THB ACC Staff Predictions: Week 10

Okay, I suppose I’ve got some crow to eat. I called last week’s ACC schedule boring — wait, what were my exact words?

The rest of the games are where Vegas thinks it will get interesting, but for the most part, we don’t really seem to agree.

Boston College reached further depths of ineptitude, losing to UConn for the first time ever. Wake Forest, an offensive juggernaut all year, handed Louisville the ball every time they touched it in the third quarter, getting outscored 35-0 in the quarter en route to an embarrassing loss. Syracuse, with Garrett Shrader hobbled, became the second decent ACC team to make a not-very-good Notre Dame team inexplicably look competent. And those were just the picks that went against our majorities — Virginia Tech had a win against N.C. State all but wrapped up before collapsing under the pressure of redeeming anything about this season, and Miami-Virginia was just a dumb game from start to finish that ended with the bizarre score of 14-12 in overtime; while Miami won like we thought they would, there was no reason all eight of us should’ve picked the eventual winner in those contests.

This week, we’ve got a little more variety. A few games where we all agree and a few where we can’t, and a couple with just a renegade or two trying to zag where we’re all zigging. Here’s what it looks like:

Grid View

I’m sure we’ve all got our eyes on that Georgia Tech-Virginia Tech battle for the true cellar-dwellers of the ACC. We’re split right down the middle as to who’s going to be able to avoid that designation, and I for one am quite intrigued to see what comes out of it. Pitt and Syracuse make for an interesting matchup — Pitt was a lot better than expected this past weekend and Cuse was a lot worse. Syracuse has been the better team this season, but they’ve been fizzling out lately, and Pittsburgh’s record belies how well they can play on their good days. Most of our writers have Syracuse returning to form, even though the Panthers are favored by 3 points.

And then we have the second row, defined entirely by our renegades. Douglas thinks the Fighting Irish could continue their season trend of only playing well against the ACC’s better teams, against a Clemson squad that has kept winning and looked dominant at times but never unbeatable. Al’s got Miami catching fire for a rivalry game, presumably thinking that Miami’s primary problems have been the kind of effort-related thing that you can maybe throw out when it comes to in-state rivalries. Max has FCS heavyweights making a splash by beating Louisville, who have been inconsistent enough that it’s not inconceivable. And in the primetime game between two teams that are ranked purely based on a combination of inertia and might-as-well, Matt’s calling N.C. State to pull out another win without Devin Leary, as they’ve somehow managed to do in their last two games.

What are you looking forward to this week? Did you find last week as bonkers as we did? Let us know in the comments!