ACC Football News and Notes

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As the second weekend of play is set to begin in October, the ACC can boast three teams in the Top 25 poll. Clemson, Virginia, and Wake Forest remain in the poll. All three teams had last weekend off and are ready to get back to action this weekend. Here is more news from the ACC.

According to SportSource Analytics, five teams from the league ranked among the Top 20 in strength of schedule. They were #11 Florida State, #13 North Carolina, #16 Pittsburgh, #18 Duke, and #20 Miami. The Blue Devils have played the eighth-most difficult schedule followed by Pittsburgh at #11, Florida State at #12, North Carolina at #23 tied with Miami, and Syracuse checks in at #25. The Tar Heels have three losses to teams that have a combined record of 14-0.

Wake Forest has won seventh straight games matching the school record set back in 1944 when the Demon Deacons started that year at 7-0. They own the fifth-longest active streak in the country behind only Clemson, Ohio State, Appalachian State, and Florida State. This is the fourth time in school history that Wake has started 5-0 and the last time since 2006.

The Demon Deacons are also one of only three teams in college football to have two players in the top 20 nationally in receiving yards per game. The others are Alabama and LSU. Sage Surratt leads the conference and is ranked 11th in the nation with 103 receiving yards per game. Scotty Washington is 17th with 94.7 YPG.

North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell has been named one of the Manning Award Stars of the Week. He is on the Davey O’Brien Award Great 8 list for his performance in the win at Georgia Tech. Howell went 33 of 51 for 376 yards and four touchdowns in the 38-22 win. He set five Tar Heels freshman records in yards, touchdowns, completions, and attempts. Howell was also named ACC Quarterback of the Week for the second time and was named Rookie of the Week for the third time this year.

Pittsburgh has shown an ability to come back in games so far this season. They have done this three straight times including last week’s 33-30 win over Duke. Before that, they pulled this off against both Central Florida 35-24, and Delaware 17-14.

Virginia got behind Old Dominion 17-0 before rallying with 28 unanswered points to earn a hard-fought win at home. It was Virginia’s biggest comeback since trailing 21-0 at the half to North Carolina back in 2002.

Blue Devils senior linebacker Koby Quansah led the defense for the third straight game with 11 tackles in Duke’s loss to Pittsburgh. Quansah ranks third in the league in tackles per game at 9.6.

Boston College backup quarterback Dennis Grosel came off the bench to replace injured starter Anthony Brown and threw the first touchdown pass of his college career on his very first attempt last Saturday vs Louisville. He would finish the game 9 for 24, 111 yards, three touchdowns. Grosel becomes the first Eagles quarterback to throw for three scores in a game since Paul Peterson did it against West Virginia back in 2003.

Louisville had three members of their team named to the weekly honor roll after that big home win vs the Eagles. RB Javian Hawkins, offensive lineman Mehki Becton, and WR Seth Dawkins all made it. The Cardinal offense had quite an afternoon against Boston College racking up over 600 yards of total offense in the victory.

Next week we will have more from the Atlantic Coast Conference.