The ACC: Week 6

[Bob Green]

Week 6 kicks off tonight with Louisville traveling to Syracuse (7:00 ESPN). There are five games on Saturday:

Virginia Tech at North Carolina (12:30 ESPN3)
NC State at Clemson (3:30 ESPNU)
Wake Forest at Florida State (3:30 ABC)
Miami at Georgia Tech (7:30 ESPN2)
Pittsburgh at Virginia (7:30 ESPN3)

Both 7:30 games are of interest to Duke fans as they include our next three opponents: GT, UVa, Pitt. In the Miami at GT game, a GT victory is the better outcome if we can turn around and beat the Yellow Jackets head to head next week. We've already lost to Miami so the 'Canes incurring a second loss coupled with a Duke victory over GT puts us ahead of both in the Coastal Division pecking order for the time being.

Pittsburgh and Virginia are both 1-0 in the ACC so one of the two will incur their first loss.

The opposite is true of Virginia Tech and North Carolina who are both 0-1 in the ACC. Unfortunately one of them will win.

[Olympic Fan]

Poor NC State ... having lost a tough game to FSU, now must travel to Death Valley and a game at Clemson.

A really pivotal week in the Coastal Division with three division matchups.

I think it would be better for Duke if Miami were to knock off Georgia Tech -- which has already beaten Va Tech in the division. I know Miami has a Duke win, but they already have an ACC loss (Louisville) and will almost certainly get another (Florida State). Georgia Tech does get NC State and Clemson from the Atlantic later his season.

Virginia has shown surprising strength and Pitt has been in freefall the last two weeks. But both are 1-0 in the ACC so far.

I just had a wild thought -- we haven't been able to beat Georgia Tech in the Paul Johnson era, but we've handled Virginia easily in the Cut era (5-1) ... wouldn't it be a kick in the teeth to finally beat Georgia Tech (in Atlanta), then lose to Virginia (in Durham)!

I think the key game of the day -- at least the one I'll be most interested in -- is Virginia Tech at North Carolina. The Hokies have a chance to bury the overrated Tar Heels. UNC has lost two in a row and have given up 120 points in the last two games. They follow this game with at trip to Notre Dame, so a loss Saturday almost certainly makes them 2-4 after six games.

Now, I know they bounced back from a 1-5 start last season, but the schedule had a lot to do with that -- three of the five games they won down the stretch of the regular season were against Virginia and NC State -- two teams that didn't win an ACC game -- and Old Dominion. Their big wins in that stretch were over BC and Pitt.

I don't think they have those soft touches this year. They pretty much finish up with Coastal Division competition and nobody in this division is a patsy,. They do finish up with NC State, but the Pack is much better this year. Not saying they lose out, but I don't think UNC bounces back strong from a 2-4 start this year. That's why the game this week is so important to them.

Virginia Tech is beatable (although in the matchup with ECU, they played the Pirates much tougher). In fact one of the aspects of the game that's most interesting will be the matchup between the worst defense in the ACC and one of the worst ACC offenses (going into last week, VPI was 13th in ACC scoring ... only ahead of Wake).

[Tripping William]

In fact one of the aspects of the game that's most interesting will be the matchup between the worst defense in the ACC and one of the worst ACC offenses (going into last week, VPI was 13th in ACC scoring ... only ahead of Wake).

I've told my VPI and UNC colleagues that this game is one where the resistible force meets the movable object.

[TruBlu]

Over in East Carrboro, the Dirty Birds are having their way with the Cheaters 14 - 3 after 1 quarter.

[Wander]

You know, if the Mississippi schools are going to become football powers, I don't know what hope the ACC or Big 10 ever has of coming even close to the SEC.

[arnie]

Virginia Tech is beatable (although in the matchup with ECU, they played the Pirates much tougher). In fact one of the aspects of the game that's most interesting will be the matchup between the worst defense in the ACC and one of the worst ACC offenses (going into last week, VPI was 13th in ACC scoring ... only ahead of Wake).

So far worst offense (with help from their D) is easily beating the worst defense in the league. VPI O is truly embarrassing; maybe 6 or better illegal procedures, but Heels O and D just awful.

[YmoBeThere]

You know, if the Mississippi schools are going to become football powers, I don't know what hope the ACC or Big 10 ever has of coming even close to the SEC.

They don't have much hope...it isn't inconceivable that Texas A&M could be a 6-6 team this year.

[Tripping William]

Resistible force > movable object. By a lot. And now the trip to South Bend ....

[Duvall]

You know, if the Mississippi schools are going to become football powers, I don't know what hope the ACC or Big 10 ever has of coming even close to the SEC.

Well, most of the SEC East teams have collapsed. So now the West teams get to hang losses on each other all season.

[Tripping William]

They don't have much hope...it isn't inconceivable that Texas A&M could be a 6-6 team this year.

But then there are the Hotty Toddies, and what they just pulled against the mighty Tide.

