ACC Football News and Notes: First month of play wrapping up

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We will have reached the end of the first month of the ACC schedule with this weekend’s games. Some good matchups are on tap. Here is a look.

Wake Forest (4-0) will take a six-game winning streak and four straight wins on the road when they travel to Boston College (3-1, 1-0) this Saturday. The winning streak is the fifth-longest in the country, (Clemson, Ohio State, Appalachian State, Florida). The Demons Deacons will also be a ranked team as they sit at # 24 in the Coaches Poll.

Duke plays at Virginia Tech this Friday night. This will be the Blue Devils first conference game of the season. Both teams stand at 2-1 overall with the Hokies already at 0-1 in league play thanks to a season-opening loss at Boston College.

North Carolina plays host to the #1 Clemson Tigers this weekend. This will be the first time that the Tar Heels will play the top-ranked team at home since hosting Florida State back in 1999. North Carolina lost that one 42-10. The Tar Heels will also be looking to snap a two-game losing streak.

The game of the week could be at South Bend this Saturday when Notre Dame hosts Virginia. Both teams come into this game as ranked teams. It will be the first time they will meet as ranked teams and it will be just the fourth time this has happened in South Bend. Notre Dame Stadium should be rocking for this one.

The Pittsburgh Panthers are coming off a big win at home last weekend when they knocked off #11 Central Florida on the last drive of the game. Because of that victory, Pittsburgh has three members of their teams in the weekly Players of the Week awards. Quarterback Kenny Pickett threw for 227 yards and a score and rushed for 61 yards on 12 carries. He also caught the game-winning touchdown pass on a gadget play known as the “Pitt Special.” Pickett has not thrown an INT yet this season on 139 attempts. Offensive Lineman Bryce Hargrove was the highest-graded offensive lineman in that thrilling win last Saturday. Specialist Aaron Mathews blocked a punt that was returned for a touchdown and threw the game-winning TD pass on the game’s final play, a three-yard TD to Pickett.

Co-running backs of the week are BC’s A. J. Dillon who ran for 150 yards on 32 rushes and also took the ball into the endzone twice. The 150 yards is the second straight week of at least 150 yards on the ground with two touchdowns. He was joined by Florida State’s Cam Akers who ran for 112 yards. It was the third straight week of 100 yards or more for him. That is the most in the ACC and he also leads the conference in seven different categories.

The receiver of the week is Trishton Jackson of Syracuse. He had six catches for 141 yards and two touchdowns. His TD grabs were of 59 and 46 yards and he averaged 23.5 yards per catch. It was his second 100-yard game in the last three weeks.

Defensive Lineman of the Week is Marvin Wilson of the Seminoles. He had a career-high 10 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks in the win over the Cardinal. He also recovered a fumble on the final play of the game.

Chris Ingram of North Carolina State is ACC Defensive Back of the Week. He played a career-high 89 snaps with a career-high nine stops, all on solo hits. He had one interception and broke up two others.

The Rookie of the Week is Jarren Williams of Miami. The QB is named for the second straight week. He went 17-24, 250 yards and one touchdown. He has completed 70% of his passes in each of the last three starts and has not thrown an interception to go along with seven touchdown passes. He is the first Hurricanes quarterback to not throw a pick in his first 100 passes of his career.

Next week we will have more from the ACC on NGSC Sports where we never stop.