ACC Power Rankings: Wake Forest, SMU, and North Carolina Impress in Week 7
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UNC at Duke, Florida State at Miami, and Pitt at Boston College gave the ACC some interesting battles this weekend all of which led to major changes in this week’s ACC Power Rankings. As always, be sure to check out the accompanying video and support us by supporting our sponsor, Section 103. Discount code below!
17. Syracuse (Prev 15): Syracuse slowed down Louisville’s excellent duo of running backs named Brown, but Lincoln Keinholtz ran for 53 yards and 2 rushing TDs to go with his 310 passing yards and 1 passing TD. They forced two interceptions which kept things close. It was 28-23 late in the third quarter when the Orange got their second INT of the game. They failed to capitalize and exchanged punts several more times. In the 4th quarter, they got to the Louisville 11-yard line with a first down but settled for a field goal to make it 28-26. Louisville would get another touchdown to push the lead to 8 (after a missed PAT) and Syracuse couldn’t score again.
16. Georgia Tech (Prev 14): An interception and lost fumble got the battle of the Techs off to a bad start for GT. They trailed the Hokies 24-3 at halftime. The Yellow Jackets began the second half with a 42-yard TD run and a 37-yard TD pass which turned a blowout into a battle. It wasn’t enough for them to dig out of the hole though, and they lost 34-24 to the Hokies. GT is now 2-4.
15. Stanford (Prev 17): Stanford handled their business with a 34-7 win over Elon. They are now 3-4 with wins over Hawaii, Georgia Tech, and Elon. Their four losses have been by an average margin of 43. In a way, they’re like Clemson except instead of those blowouts only coming to Miami and an excellent non-conference opponent (LSU for Clemson, Notre Dame for Stanford), the Cardinal have also been blown away by Wake Forest and Duke. They get NC State on Friday at 10:30 p.m. in another event made for TV but terrible for actual fans. Perhaps that advantage can help them make further progress in these rankings.
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14. Pittsburgh (Prev 8): Last year, Syracuse beat Clemson in Death Valley, but lost QB Steve Angeli to an Achilles injury. The Orange went on a long losing streak after that and the win at Death Valley ended up being the lone bright spot of their season. A similar story may be shaping up in Pittsburgh. After going to Blacksburg and earning a thrilling win over Virginia Tech, but losing Mason Heintschel in the process, they’ve now dropped consecutive games to UNC and Boston College.
13. Boston College (Prev 16): QB Mason McKenzie threw for 295 yards while the defense held Pitt to just 21 points. The Panthers were on to their third QB option, and Corey Dailey finished just 11-of-25 with two INTs. The Eagles couldn’t run the ball but recovered a fumble and generally forced field goals to knock off the reeling Panthers 27-21.
12. California (Prev 13): The Bears hosted Wake Forest and were non-competitive. They started Jackson Brousseau over Jaron Keaewe-Sagapolutele at QB. Brousseau was very good in their win against Virginia Tech last week but couldn’t engineer a scoring drive in the first half against Wake and they trailed 34-0 at halftime. JKS entered in the second half and got them a single touchdown in a 41-7 loss. The Bears fired Justin Wilcox for always having Cal be a fringe bowl team and now they are worse. Cal is 3-4 and their win over Virginia Tech last week feels awfully surprising.
11. NC State (Prev 12): The Wolfpack licked their wounds from last week’s blowout to Wake Forest. Up next is the dreaded 10:30pm Friday ACC game at Stanford.
10. Virginia (Prev 11): Virginia is starting to look a lot like Clemson, but with a worse defense. Beau Pribula and his receivers are not effective through the air, straining the run game, and putting a lot of pressure on the defense. SMU was favored to win this matchup in Dallas well before the season, but Virginia’s offense looking this punchless feels disappointing, nonetheless. SMU beat Virginia 23-13 with Kevin Jennings throwing for 246 and 2 TDs while Beau Pribula had just 137 and 0 TDs.
9. Duke (Prev 4): North Carolina held Nate Sheppard to 77 yards on 20 carries (3.9 YPC) but he still had 11 receptions for 98 yards and a receiving TD. Sheppard may be the offensive MVP in the ACC if you exclude QBs. He is outstanding and had 175 of UNC’s 373 total yards. Duke fell behind 17-0, stormed back to take a 20-17 lead, and then surrendered the game-winning TD to the rival Tar Heels to lose at home to UNC 24-20.
8. Florida State (Prev 10): Florida State may be the best 3-4 team in decades. They outplayed Miami for much of the game, but Malachi Toney came up with too many big plays down the stretch to push the game into overtime. The star receiver THREW for a 2-point conversion in the second OT to give Miami an 8-point lead. An unfortunate, non-obvious holding penalty erased an FSU TD that would have given them a chance to force triple OT with a two-point conversion of their own.
