Week six didn’t settle the ACC. If anything, it made the league feel even messier.
Miami still looks like the class of the conference, and Wake Forest has emerged as the team most clearly positioned to chase the Hurricanes. After that, the picture gets fuzzy fast. Virginia Tech’s loss to Cal, Duke’s stumble against Georgia Tech, Pitt’s slide without its starting quarterback, and Florida State’s collapse at Louisville all scrambled the middle in a hurry.
At the top, Miami keeps rolling. The new No. 3 team in the country comes out of its bye week to host Florida State on Saturday, and the Hurricanes have been steamrolling everybody in sight through six weeks. Quarterback Darian Mensah and wide receiver Malachi Toney remain firmly in the Heisman conversation.
Wake Forest looks like the most dangerous challenger behind Miami right now. The Demon Deacons blasted NC State 38-14 after scoring 31 unanswered points, with quarterback Gio Lopez putting together another massive day: 303 passing yards, three touchdowns through the air and another on the ground. After that showing, Wake Forest feels like the frontrunner to reach the ACC Championship Game in December.
Louisville also made a loud statement of its own. The Cardinals erased a 14-0 deficit and hammered Florida State 44-20, powered by Isaac Brown’s 17 carries for 235 yards and two touchdowns. That kind of explosion keeps Louisville in the mix, especially with a schedule that sets up well the rest of the way.
Virginia Tech, though, left Week 6 with a headache. The Hokies fell 25-20 to Cal in a game they had right there, grabbing a 20-19 lead with 1:18 remaining before the Golden Bears marched down the field and scored the winning touchdown with 18 seconds left.
Two penalties helped Cal’s drive along, and once again Virginia Tech’s issues showed up in the same places: no run game, no turnovers, too many mistakes. James Franklin’s group in Blacksburg may not be an ACC contender after all.
Cal, for its part, earned a much-needed upset behind backup quarterback Jackson Brousseau and a defense that bottled up Virginia Tech’s rushing attack to 3.5 yards per carry. The Golden Bears now head into a difficult stretch with Wake Forest and SMU back-to-back.
Duke also came away from the week with a result it will want to forget. The Blue Devils dropped a 28-25 game to Georgia Tech despite a strong outing from Nate Sheppard, who ran for 99 yards and two touchdowns and added 91 receiving yards.
Georgia Tech’s first conference win came with a burst from Trelain Maddox, who had 81 yards on 10 carries and three touchdowns. The Yellow Jackets now head to Virginia Tech before hosting Boston College.
North Carolina grabbed the week’s most notable ranked win, beating No. 25 Pitt 21-17 in Chapel Hill for the first ranked win of the Bill Belichek era.
Pitt was already dealing with the loss of starting quarterback Mason Heintschel, and backup Holden Geriner threw two interceptions in the defeat. Billy Edwards Jr. also tossed two picks for the Tar Heels, but he did enough to get them over the line.
North Carolina now gets another shot at a quality win when it faces in-state rival Duke.
Pitt’s loss fit a rough pattern. Without Heintschel, the Panthers couldn’t hold off North Carolina, and the setback only deepened the questions around where this team goes from here.
Florida State’s week got away from it fast. The Seminoles jumped out to a 14-0 lead at Louisville, then watched the Cardinals score 35 straight points on the way to a 44-20 loss. Next up is a trip to Miami, which is about as difficult a landing spot as possible.
Virginia escaped Syracuse 28-25 after trailing by 10, but it wasn’t pretty. The Cavaliers outlasted an Orange team that outgained them 430-288, controlled the ball for more than 10 extra minutes and led for over 28 minutes despite starting third-string quarterback Malachi Nelson. Syracuse nearly pulled off the upset again after surviving UConn in overtime last week, and the performance leaves a simple question hanging: is Syracuse better than it has looked, or is Virginia just not that good?
Virginia Tech’s loss to Cal sits right in the middle of this ACC jumble, and the result matters because the Hokies had a chance to stay in the hunt. Instead, the defeat added to the sense that the league’s race is narrowing toward Miami, Wake Forest and maybe Louisville, while everyone else is fighting to keep pace.
Even with a bye, Clemson can claim some small benefit from how the week unfolded. Duke, Pitt and Virginia Tech all lost, which leaves the ACC wide open and gives the Tigers a clearer path to jump back into the conference championship picture if they can get moving.
Boston College remains stuck at the bottom after its bye, still without a conference win and still staring at a brutal finish with Pitt, Duke, Florida State and Miami left. Quarterback Mason McKenzie has not given the Eagles much in five games, ranking 118th in the country in QB rating at 36.2.
Stanford also stays near the bottom after a 58-7 loss to No. 2 Notre Dame, the Cardinal’s second straight defeat by at least 50 points. The Stanford defense gave up 598 total yards at 8.1 yards per play, though the schedule does ease up from here.
SMU had the weekend off and will need to look much sharper when it hosts Virginia. The Mustangs’ 10-point loss to Louisville back in September keeps looking worse as the season goes on.
NC State, meanwhile, followed up its upset of Louisville with a rough return to earth, getting blown out by Wake Forest at home. Gio Lopez had no trouble slicing through the Wolfpack defense, throwing for 303 yards and three touchdowns.
And Syracuse? The Orange nearly flipped the script in Charlottesville despite all the circumstances working against them. That kind of close call says plenty about the uncertainty running through the league right now.
In Other News...
Virginia Tech Let Another Winnable Road Game Slip Away
Virginia Tech left Berkeley with another reminder of how thin the margin has become on the road. The Hokies dropped a 25-20 decision to California for their second straight loss, and head coach James Franklin pointed to the kind of self-inflicted issues that can turn a winnable trip into a missed chance, from penalties to missed opportunities in key spots.
The defense again came away without a takeaway, extending a stretch that has now reached four games, while the kicking game never provided the needed lift. John Love missed both of his field goal tries, including a 39-yarder after a false start pushed Virginia Tech back, and the late sequence only added to the frustration in a game the Hokies had a real path to finish better. [Read more 🡒]