This is probably the most scathing article I've read regarding ACC Football this year. A blog post on SportingNews.com titled "I am not sure God Himself Can Save Himself" basically rips ACC Football from top to bottom. Actually the author makes a couple of valid points before completely losing me. The ACC does have a poor BCS record 1-9 the last 10 years. That point can't be argued. To say Duke being contender in the Coastal is a reflection of how poor the conference is just plain wrong. Duke's three ACC victories have come against the 3 teams generally regarded as the worst in the ACC. Those are NC State, Maryland, and Virginia. The Blue Devils have yet to play the conference's better teams Georgia Tech and Miami and have already lost to the Virginia Tech Hokies. The Blue Devils are improved and are a threat to make a bowl, but I hardly would call them a division contender just yet.
The author then attacks the Miami Hurricanes. I agree that Miami has not been the powerhouse people expected when they joined the ACC, but the Hurricanes did knock off a Sam Bradfordless, but still talented Oklahoma team. They sit 6-2 with a great chance at a 10 win season.
Then author goes on to claim the Florida's State's decline has been due to conference expansion. That's simply not the case as the Noles starting slipping in the early part of decade with the losses of coaches like Marc Richt and Chuck Amato, while mis-firing on recruits like quarterback Chris Rix.
Another loss of credibility is that the author states Virginia lost to Richmond and Maryland lost to William & Mary. Virginia lost to William & Mary and Duke lost to Richmond. Certainly those are ugly losses. No question about that, but at least get the games correct.
Finally the author states that commentators across the country said Clemson was one the best teams in the country. Which commentators said that? Clemson was considered to be rebuilding this year.
There is no mention of Georgia Tech and their 8-1 start. The fact they've went on the road and scored nearly 100 points on SEC opponents. He never mentions the Miami win over the Sooners, Virginia Tech's win over Nebraska, or Florida State crushing at the time a top 10 BYU team on the road. Even NC State has beat one of the Big East's best teams Pittsburgh. In addition the most recent Sagarin rankings have the ACC ranked third behind only the PAC-10 and SEC.
Sure the ACC hasn't made the splash I expected this year, and there are some poor results, but the conference also has several good wins that we've mentioned. Basically the article is full of holes, but does hit on the national perception of the ACC. With all do respect to these programs, it probably wouldn't help if Boston College plays Duke in the ACC Championship. The conference needs to finish with a highly ranked Georgia Tech team playing a Clemson Tiger team coming in on a roll. I guarantee that there would be 60,000 fans in Tampa for that. In addition a strong bowl season is must. I don't want to see anymore articles like this bashing the ACC and it's football teams.
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That guy is over the top (most commentators are paid to be), but he's right that the ACC is terrible this year. We used to always have one team that could play with anyone (FSU) and 2-3 more top 25 caliber teams. Now the league lacks an elite team and the best win this year is at home against a 3 loss Oklahoma. Miami still isn't quite back yet; VT is decent, but as usual they have issues on offense; and Clemson is still schizophrenic despite the new coaching. The league's standard bearer is GT and though I like Paul Johnson (hell, I wish Clemson would have hired him years ago) GT is seriously flawed on defence, especially against the pass. Yeah, they beat 2 SEC teams; the two worst in the conference and managed to allow those teams best offensive performances of the year. South Carolina gave up 3 offensive points the week before to Vandy; how does a good defense give up 30??? I think even Duke has a chance at an upset if they can get some stops or force some turnovers. If not, GT is going to get shredded in a bowl if they face a team with a decent passing game.
I think that the ACC problem over the past few years has been bad, moribund coaching. The teams like GT, Clemson, UNC have finally been addressing that and if we can get the situation at FSU straightened out and UVA will finally get rid of Al Groh, the league really ought to see some improvement.
I might be a little biased; however, some of the best football I have seen this year were ACC games.
Hi Josh,
Your right about the coaching being improved. Paul Johnson is a big upgrade over Chan Gailey, obviously. Butch Davis > Jim Bunting. Tom O' Brien should have been better than Amato at NC State, that was has been a little weird. Cutcliffe at Duke has been great.
GT is not very good on defense, but their offense is so strong, it masks a lot of those defensive issues.
Thanks for reading!
Hello mattgt12,
I also think the some of the ACC games were fantastic to watch. GT\FSU, Clemson\Miami, Miami\FSU were some of the best games of the year. You'd be hard pressed to find many games in college football this season better than those 3.
I certainly didn't agree with the author on most of what he had to say.
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