Week Three ACC Power Rankings

The ACC is off to a rough start to the season overall. Last week saw teams struggle against FCS opponents and other just embarrassing losses. In fact Pitt’s close loss to Penn State can probably be considered one of the better outcomes this weekend for the ACC, although everyone is too busy laughing at Pat Narduzzi’s 4th Down decision-making to really acknowledge this. These things are cyclical and eventually teams in the ACC will improve across the board. The good news for now though is that hopefully, this means Pitt can take advantage and win a bunch of conference games.

Tier A: Maybe we Should Just Give Clemson the Trophy Now

1. Clemson (3-0) LW: 1

I’ve got nothing else to really add about Clemson at this point. Honestly, the biggest danger for them at this point seems to be overconfidence. They plastered Syracuse during Primetime in the Carrier Dome and they’ve really been the only conference team to give them fits the past two seasons. I just don’t really see any other losses on their schedule, though that means they’ll randomly lose to Boston College or something. Regardless, everyone else is just playing for 2nd place right now.

 

Tier B: Playing for 2nd Place

2. Virginia (3-0) LW: 3

Virginia had a dramatic victory over Florida State last weekend, stopping them just a few yards short of the Goal Line as time expired, denying them a tying Touchdown. As exciting as the win was, Florida State has looked lackluster so far this season, and with the game at home in primetime I expected a more secure victory. Despite this, they’re the early Coastal favorite and Bryce Perkins is a very talented Quarterback. It’s still a long season though and there’s ample opportunity for Coastal Chaos to make its presence known.

3. Wake Forest (3-0) LW: 10

The Demon Deacons haven’t exactly faced a murderer’s row of opponents in Utah State, Rice, and UNC. However, they’ve still managed to navigate the first quarter of their season undefeated, which is more than most other teams in the conference can say. They survived a late surge from UNC last Friday night and received a little help from the refs who should have put another second on the clock to give the Tar Heels a final chance. It should be noted that Wake Forest is 5-0 since Pitt went to Winston-Salem last season and beat them to clinch the Coastal.

Tier C: Teams With Promise

4. North Carolina (2-1) LW: 11

North Carolina is probably the most surprising team in the early going this year. Though they had some buzz due to bringing Mack Brown back to Chapel Hill, they were still expected to be among the bottom-feeders in the ACC. They opened the season with two upsets over South Carolina and Miami and nearly completed a comeback against Wake Forest. I don’t like putting them this high because I still don’t consider them to be very good and think they’ll fall back to earth soon, but the rest of the conference has been a bit of a dumpster fire, so I can’t really put them any lower.

5. Miami (1-2) LW: 2

Miami so far hasn’t been the Coastal front-runner I expected them to be at the outset of the season. Despite coming close to upsetting Florida, they had a bad loss to UNC and have had a porous Offensive Line. They still have time to correct course and look to have a good Quarterback in Jarren Williams, but they are starting from behind at 0-1 in ACC play.

6. Pitt (1-2) LW: 8

Despite starting 1-2, the Panthers outperformed expectations against Penn State and look like they have a truly dominant defense. If they get the run game going, they should rack up plenty of wins in ACC play and contend for another division title. For now though, the new-look offense has yet to translate into points and questionable coaching may have cost them an upset over Penn State

7. Duke (2-1) LW: 12

Duke has risen in these ranking mostly through attrition. I don’t hold the blowout loss to Alabama against them too much because, I mean, it’s Bama. But we don’t really know too much about them either given the opponents (NC A&T, MTSU) in their two wins.

Tier D: Maybe Not as Good as We Thought they Were

8. NC State (2-1) LW: 5

Their loss to WVU looks bad right now given that they’re supposed to be a Big 12 bottom-feeder that struggled against James Madison and were blown out by Missouri.This looks like it may be a transition year for the Wolfpack, but Dave Doeren also always seems to have them in the 8-9 win area, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see them make some noise.

9. Florida State (1-2) LW: 6

The Seminoles have played in 3 close games already and have come out on the wrong end twice. Even when they won, they couldn’t have felt too good about it as it took a missed extra point for them to knock off Louisiana-Monroe in Overtime. Willie Taggert is already on the hot seat and he’s only 15 games into his Florida State tenure. They have the opportunity to get some momentum with winnable conference games against Louisville and NC State coming up. Winning those two is vital, because they go up to South Carolina to take on Clemson after that.

10. Syracuse (1-2) LW: 4

Though the Orange hung around for a bit with Clemson, they were soundly dispatched by the Tigers and a season of such promise has gotten off to a bit of a nightmare start. They have an opportunity to rack up wins the next two weeks as they play Western Michigan and Holy Cross. Highly touted first year starting Quarterback Tommy Devito needs to be better though. Through 3 games, he’s only completing 59.4% of his passes and has 4 Interceptions to 3 Touchdowns.

11.  Boston College (2-1) LW: 7

It’s funny how much perceptions can change in one week. Boston College started the season 2-0 with a win over Virginia Tech, but then they suffered an embarrassing home loss to Kansas They didn’t just lose, they were blown out 48-24 by a team that hadn’t beaten a Power 5 team on the road since 2008! Not helping matters has been Virginia Tech’s lackluster performances in recent weeks. They’ll get another shot this weekend against Rutgers, another team that is often considered to be one of the worst in Power 5. This was a game that looked like an easy victory before the Kansas loss.

Tier E: It’s Gonna Be a Long Season

12. Louisville (2-1) LW: 13

Louisville may not be as bad as we thought heading into the season. They played Notre Dame close for a half and have taken care of business against lesser opponents in their other two games. I still don’t think they’ll be very good, but they have a real chance at beating Florida State this weekend.

13. Virginia Tech (2-1) LW: 9

I thought Virginia Tech was getting too much love heading into the season, but it’s looking like they may be even worse than I thought. Their only loss is a close one to Boston College, but after they lost to Kansas, there isn’t much left to take comfort in from that game. Though they’ve won both of their games since then, they were not only against Old Dominion and Furman, but they looked bad in both. They actually trailed at Halftime against Furman and ended up only winning by a touchdown. Justin Fuente is already on the hot seat and with games against Miami and Duke coming up, there’s a real chance that they start the season 0-3 in conference play.

14. Georgia Tech (1-2) LW: 14

We knew this was going to be a rough season for the Yellow Jackets as they were transitioning away from the Triple Option offense. A win over South Florida in Week 2 even made me think they wouldn’t be as bad as expected. However, it doesn’t get much more embarrassing than a loss to The Citadel. Looking at their remaining schedule, I don’t see any games that they’ll be favored in and they may have a real chance at going winless in conference play.