College Football ACC power rankings entering Week 6
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Another week of college football, another edition of the ACC: The Always Chaos Conference! This week we had ambiguous field goals, rainstorms, massive upsets, and revenge games! All of this adds up to a lot of movement here in the power rankings!
MORE:College Football biggest risers & fallers after Week 5
Ranks 10-7
10. NC State
After a truly nightmarish start to the season, the Wolfpack bounced back in a major way in Week 5, defeating Louisville 31-28. CJ Bailey threw for a career-high in passing yards. The crazy thing is, when you look at the remaining schedule, this team could win 8 or 9 games if they play like they did this week.
9. Florida State
Welcome back to the top-10, Florida State! It was 5 rushing TDs from Ashton Daniels that powered the Noles past Virginia, 38-7. This was a major revenge game after the court-storming in Charlottesville last season. Mike Norvell’s seat gets to cool off a little bit, for now.
8. Clemson
Clemson did not look good in a 41-13 loss to Miami. But Miami will do that to teams. But Dabo Swinney-led Clemson teams have a way of figuring things out as a season progresses. If they can do that, as crazy as this sounds, they could finish 10-2. The Tigers will likely only be small underdogs in two of their remaining games.
7. Virginia Tech
The Hokies came out hot on Friday night against Pitt, with the Ethan Grunkemeyer to Que’Sean Brown connection lighting it up. But Pitt rallied, and Virginia Tech missed a game-winning field goal as time expired. There was a lot of debate on the internet about the kick — different angles had the kick appearing to pass through the uprights. When a game is literally that close, a team won’t fall too far down these rankings.
Ranks 6-4
6. Pitt
Good news, Pitt — you went on the road and beat a tough Virginia Tech team! Bad news, Pitt — Mason Heintschel tore his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season. For both of those reasons, Pitt finds itself ahead of Virginia Tech, but no further until we know what the QB play will be like with Holden Geriner.
5. Louisville
The Cardinals have fallen to 2-3. But they’re still a good football team. Each of the 3 losses has come by a margin of 3 points. Unfortunately for Jeff Brohm, they don’t build statues of coaches that have a ton of close losses. It’s time for the Cardinals to start winning some games, and their remaining schedule is very gettable.
4. Wake Forest
The Deacs deserve to be in the AP Top-25! Their one loss is a competitive one to Miami, who’s (spoiler alert) far and away the best team in the conference. The Deacs pounded Stanford, with Gio Lopez accounting for 5 total touchdowns. He’s a huge reason for the Wake renaissance, looking like a completely different player from what we saw last year at North Carolina.
Top 3
3. Duke
The Blue Devils were off in Week 5, and yet somehow Nate Sheppard still managed to carry the ball 37 times for 201 yards. I kid, but it was a well-deserved week off for one of the biggest workhorse backs in all of college football. A trap game at Georgia Tech awaits – it’s one the Blue Devils should win, but not automatic by any means.
2. SMU
Somehow, SMU has managed to climb their way back into 2nd in these rankings, without really doing much of anything. The Mutsangs have looked just okay in their last two games against Missouri State and Boston College, but their win over Florida State is aging well, and the head-to-head tiebreaker that Louisville owns over them is no longer relevant if SMU wins their remaining ACC games, which they will be favored to do.
1. Miami
The Hurricanes thumped Clemson 41-13 in a bad weather game in Week 5. They even did it with a down night from Malachi Toney, who only caught 5 balls for 40 yards. The result just goes to show how far ahead Miami is of the rest of the conference, as Clemson could very well end up going 10-2, and they’re not remotely competitive against the Miami juggernaut – but that hasn’t stopped Mario Cristobal from losing a game as a heavy favorite before.
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