QB Ashton Daniels was excellent. He threw for 3 TDs and ran for another while accumulating 329 total yards. He was a low-cost transfer portal add that everyone including me scoffed at. He has been really impressive. They get an open date before hosting Clemson. We’ll see if they’re heartbroken and quit after the rivalry loss or if they’ve proven they can compete with the best and rally from here. Norvell’s hot seat watch will be fascinating.
7. Virginia Tech (Prev 9): Ethan Grunkemeyer has been a very solid starting QB for the Hokies. No, the Hokies aren’t ready to compete for the 12-team playoff (maybe not if the upcoming 24-teamer was starting in 2026 — which you can hear about here), but this has been an impressive, rapid turnaround under Coach Franklin. They go to Clemson next week in a game that will draw storylines and serve as a de facto ACC Championship elimination game. VT appears to have the advantage at QB, but Clemson holds the advantage in the secondary. Grunkemeyer vs. the Clemson defensive backs will be fun.
6. North Carolina (Prev 7): Is North Carolina good? They’re at least competent. After nearly beating Clemson, they went to Pittsburgh and earned what will officially count as a ranked win (although Pitt is bad without Heintschel). Now, they’ve coupled that with an impressive road win at Duke. WR Jordan Shipp had 75 receiving yards and a TD. TE Jelani Thurman added 52 and is one of the best TEs in the conference. They’re not flashy or dominant, but they’re highly competent and on the rise under Bill Belichick. If they up the talent level again next season, they may be a real pest.
5. Louisville (Prev 6): We expected things to look better for the Cardinals, but despite this being closer than anticipated, they won at Syracuse. They’re 4-3 and only the NC State loss is really head-scratching. Wake Forest — their other ACC loss — has proven to be very good. They should be favored in all of their remaining ACC games although Kentucky — who just beat Oklahoma — looks like a world-beater. This is likely an 8-win team.
4. Clemson (Prev 5): The Tigers remain undefeated all-time against FCS teams after a comfortable 37-0 win over Charleston Southern on a beautiful Clemson Saturday afternoon. There were several clear positives and at least one ongoing glaring concern.
Easton Ware stood out for his strong play in his first start at right guard. We’ll take it with a grain of salt against the Buccaneers, but there’s reason for optimism at right guard. TE Christian Betancur looked excellent leading all pass catchers with 74 yards. Naeem Burroughs got his first career TD. Nolan Hauser may be one of the best kickers in Clemson history before his time in orange ends. He knocked in a 59-yard field goal against the wind as well as two others. He is now 15-16 on field goals and 11-11 on extra points.
Unfortunately, those successes were at least partially muted by a very poor performance in the vertical passing game. Charleston Southern’s secondary won one-on-one matchups at an alarming rate. TJ More was limited to 2 catches for 9 yards in large part due to his own drops and simply not winning jump balls against FCS defensive backs. At other times, the offense focused on short outside passes and Tait Reynolds may have been shy to try more. Reynolds had only 127 passing yards and 0 TDs. He has just 1 career passing TD to 3 INTs and he has never broken into the end zone with a rush. On one red zone opportunity, Clemson handed off to the running back on third-and-goal and fourth-and-goal and were stuffed both times. More deep go routes and post routes to Bryant Wesco would be welcome.
Side note, Coach Dave Clawson was outstanding on the TV broadcast. As a former coach, he brought viewers into the season-long strategy and made for a much more enjoyable watch. Kudos ACC and Dave!
3. SMU (Prev 3): SMU hasn’t been as impressive as we expected, but they’re 5-1. They held Virginia to just 258 total yards and 13 points. Kevin Jennings is one of the best QBs in the conference and Rhett Lashlee has proven to be among the best coaches in the conference. They’re probably the best bet to challenge Miami in the ACC Championship game — they did beat them last season after all.
Up next, Cal, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech are all games they should win. Then they play Wake Forest and Notre Dame back-to-back. Those will be major challenges, and we’ll see how good they really are. That game against Wake Forest may be a de facto ACC semi-final game if both teams keep winning. The Notre Dame game could be a playoff elimination game for SMU— at least for their at-large chances.
2. Wake Forest (Prev 2): It was a late start after 10pm, but a fast one for Wake Forest. The game was all but over before halftime. They were up 41-0 in the third quarter and continue to look like the most efficiently built, best coached team in the ACC. They’ve turned Gio Lopez into an excellent QB. They have an open date and then host Virginia on Halloween. I now fully expect them to beat Virginia and it may not be close. The Deacons have fully earned my respect.
1. Miami (Prev 1): Miami escaped! Florida State came to Hard Rock Stadium and led in the fourth quarter. Miami’s skill position talent proved impossible to hold down as they rallied late to take the lead. FSU immediately responded with a long TD pass to WR Duce Robinson. This felt a bit like last year, when they flirted with disaster and benefited from some fortunate calls to escape with wins. In the end, Miami outrushed Florida State by 119 yards, with RB Javian Mallory averaging 8.3 yards per carry. That was the true difference.
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