The ACC’s Week 1 wasn’t exactly a banner stretch. Clemson got rolled at LSU, Louisville fell just short against Ole Miss in Nashville, and Florida State managed to turn a stadium lights fiasco into a loss to SMU. Now the league gets a fresh slate in Week 2, and there are plenty of spots where ACC fans can pick sides.
Start with Louisville, where the Cardinals host Villanova on 9/11 at 7:00 PM EST on ACCN. New quarterback Lincoln Kienholz started slowly against Ole Miss before settling in, and the expectation here is that he keeps trending in the right direction under Jeff Brohm.
Villanova is 1-1, with a loss to William & Mary and a one-point win over Bucknell. Louisville should handle this one before SMU comes to town.
NC State gets Richmond on 9/11 at 8:00 PM EST on ESPNU, and after the Wolfpack looked rough against Virginia in Week 0, this feels like a spot to clean things up. The Spiders are 2-0 with wins over Bucknell and Howard, but CJ Bailey and Co. should be able to take care of business. With all the former Canes on the roster, the pull toward NC State is there every week anyway.
Virginia also gets a soft landing at home against Norfolk State on 9/11 at 7:00 PM EST on ACC Extra. The Hoos are ranked and, by the look of things, set up to keep climbing.
The idea here is that Virginia could be 4-0 in a few weeks when it heads to Tallahassee with a chance at a second straight win over Florida State. Virginia, SMU, and Louisville feel like the three teams in the league fighting for the next-best spot behind the top tier.
Boston College is another ACC team that should have a chance to bounce back, even if the optics are strange. The Eagles are favored against Rutgers on 9/11 at 7:30 PM EST on ESPN2, which says plenty about where Rutgers is after losing to UMass at home to start the year. Bill O’Brien’s team can’t afford to drop a game to the team that lost to UMass, especially considering UMass didn’t win a single game last season.
At noon on 9/12, UNC hosts East Tennessee State on ACCN, and the conversation around Bill Belichick’s team has already gotten louder. Some college football voices have been talking up the Tar Heels after their win over TCU in Dublin, but there’s still skepticism here.
East Tennessee State may not offer much resistance, but next week is the real test, with UNC heading to Death Valley Lite and Clemson waiting to pounce in the first conference game. That matchup will say far more about Chapel Hill than this one.
Virginia Tech also kicks off at noon on 9/12, taking on Old Dominion on the CW. This is the first real test for James Franklin at Virginia Tech, and the schedule suggests the Hokies won’t be undefeated by the time Miami arrives in November. The Monarchs have enough nuisance factor to make this interesting, and there’s a certain appeal in rooting for the upset.
Wake Forest travels to Purdue on 9/12 at 12:00 PM EST on FS1, and the Deacons are in a spot where another win would matter. They beat Akron last week, and the hope is that they arrive at next Friday night’s home date with Miami at 2-0. There’s also the small matter of wanting Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium loud and ready for the Canes.
UCF heads to Pitt on 9/12 at 3:30 PM EST on ESPN2, and for anyone with UCF ties, the choice is easy. If you really want to needle a UCF fan, call them the Central Florida Golden Knights.
That one lands. As for the game, rooting for UCF against Pitt is even easier when you’re a UCF graduate yourself.
Cal and Syracuse meet on 9/12 at 3:30 PM EST on ACCN, and both teams arrive with different kinds of momentum. Cal jumped out to a 7-0 lead on UCLA before losing by 21, while Syracuse handled New Hampshire behind a strong showing from Steve Angeli in his return from a torn Achilles.
The flight from Northern California to Upstate New York is a long one, and with Miami not involved, the interest level drops a notch. Still, Cal is the pick here.
Duke goes to Illinois on 9/12 at 3:30 PM EST on FS1, and there’s at least some revenge flavor to this one. The Blue Devils were beaten 45-19 by the Fighting Illini in Durham last year, and former Duke quarterback Darian Mensah went 23-34 for 334 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in that game.
He’s with Miami now, which makes this easier to sort out. Root for the ACC team.
SMU, meanwhile, should have a relatively comfortable night at home against UC Davis on 9/12 at 4:00 PM EST on ACC Extra. Rhett Lashlee’s team survived the trip to Florida State on Labor Day night, and that road conference win has to feel pretty good after how messy the game was. The Mustangs should be in good shape before their trip to Louisville next Saturday at 3:30 EST.
The marquee game lands at 7:00 PM EST on 9/12, when Tennessee visits Georgia Tech on ESPN. Georgia Tech’s loss at home to Colorado was not the expected result, and the absence of Haynes King at quarterback may be showing up more than anyone wanted.
Alberto Mendoza did not look good in his first start, and now he has to deal with an athletic SEC defense. Tennessee beat Furman easily, which doesn’t tell us much about the Vols, but it does set up another ACC-SEC measuring stick.
Brent Key has a big one here. Coach ‘em up.
And then there’s Clemson. Josh Pate played a clip earlier this week from Dabo’s weekly press conference, where Dabo took issue with a reporter asking whether he regrets how he built the roster for this season.
Dabo called the reporter a “gotcha guy” and said he wants to “create controversy”. Josh Pate’s reaction was simple: “I think Dabo is on tilt.”
In Other News...
Miami Secondary Suddenly Faces A Bigger Xavier Lucas Concern
Miamis secondary had already been leaning on youth, and the home opener only sharpened that reality. Xavier Lucas, who started in Week 1, did not play against Florida A&M, and the program offered no injury details for the absence. With the Hurricanes dealing with multiple injuries and absences in the back end, underclassmen like Bryce Fitzgerald and freshman JJ Dunnigan have been pushed into bigger roles sooner than planned.
Mario Cristobal has pointed to the groups versatility as a way to absorb those hits, but the situation also underscores how quickly depth can be tested in the secondary. Miami has spent plenty of time talking about recruiting and development as the foundation for surviving stretches like this, and Lucas status adds another layer of concern for a defense already asking younger players to hold more responsibility. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Fans Still Havent Forgotten The One Florida A&M Shocker
Before Florida A&M and Miami met again in the late 2000s, the series had already built up a long memory for Hurricanes fans, and most of it was not especially kind to the underdog. The two programs first tangled in 1979 and then again over the years in matchups that usually followed the same familiar script: Miami controlling the game, leaning on its talent and depth, and coming away with another win. By the time the teams played through the 2009 meeting, the Hurricanes had turned the series into one of those old nonconference histories that can be retold almost by habit.
Still, the reason this one lingers is that not every chapter fit the pattern, and Miami followers have never entirely let go of the one result that broke through the routine. Even with the Hurricanes holding the clear edge across the series, the trip through those games from 1979 to 2009 shows why certain opponents stick in the memory longer than the record alone would suggest. For Miami, the larger story is dominance, but for fans, it is the shock that kept one Florida A&M afternoon from blending into the rest. [Read more 🡒]
Miami Secondary Injuries Just Forced A Defensive Shuffle Fans Need To Watch
Miami was forced to improvise in the secondary against Florida A&M, and the adjustment offered a clear look at how thin the Hurricanes have become at cornerback. Bryce Fitzgerald slid over from safety to cornerback, while true freshman JJ Dunnigan was pressed into a starting role at safety, a reminder that this defense is already having to lean on flexibility early in the season.
The injury list at cornerback is what created the shuffle in the first place, with OJ Frederique, Xavier Lucas and Ja'Boree Antoine all sidelined. Some of those players are expected back later in the season, but for now Miami has to keep finding workable combinations on the back end, and the way it handles that stretch will be worth monitoring once the schedule gets heavier. [Read more 🡒]