 28 UVa 20
Gardner Webb at NC State
Elon at Wake Forest
The Wolfpack take another opportunity to tune their offense and get Mike Glennon a full half of work before getting back to business. Given what happened against SCAR, the Pack needs a couple of games to build confidence with their offense before they are tested at Pittsburgh. Likewise Wake Forest would love to build a little momentum following a stumble versus Baylor and a last minute effort to survive Stanford
NCSU and Wake both win and the score does not really matter.
#19 Nebraska at #13 Virginia Tech
FSU at #7 BYU
Two games that could go a long way toward rehabbing the ACC's reputation following the Week 1 debacle out of conference. I think the best we will see here is a split. The Hokies should take care of business at home because they always do(unless they are playing BC.) FSU on the other hand should be competitive but playing two time zones over at BYU is not an ideal situation for a Seminole team that is still trying to figure itself out on both sides of the ball.
VT 20 Nebraska 16
BYU 34 FSU 20