ACC Power Rankings Post-Week 11

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

Clemson finally won a home game while both Louisville and Virginia suffered upset losses at home. All of a sudden, Pitt is the talk of the town, and they didn’t even play this weekend.

17. Syracuse (3-7 [1-6] Prev 17): Syracuse went to Miami and lost 38-10 in a game where nobody looked amazing. Syracuse still hasn’t won since they beat Clemson. Fran Brown and Mario Cristobol got in some sort of shouting match too. Not great.

16. Boston College (1-9 [0-6] Prev 16): Boston College averaged less than 3 YPC on offense while surrendering 574 yards of offense to SMU.

15. Stanford (3-7 [2-5] Prev 11): Stanford was always a strange addition to the conference, and they seem to be mostly non-competitive in all three major sports. They lost to Bill Belichick’s UNC squad this week. Sad!

14. Florida State (4-5 [1-5] Prev 12): Despite an impressive blowout win over Wake Forest, the Seminoles returned to their losing ways. The 24-10 loss to Clemson was their 10th ACC loss in their last 11 ACC games. In reality, it was much closer than the score indicated. They outgained Clemson but made some critical mistakes that allowed Clemson to control the game. They need a new coach to bring life back to the program, but this isn’t the coaching cycle to do it as they’d likely be 4th in line or even 5th in line depending on what you think of Auburn’s job opening. Norvell also has a $58 million buy-out so they should probably wait another year. That’s not to mention they play Notre Dame and Florida and go to Alabama, Miami, and Pittsburgh next year. You don’t want your new rebuilding coach to start with that schedule.

13. Virginia Tech (3-6 [2-3] Prev 10): Virginia Tech hasn’t scored since the first half of their game against Louisville. They were off this weekend and then have a big finish at Florida State, Miami, and then Virginia. They’ll have to sweep them to make a bowl, which is unlikely, but they could steal one win just for fun. I wouldn’t be surprised if they upset Virginia and knock them out of the ACC championship.

12. North Carolina (4-5 [2-3] Prev 15): North Carolina has won again. Back when they played Clemson, they were among the worst ACC teams I’d ever seen. Now they’re half-way decent. They couldn’t run the ball against Stanford averaging just 1.9 YPC but held Stanford to just 1.0 YPC en route to a 20-15 win. They finish by playing the three other North Carolina ACC schools in a row. I wouldn’t pick them to beat Wake Forest, Duke, or NC State, but if they somehow beat two of them, they basically win the state championship and go bowling.

11. Clemson (4-5 [3-4] Prev 14): Clemson has won a home game against a P4 opponent. Who cares if it was a struggling FSU team, the Tigers needed this!

Clemson led the whole way in their 24-10 over FSU, but they also benefited from an unforced fumble by Castellanos, a missed field goal, and a brutal drop on a busted coverage they would have gone for a touchdown or at least put them in the red zone. On top of that, a two-point conversion attempt was called good and was at best 50-50 upon replay. Clemson was outgained by 41 yards and couldn’t get either running back over 4 YPC. With all that being said, QB Cade Klubnik played smart and was by far the better of the two QBs in the contest. Clemson got pressure on the QB, was more disciplined, and looked like the more well-coached team.

10. Duke (5-4 [4-1] Prev 7): I’m convinced Duke exists solely to ruin ACC football. After their basketball team beat Texas by 15 points, the football team agreed that it is time for basketball and lost to UConn. They’re 0-3 against non-conference FBS teams after losing 37-34 to the Huskies in Connecticut. Also, why are they playing at UConn?

Duke was outgained by 77 yards so this was no freaky fluke game. Their defense is porous as can be. Duke also lost to Illinois and Tulane in the non-conference yet they’re still in the ACC race at 5-4 overall, but 4-1 in ACC play. Although unlikely, Duke can really destroy the ACC if they manage to win the conference.

Imagine if USF and UNLV finish as 2-loss champions of the AAC and MWC respectively. Meanwhile, if Duke wins out, their best win would be against Virginia — who still could finish with 4 losses — or the ACC runner-up which could be a 4-loss Pitt team if they lose to Notre Dame but then beat Georgia Tech and Miami to make the title game. If that happens, Duke might not be one of the top five conference champions and in theory, the ACC could be left out of the playoff. I wouldn’t complain. It would be deserving, but not great for optics or finances.

