The ACC’s first full swing through conference play brought the kind of chaos that keeps this league impossible to sort out. Some teams made noise, some took hits they may not recover from, and a few left the weekend looking a whole lot different than they did a month ago.
Start with Pittsburgh, because the Panthers got the result they wanted and then paid for it. Pat Narduzzi’s team slipped past Virginia Tech on Friday night when the Hokies missed a field goal on the final play, and Pittsburgh moved to 5-0.
But the win came with a brutal price: backup quarterback Holden Geriner finished the game after Mason Heintschel was injured, and Heintschel tore his ACL, ending his season. Pitt remains one of three unbeaten teams in conference play, but losing its starting quarterback could seriously change the outlook.
Miami, meanwhile, looked like a team on a different tier entirely. The Hurricanes went into Clemson and handled the Tigers with ease, rolling to a 41-13 win.
That kind of performance only sharpens the feeling that Miami is operating at a level few teams on the schedule can match. Outside of Notre Dame, there doesn’t appear to be much left that looks like a true threat.
Clemson’s loss was a major setback, though the Tigers at least get a bye next week before facing Charleston Southern.
Wake Forest made its own loud statement. The Demon Deacons demolished Stanford 57-3, a result that only adds fuel to the idea that they may belong near the top of the conference picture.
Stanford has taken ugly losses before, but this one was even more lopsided than its defeats to Miami and Duke. Wake Forest is starting to look like one of the ACC’s best teams.
Then there are the teams that looked promising early and now feel a lot less certain. Louisville and Virginia both entered the month with the feel of possible contenders, and both left Week 5 looking exposed.
Louisville dropped a road game as the favorite at NC State, falling to 2-3. Virginia was even less competitive, getting routed 38-7 at Florida State.
The Cavaliers’ only real bright spot so far remains their 34-8 win over NC State to open the season, and that feels like a long time ago now.
Florida State may have answered a few questions of its own in that win over Virginia. The Seminoles had already drawn skepticism after uneven victories over New Mexico State and Central Arkansas, but Saturday looked far more convincing.
Florida State controlled the game, and Ashton Daniels did enough as a passer while also running for five touchdowns. The next stretch will tell the real story, though, because road games at Louisville and Miami are up next.
SMU is another team still searching for something that looks like consistency. The Mustangs are 4-1, but they have not looked like a team ready to make a serious ACC run.
Against Boston College, SMU managed only 218 total yards in a 25-16 home win. The Eagles have been scrappy in back-to-back weeks against Virginia Tech and SMU, but they also nearly lost to Maine, so this was not a statement victory for the Mustangs.
It came one week after SMU also failed to separate from Missouri State, and the loss to Louisville keeps aging badly.
Saturday also delivered a rough non-conference finish for the league. Three ACC teams played outside the conference, and all three lost.
Syracuse technically escaped with a win over UConn, but after blowing a 20-point lead and needing overtime, it hardly felt clean. California fell 39-31 to UNLV in a wild game, and the Bears played much of it without Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele after he suffered a head injury.
Losing to a UNLV team that had been beaten 44-6 by North Texas earlier in the season is not a flattering result for California or the ACC.
North Carolina at least showed some fight in defeat. The Tar Heels lost 37-26 to Notre Dame, but they were more competitive against the Irish than the three Big Ten teams Marcus Freeman’s group has already beaten. Even so, Bill Belichick is still waiting for his first conference win of the season.
In Other News...
Syracuse Escaped UConn But Fran Brown Just Sparked A Bigger Debate
Syracuse needed every bit of its composure, and then some, to leave UConn with a 42-41 overtime win after watching a 20-point lead evaporate. The late quarterback switch to Amari Odom gave the Orange a different spark, and he ended up factoring heavily in the comeback, including on the game-winning two-point conversion. It was the kind of chaotic road result that can feel like a turning point, even if it came with a long list of reminders about how thin the margin was.
Fran Brown still has plenty to sort through, because the win did not cover up Syracuses discipline issues or the defensive lapses that turned a game the Orange should have controlled into a one-score fight for survival. There was enough fight to escape, but also enough sloppiness to leave open a bigger question about whether this team can clean itself up before the schedule gets less forgiving. [Read more 🡒]
Fran Brown's Blunt Syracuse Warning Overshadowed A Win Over UConn
Syracuse got the result it needed against UConn, but the path to the finish line was anything but clean. The Orange built an early lead, then watched the game tilt badly in the second half as the defense gave up 27 straight points, a collapse that turned a manageable afternoon into a far more uneasy one for a team still trying to settle into its identity.
Fran Brown did not try to soften any of it afterward. The defensive backs coach took responsibility for what happened, pointed to poor play in the secondary and a rush defense that also failed to hold up, and even made an in-game adjustment by shifting Chris Peal from cornerback to safety. For Syracuse, the win matters, but the warning sign may matter even more. [Read more 🡒]
Syracuse May Have Found An O-Line Answer It Suddenly Needed
Syracuse spent a recent game shuffling its offensive line, and the moves at least gave the unit a different look when it needed one. Kahlil Stewart stepped in at center and Jayden Mann took over at right guard, replacing Joe Cruz and Byron Washington as the Orange tried to settle things in front of quarterback Amari Odom.
The line still had its hands full, allowing eight pressures, but it did not give up a sack while Odom threw for 269 yards and three touchdowns. Syracuse also made changes in the secondary with mixed results, but the bigger takeaway was how the offense kept moving, with Umari Hatcher piling up 12 catches for 152 yards and three scores as the Orange searched for the right combination up front. [Read more 🡒]