Halloween in the ACC brings a full slate of eight conference games, and the holiday theme fits: a lot more tricks than treats.
The league’s best matchup on paper may come later in the month, but Saturday still carries some real pressure points. SMU and No.
14 Wake Forest sit tied for second at 6-1, 4-1, and November 14 is shaping up as the big collision course. The Mustangs and Demon Deacons could be headed toward a winner-take-closer-step-to-the-ACC-title-game showdown, with Miami waiting in the background.
Syracuse, though, gets the chance to spoil that conversation. The Orange enter at 3-4, 1-4 after a 31-30 overtime win at North Carolina, following an eight-point loss to Louisville and a three-point setback against Virginia.
Halloween verdict: Treat
California and NC State offer a different kind of intrigue. The Bears are 3-5, 2-3 and coming off what the source describes as a catastrophic second half, while the Wolfpack are 3-4, 1-3 and dealing with the aftermath of the firing of coach Dan Doeren after a loss at Stanford.
Neither team is near the top of the league, but that only makes the matchup harder to sort out. Halloween verdict: Treat
Boston College at Duke, 9 a.m., CW Network
Boston College comes in at 4-3, 2-2 and has won two straight, with close losses to SMU and Virginia Tech making the Eagles look like one of the conference’s more surprising teams. Duke, at 5-2, 2-2, was the surprise team a year ago when it won the ACC championship game.
This one has the feel of a grind, with both teams leaning on the run and doing it well. Halloween verdict: Trick
Stanford at Louisville, 12:30 p.m., ACC Network
Stanford is 4-4, 2-3 and has won two in a row, though one of those came against Elon. The bigger picture is less flattering: the Cardinal were outscored 115-10 in back-to-back losses to Wake Forest and Notre Dame.
Louisville, meanwhile, brings the ACC’s No. 2 scoring offense at 38.7 points per game against the conference’s worst scoring defense at 35.5 points per game. Halloween verdict: Trick
Virginia at No. 14 Wake Forest, 12:45 p.m., ESPN2
Virginia is 4-4, 2-3 and has been stuck in a rough scoring stretch, putting up 16 points or fewer in three of its past four games and losing all three. Wake Forest has rolled into this one on a four-game winning streak and has beaten its last three opponents by an average margin of more than 37 points. Halloween verdict: Trick
Clemson at Florida State, 4 p.m., ACC Network
There was a time when this would have carried heavyweight status in the ACC. Now the issues are simpler and uglier: Clemson’s offense hasn’t been able to get going, and Florida State’s defense has struggled. Halloween verdict: Trick
No. 1 Miami at North Carolina, 4:30 p.m., ABC
Miami is unbeaten at 7-0, 5-0, and part of the draw here is watching what QB Darian Mensah and WR Malachi Toney do next. Mensah has completed 81.4 percent of his passes with 22 touchdowns and one interception, while Toney has 66 catches and 11 touchdowns.
North Carolina, now 4-3, 2-2, had started to look like a real believer’s team under Bill Belichick before last week’s 31-30 home loss to Syracuse. Still, the Hurricanes get the Halloween nod.
Halloween verdict: Treat
Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech is 2-5, 1-3 and has only one win over an FBS opponent. Pittsburgh comes in at 5-3, 2-3, but the Panthers’ offense has cooled badly since starting QB Mason Heintschel went down; they scored 192 points in their first five wins and only 61 in their three losses since then. Halloween verdict: Trick
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
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Among the most notable names, starting inside linebacker AJ Tuitele and starting wide receiver Ian Strong are listed as questionable, while Adam Mohammed is also in question after missing the past four games. Carter Vargas has been ruled out, adding to the pressure on a lineup that already has Jordan King, Carter Vargas, Dorian Thomas and Nate Burrell marked unavailable for the matchup. [Read more 🡒]
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Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele has emerged as one of the steadier voices in the middle of it all, showing leadership even as the unit around him has struggled to find consistency. But the roster churn has been impossible to ignore, and it has forced Cal to get creative just to keep the operation moving. The bigger question now is whether those fixes can actually translate into something sturdier before the season slips further away. [Read more 🡒]