9.NC State (5-4 [2-3] Prev 8): The Wolfpack upset the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and then has this weekend off to enjoy their successes. They go to Miami and then host FSU. If they can get one of those wins and then close with a win over UNC they’ll be 7-5. Add a low-level bowl win to that and they’ve got a not-so-horrible 8-win season.

8. California (6-4 [3-3] Prev 13): I’ll admit I am shocked this Cal team is actually playing somewhat decent. I had them at the very bottom of the ACC Power Rankings to start the year. They lost everything to the portal, and I thought their chill surfer vibes would get crushed by all the schools in the ACC that actually care about sports. Places like Louisville where they pour money into their athletic programs should be beating Cal, but the Bears play with heart and win close games. They nearly got Virginia last weekend and won thrillers against UNC and Boston College earlier. Their QB, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele (“JKS”), is a lefty true freshman from Hawaii that has led Cal to some success despite limited tools around him. After throwing the game-winning two-point conversion to Jacob De Jesus — his major receiving threat — the used his platform to praise Jesus. None of this is what I expected from Cal, but I’m pleasantly surprised.

7. Miami (7-2 [3-2] Prev 6): After a sleepy first half that saw them hold a 14-0 lead, they blew out a hapless Syracuse squad in the second half. Even though they beat Notre Dame, they look like a different team now. If it comes down to it, the committee will most assuredly pick an Irish squad that reeled off 10-straight wins with their only losses coming at Miami and vs. Texas A&M over a Miami squad that started hot but looked uneven the remainder of thew way and took losses to Louisville and SMU. I think Pitt will beat Miami in the final week regardless.

6. Wake Forest (6-3 [3-3] Prev 9): After barely beating Kennesaw State 10-9 in the season opener and losing to NC State 34-24 it seemed the Deacons were due for a rough season. Since then, their only losses were a somewhat funky OT loss to Georgia Tech they should have won and an inexplicable blowout at FSU. This week, they held Virginia to 9 points and earned the win on the road at night. Coach Jake Dickert has turned this program around rather quickly.

5. Louisville (7-2 [4-2] Prev 3): I admit I was wrong. I thought Louisville would find a way to make the playoff and was shocked to see how much they struggled with Cal. With Isaac Brown injured, RB Keyjuan Brown stepped up and ran for 136 yards so you can’t even blame injuries.

QB Miller Moss was just 20/38 for 203 passing yards and 1 INT. They only scored 23 points in regulation as the offense just isn’t what you’d expect from a Coach Brohm team. It is also worth noting that after Louisville beat Clemson last year, they went and lost to Stanford. This year, they beat Miami and then seemed flat against Boston College and Virginia Tech and it finally got them against Cal. Jeff Brohm may be the best big game coach in the sport, but he has to get his team to show up consistently.

4. Virginia (8-2 [5-1] Prev 2): I have been saying this Virginia team is overrated while commenters kept saying I should rank them higher. I’d like to do a victory dance now, but a big part of their loss was QB Chandler Morris getting injured. As such, it feels illegitimate to knock the Wahoo too much for this loss. Chandler is expected to return next week to face Duke, so no excuses if they lose to the team that just lost to UConn.

3. SMU (7-3 [5-1]): The Mustangs followed up their OT win vs. Miami with a complete dismantling of a bad Boston College team. They outscored the Eagles in every quarter for a 45-13 win. Kevin Jennings threw for over 300 while they ran for over 7 yards per carry.

2. Pittsburgh (7-2 [5-1] Prev 4): Pittsburgh had this week off. They finish with a flurry as they host Notre Dame, visit Georgia Tech, and then host Miami.

1. Georgia Tech (8-1 [5-1] Prev 1): The Yellow Jacket defense got exposed last week against NC State. They have this off week plus a tune-up game next weekend against Boston College to figure it out. Then they have a big finish with both Pittsburgh and Georgia coming to Atlanta. Those will be tough battles. Either would qualify for Georgia Tech’s best win of the season.

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos