ACC Football News & Notes: A New Season is Ready to Begin

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Labor Day weekend is almost here, and so is the college football season. Welcome back to the weekly ACC football notes. From now until the championship game on Saturday night December 3rd, we will provide fans of this league with information on their favorite teams, and look at the upcoming matchups. Let’s get started with this week’s slate of games. For the purpose of this week’s notes, we will focus on the weekend games ahead.

Two teams got started one week earlier than everyone one else. Florida State got off to a good start with a 47-7 win over Duquesne. Quarterback Jordan Travis was 11-of-15 for 207 yards while the Seminoles unleashed a punishing running attack vs the Dukes. Three members of that group went for over 100 yards. Treshaun Ward led the ground game with a career-high 127 yards on 14 rushes. He finished the day with a career-high 9.1 yards a carry. Trey Benson added 105 yards and Lawrence Toafilli (101) also had a good day. It marked the first time in program history that three running backs went for 100 yards in the same game.

The Drew Maye era began at North Carolina last weekend. His first collegiate start was impressive as he threw four of his first touchdown passes in the first half as the Tar Heels beat Florida A&M 56-24. A&M came into this game a bit shorthanded and UNC did what they were supposed to do which was take advantage. Six different players found the end zone for North Carolina with Josh Downs getting their twice on two touchdowns catches. Maye himself made quite a first start in Carolina blue. His five touchdown passes were the most in a season opener in his first career start.

This weekend begins on Friday night as Virginia Tech heads to Old Dominion. This marks the beginning of Brent Pry’s tenure as coach of the Hokies. He will be matched up against an old friend and former colleague, Ricky Rahne. The two spent time on the same coaching staff at Penn State and Vanderbilt. This will be Virginia Tech’s second game at ODU. In 2018 the Hokies were upset by ODU 49-35. Duke will also be debuting a new coach on Friday night. Mike Elko, who has been a defensive coordinator for 18 of his 23 years as a coach in college, will get his chance to be a head man at Duke. These two programs have met one other time in the 2018 Independence Bowl with the Blue Devils winning 56-27. Duke is looking to win their 10th home opener in their last 11 tries.

Saturday finds Boston College hosting Rutgers. This is the beginning of a four-game series between the two programs. The Eagles own an 11-game winning streak and have won 13 of the last 14 meetings, with one tie. BC is looking to win their sixth straight season opener. UNC will be making its first trip to Boone, NC to take on Appalachian State. This is game two of a three-game series. This is a bit of a homecoming for Tar Heel head coach Mack Brown. App. State was where his college coaching career got started back in 1983. #13 North Carolina State travels to East Carolina. This will be the 32nd time and the 11th season opener between the two schools. The Wolfpack have won the last two games by a combined 92-9 count. In the last 10 meetings, each team has won five. Virginia will host Richmond with Tony Elliott as the new Cavaliers head coach. This marks the seventh time these two have met to begin their seasons. Virginia is led by QB Brennan Armstrong who was fourth in the nation in total passing yards a season ago with 4,449. Miami hosts Bethune-Cookman with Mario Cristobal at the controls of the Hurricanes. This is the sixth time the two schools have met with Miami winning the previous five games.

The first of two league matches are on Saturday as Louisville heads to upstate New York to play Syracuse. The Cardinals have won the last three meetings and seven of the last eight. This will be the ninth time they have played in the Carrier Dome with Louisville holding a 5-3 advantage. On Sunday night, the Allstate Louisiana Kickoff will take place with Florida State taking on LSU. This will be the 10th meeting and the first since 1991. This is also the first of a two-game series between these two with the next game taking place on Labor Day of 2023. The Seminoles have won four straight and seven of nine vs the Tigers. The other conference matchup will happen on Monday night as #4 Clemson battles Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-A-Kickoff in Atlanta, GA. The Tigers have won the last seven games and this will be the 17th time in the last 19 meetings that at least one team has been ranked. Clemson holds a 22-17 edge in ACC play while the Yellow Jackets hold the all-time lead at 44-16-2.

That’s a look at this week in the ACC. We will be here each and every week until the end of the season.