ACC Football News & Notes New faces looking to play for a title

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As the month of October winds down, there is something of interest taking shape in the ACC. New faces position themselves for a shot at the league title come December. The two that come to mind just happen to be the division leaders as the month winds down. Wake Forest (7-0, 4-0) and Pittsburgh (6-1, 3-1) are in very good shape to play for all the marbles on that first Saturday night in December. Wake has a one-game lead in the Atlantic over N.C. State (5-2, 2-1), while the Panthers hold a two-game lead over Virginia (6-2, 4-2) in the Coastal. Four weeks are left in the regular season, so it will be quite a race to the finish line. Here is what else is going on.

The one thing that will be very odd about this year’s ACC championship game, is the absence of the Clemson Tigers (4-3, 2-1). Last week’s loss to Pittsburgh will make it really hard for the Tigers to get to the title game unless they get some help from their friends. Their defense had a very difficult time like everyone else has had with Pittsburgh QB Kenny Pickett who went for 25-of-39 for 302 yards two touchdowns and zero picks. Coming into this contest, the Tigers defense had only allowed 12.5 points per game which ranked them among the nation’s best. LB James Skalski did have himself quite an afternoon making plays on defense. He recorded a career-high 18 tackles in the game which is the third-most by an FBS player this season. He finished the game one tackle shy of the school all-time record for tackles that was set by Bayton Spector who had 19 vs NCSU.

The two division leaders are back in action this weekend with home conference games. For Wake, they will host Duke (3-4, 0-3) who will be looking for their first league win on the road. The Demon Decanos are off to their first 7-0 start since the 1944 campaign and will be hoping to go 8-0 for the first time in school history. Their ranking of #13 in the country is the highest since 1947 when they were ranked at #11. Wake enters this game after scoring 70 points on Army last Saturday, despite the fact that they had the ball for only 17 minutes in the game. The Blue Devils will look to get something done with a ground game that was good vs Georgia Tech. Running back Mataeo Durant rushed for 152 yards on 43 carries against the Yellow Jackets. The 43 carries broke the single-game program record that was held by Art Bosetti who had 42 carries vs South Carolina in 1970.

# 17 Pittsburgh welcomes Miami (3-4, 1-2 ) to Heinz Field on Saturday. The Hurricanes have had good luck on the road vs Pitt. They are 15-6 all-time and 6-2 in the ACC against the Panthers. Both teams have been getting good quarterback play. Pickett, as a sixth-year senior, is having quite a season running the show in Pittsburgh. His 23 touchdown passes to zero INT has NFL scouts taking notice. Miami has been receiving strong play from backup QB Tyler Van Dyke who was named Rookie of the Week for throwing four touchdowns passes and 325 yards last week in their win over N.C. State at home.

The league boasts five different players who lead the nation in major statistical categories. Louisville QB Malik Cunnigham leads the nation in rushing touchdowns with 13. He ran for three scores in last week’s win at home vs Boston College. Panthers WR Jordan Addison leads in touchdowns receptions with 10, a favorite target for Kenny Pickett. Syracuse running back Sean Tucker leads in rushing with 1,298 yards on the ground. He will look to add to that total at home vs the Eagles on Saturday. Virginia QB Brennan Armstrong leads in two departments. First in passing yards with 3,220 and in total offense with 3,397. Wake Forest place-kicker Nick Sciba leads in field goal percentage, as he is a perfect 12-12 in field goals attempted.

There are two non-conferences matchups that are worth noting. The first one is Virginia heading to Utah to battle #25 BYU. This will be the sixth all-time meeting between the two schools, and the first one since 2014. The Cavaliers lead the series 3-2, however, the Cougars won last time out by a 41-33 score. North Carolina is in South Bend to take on #11 Notre Dame on Saturday night. The Irish have won 19 of the 21 meetings between the two, including last year by a 31-17 score. The Irish are 12-0 vs the Tar Heels in Notre Dame Stadium.

That is all for this week. Next week we will be back with more from the ACC.