This week in the ACC has a little bit of everything: a top-25 logjam, a heavyweight test in Atlanta, and a few games that could turn on whether the favorite shows up and does what it’s supposed to do.
At the center of it all is Miami, which keeps putting up video-game numbers. The Hurricanes, ranked No. 5 and sitting at 2-0 overall and 1-0 in league play, visit Wake Forest in a matchup of unbeaten teams that may or may not stay close.
Quarterback Darian Mensah has been ridiculous through two games, directing the nation’s No. 2 scoring offense at 61.0 points per game while throwing twice as many touchdown passes - eight - as incompletions - four. Wake Forest, also 2-0 and 0-0 in the ACC, will have to sort that out with a pass defense ranked 106th nationally.
Florida State, meanwhile, gets the kind of stage that tells you a lot. The Seminoles are headed to No.
10 Alabama in a 12:30 p.m. kickoff on ABC, and they’ll try to prove they belong in the conversation after pushing 17th-ranked SMU into the fourth quarter before falling 27-24. That loss came before athletic director Michael Alford was fired on Monday.
Mike Norvell, now 39-35 in his seventh season, would love nothing more than an upset that changes the mood fast. Alabama is 2-0 and averaging 46.5 points.
There’s also a significant ACC-SEC clash in Louisville, where No. 16 SMU takes on No.
23 Louisville. The Mustangs, 2-0 and 1-0 in conference play, hammered the Cardinals 38-6 last season behind Kevin Jennings, who threw for 303 yards and three touchdowns in that one.
Jennings has been even sharper so far this year, piling up 767 passing yards and eight touchdowns with a 77-percent completion rate. Louisville, 1-1 and 0-0 in the ACC, will counter with Ohio State transfer Lincoln Kienholz, who has passed or run for seven touchdowns through two games.
Back in the Bay Area, Cal returns home to face Wagner after an embarrassing defeat the Bears say they won’t dwell on. Cal is 1-1 and has been a machine against FCS opponents, winning all 17 such games since 2005 by an average of 44-15.
Only one of those was decided by fewer than 12 points. Wagner is 1-2 and just took an 87-3 loss to James Madison.
Elsewhere, Syracuse heads to Pittsburgh in a 4:30 p.m. ESPN game as a 10.5-point underdog.
The Orange are 1-1 overall and 0-1 in the ACC after losing 21-18 at home to Cal, while Pitt is 2-0 and 0-0 after a 12-7 win over Central Florida that featured a defense that held the Knights scoreless until the final three minutes. Syracuse has not won at Pitt since 2001.
North Carolina and Clemson open their ACC seasons against each other in a game that says something about both programs. Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels are 2-0 and have given up only one touchdown, and that score came after a punt return set up a 25-yard drive.
Clemson, 1-1, has already taken a hit with the loss to LSU and then beat Georgia Southern 22-7. Freshman Tait Reynolds will make his first start at quarterback after Chris Vizzina injured his arm.
Georgia Tech also gets an early look at its quarterback situation when it meets Mercer at 9 a.m. on ACC Network. Alberto Mendoza, Fernando’s little brother, has thrown for 458 yards, but he also has two interceptions and just one touchdown pass in two losses. Mercer, 1-1, was ranked No. 14 in FCS before a 20-13 upset loss to Furman.
NC State’s trip to Vanderbilt carries its own questions. The Wolfpack are 1-1 after a 34-8 loss at Virginia and a 73-0 rout of Richmond. Vanderbilt, 2-0, will give five-star freshman prospect Jared Curtis his first career start after he completed 67 percent of his attempts off the bench over the first two games.
Boston College hosts Maine in a game it can’t afford to mess around with. The Eagles are 1-1, Maine is 1-2 and scoring less than 13 points per game, and BC’s own defense has been leaky against the run, ranking 125th nationally and allowing 204 rushing yards per game. Whether Maine can take advantage is another matter.
Stanford and Duke meet in a matchup that pits one strength against another. Stanford is allowing just 83.5 rushing yards per game at 3.1 yards per carry, but Duke brings Nate Sheppard, who leads the nation with 374 rushing yards in two games. Sheppard had 1,132 yards as a freshman last season and ran for 227 against Tulane in the opener.
And then there’s the Virginia-West Virginia game in Charlotte. The No.
25 Cavaliers are 2-0 and favored by 10.5 points, while West Virginia is also 2-0. The schools first met in 1898 and last played in the 2002 Continental Tire Bowl, when Virginia won 48-22.
That game also left West Virginia fans and campus officials offended by the Virginia pep band’s halftime performance, which mocked West Virginia with stereotypes.
One more scoreboard note: Virginia Tech has scored 117 points through two games, the most in its first two since the program began in 1892. Maryland is not far behind at 100.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
In Other News...
Cal Gets One Last Chance To Fix Troubling Issues Before Clemson
Cal gets a rare chance to clean up some obvious issues before the real pressure ramps up, with Wagner coming to Berkeley for the first meeting between the programs in 2026. The Bears are coming off a win at Syracuse, but the bigger focus inside the building is on sharpening an offense that has been uneven and a special teams group that still has room to settle in before conference play tightens the screws.
Wagner arrives with Tom Masellas program trying to steady itself after a rough opening stretch, which makes this the kind of matchup Cal expects to control while getting a better read on its own roster. For the Bears, the point is less about the opponent and more about using one final tune-up to build cleaner execution and some confidence before Clemson shows up. [Read more 🡒]
Cal's ACC Spending Reality Could Spark A Bigger Concern
Cals place in the new financial pecking order is looking clear enough to raise eyebrows. A report from The Athletic estimates the programs 2026 football player-payment budget at between $20 million and $24 million, putting the Bears tied for 40th among 68 Power Four schools and ninth among ACC teams. The broader trend is hard to miss, too, with the biggest spending programs continuing to line up near the top of the national rankings, where Ohio State and Oregon sit among the leaders.
For Cal, the numbers add another layer to the challenge of competing in a league where money is increasingly part of the roster conversation. Quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele is already reported to have $3 million in NIL deals, which underscores how much individual player value can shape the picture even as the program tries to keep pace overall. The bigger concern is what this spending level means over time, especially if the gap between the Bears and the ACCs biggest spenders keeps widening. [Read more 🡒]
Cal Transfer Tristan Jernigan Is Giving Bears Fans A Reason To Notice
Tristan Jernigan has already started to carve out a role for Cal after arriving from Texas A&M, and the linebackers path to Berkeley comes with a little extra backstory. The Tupelo, Mississippi native, who grew up in the same town as Elvis Presley, has been in the starting lineup for Cals first two games and has quickly worked his way into the mix on a defense that has looked better in recent weeks.
Jernigan is fourth on the team in tackles, a steady sign that he is fitting in fast after two seasons in the SEC. Defensive coordinator Michael Hutchings has pointed to Jernigans growth and passion as part of the reason the Bears have found more consistency on that side of the ball, and he has become one of those transfer additions fans start noticing before long. [Read more 🡒]