I would not have called Syracuse/Maryland tepid … but Syracuse is doing its best to make it so. Virginia is maybe a good bet to replace Syracuse in the top 25.
I guess 10 minutes into the first quarter of the Pitt game is as good a time as any to start this.
Wake and Virginia played yesterday, handling Rice and William & Mary handily.
The rest of the slate is pretty tepid with the exception of Clemson-Texas A&M and unc-Miami.
Pitt has a real knack for recruiting players with undesireable names for their positions. Kicker named Blewitt. QB named Pickett. All they need is an RB named Phumbul or a WR named Draup to complete the set.
I would not have called Syracuse/Maryland tepid … but Syracuse is doing its best to make it so. Virginia is maybe a good bet to replace Syracuse in the top 25.
Virginia has a good football team. I was impressed by what I saw last night.
Bob Green
FSU only up by 3 over UL Monroe, at home, Deep in the fourth quarter. Yikes.
After Clemson, the rest of the ACC looks wide open this year. Not much separation in the middle of the pack.
FSU wins by one in OT. My, how the mighty have fallen.
Freaking Miami blew it. Had the holes dead at 4th and 17 on their own 40 with two minutes to play and gave up a first down and then a TD. And couldn’t answer. Pathetic.
“Coach said no 3s.” - Zion on The Block
I just don't understand why the ACC stays so thoroughly mediocre. Has it been 3 or 4 years that we had the really good season? And now reversion back to the mean.
I would have to go:
SEC
Big 10
Big 12
PAC 12/ACC Toss up
Is it coaching, the stadiums, or just plain old Bad JuJu?
I’d like to think this is true, but I don’t.
Who is really committed to academic integrity? Duke, UVA, maybe Wake? The rest of the schools aren’t struggling because they’re turning down athletes on academic grounds. And even saying that those three are is not entirely true.
JMHO.
The bottom of the ACC is better than it used to be. During the 1990's, you could count on 3 gift wins from Duke, Wake, and MD 4/5 years. If one of those three was good, someone else was usually down instead.
Coaching is part of it. Coaching changes are a combination of unrealistic expectations (10+ wins/yr) and the novelty of a new coach for 3-4 years. When you fall below your tolerance point, you change and hope it's better. Most of the ACC doesn't have the ability to improve out of mediocrity except for a flash in the pan season, and I think FSU and VT might be falling back to the pack before their HOF coaches.
I don't think I buy the premise that the ACC is that terribly bad...last year I saw Duke (what, 3-5 in the conference) go to Northwestern and dominate the Wildcats, far more than the score indicated (Jones went out with a shoulder injury late in the first half I think, after throwing 3 TD passes)...and NW went on to win the Big 10 West...you can see Sagarin's end of season view of the conferences...for sure the SEC divisions are on top, but the ACC is pretty much in the pack with the rest of the P5 conferences.
https://www.usatoday.com/sports/ncaa...18/conference/
First of all, the crashing of Miami and Florida State is a huge reason. Then you add in that Va Tech slipped some. Clemson has risen to the top as that was going on, but the league went from 3 premiere programs to only one.
As for the stadiums...it's not the stadiums per se. It's the lack of fans to fill them...so many private schools...and even Pitt and Syracuse are kind of quasi private...and Miami is fully private, in addition to Duke, WF, BC and so on. T