[YmoBeThere]

Going by the AP poll, #2,#3,#4,#6 all lost, though the latter 3 all lost to ranked teams.

[subzero02]

Condoleeza and company are going to have a lot to sort through in a few weeks... Notre Dame's win today was huge.

[duke4ever19]

The small front page article about the Noles being "off" is rather interesting. It seems that most writers and fans are expecting to see last years team run on the field. Compared to that team, this Noles team is indeed "off," but then that would be an unfair standard, as that team was historically good.

This FSU squad could win it all, or lose two games starting with next week at Notre Dame, but I think they should only be compared to their results this year, which shows an unpolished but talented team with some rather noticeable flaws. Compared to their results this year, yesterday's game, especially being slow out of the gate, was not at all surprising.

[Wander]

The small front page article about the Noles being "off" is rather interesting. It seems that most writers and fans are expecting to see last years team run on the field. Compared to that team, this Noles team is indeed "off," but then that would be an unfair standard, as that team was historically good.

This FSU squad could win it all, or lose two games starting with next week at Notre Dame, but I think they should only be compared to their results this year, which shows an unpolished but talented team with some rather noticeable flaws. Compared to their results this year, yesterday's game, especially being slow out of the gate, was not at all surprising.

Yeah, they're just not as good as last year, but it is possible for that statement to be true and to still make the final four teams. My hunch is that they're going to get upset by Louisville, Miami, or Florida. The front page does need to correct its statement that Oklahoma State is not ranked, though.

There are 10 undefeateds left: FSU, Georgia Tech, Arizona, Marshall, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn (is the current SEC west the best division of all time?), TCU, Baylor, Notre Dame. A bunch of those schools play each other - I'm going to guess there will be zero undefeated teams at the end of the season.

[Olympic Fan]

I'm going to guess that there will be two undefeateds (from the power conferences -- Marshall isn't in the playoff equation) at the end. But we'll see.

Technically, there could still be five:

(1) Only one of the three SEC West teams (Auburn, Ole Miss and Miss State) could do it.
(2) The winner of TCU-Baylor could do it in the Big 12
(3) Arizona is the last Pac 12 unbeaten
(4) One of Notre Dame-FSU could do it
(5) If Notre Dame beats the 'Noles, then Georgia Tech could do it -- five unbeatens for four playoff spots

That won't all happen, of course. Georgia Tech is not going to make it unbeaten. I doubt Arizona will. It's going to be tough to get even one in the SEC West -- in addition to games against each other, two of the three still have to play Alabama.

I think the teams with the best chance to make it are the Notre Dame-FSU winner and the TCU-Baylor winner (TCU especially, if they beat Baylor since Baylor also still has to play Oklahoma).

After that, the one loss teams start lining up -- I think Alabama, Oregon and Oklahoma are still very much alive if they win out. But one more loss finishes them.

BTW: Not having a Duke game Saturday allowed me to sit in front of the TV all day and click back and forth. It was one of the great days of sports watching in my life:

It started with the sweet warmup of watching VPI hammer the Cheaters in Chapel Hill, with occasional look-ins to see Ohio State humiliate the Terps. Plus, there was Mississippi State's astonishing beatdown to Texas A&M. And Wake gave FSU fits for 29 minutes.

The midafternoon drama was unbelievable -- one 20 minute span reminded me of one of the great days of the NCAA basketball Tournament. Notre Dame and Stanford traded the lead three times in the last six minutes -- with Notre Dame winning on a fourth down pass with a minute left. Ole Miss pulled out that incredible victory over Alabama. TCU and Oklahoma was one of the great finishes of all time -- TCU goes ahead by a touchdown on an interception return TD, but Oklahoma blocks the extra point and returns it for a two-point conversion ... then has two chances late in the red zone to win.. Over on ESPN2, Northwestern pulled out a thrilling upset of Wisconsin. I caught a good bit of a great Navy-Air Force game and the very end of a thrilling Oregon State-Colorado game (with ex-Duke coach McIntyre losing his second heartbreaker in a row).

The night games were almost as good. I started out bouncing between Georgia Tech-Miami, Virginia-Pitt and Nebraska Michigan State, but I got more and more sucked into Arizona State-Southern Cal. There was also baseball -- I kept jumping over to the 18-inning marathon between the Nats and the Giants. It started three hours before the Dodgers-Cards, but the two ended up les than half an hour apart -- both great endings. I think I was watching baseball when I missed one of the great moments of the day -- Arizona State's game-winning hail mary. I did get to see Utah nip UCLA on a field goal at the gun. I finished up with the end of the Boise State-Nevada game -- Boise led 51-46 when I joined but Nevada had three chances in Boise territory down the stretch, but couldn't score.

It was a great day to have an off-week! The first week in history that five top 10 teams got beat (Oregon Thursday, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas A&M, UCLA on Saturday -- it would have been six, except a No. 9 Notre Dame that was an underdog to No. 12 Stanford pulled it out)!