ACC Football News & Notes: The Home Stretch is Near

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We have reached week nine of the college football season. One full month is all that is left before championship Saturday arrives. This week’s schedule has two games being played late in the week with the rest on Saturday. The Clemson Tigers are inching closer to taking one spot in the ACC title game, while the other spot is still a toss-up. Let’s take a look at week nine of the season.

The conference has four teams in this week’s Top 25 Associated Press Poll. Miami is at #6 for the third straight week, their highest ranking since November of 2017 when the Hurricanes were at #2. Clemson is at #9, Pittsburgh is at #19 and used three defensive touchdowns in their 41-13 drilling of Syracuse last night, and SMU is at #22. The same four teams are ranked in this week’s US LBM Coaches Poll. The conference is one of three leagues in the country with multiple teams ranked in the top 10 of both polls. In fact, the ACC has eight teams ranked in the top 50 of ESPN’s Strength of Record rankings.

The league also has nine teams in the top 30 of the toughest schedules to date by the NCAA. All nine teams have schedules with at least 26 wins associated with it. The league already has five teams that have become bowl-eligible and that is the second-most of any FBS conference heading into this week. Only the SEC has more with six. Of the 10 remaining unbeaten teams, the ACC has two of them in Miami (7-0) and Pittsburgh (6-0).

The Louisville Cardinals (4-3, 2-2), with the third toughest schedule in the country (31-11), head to Chestnut Hill to take on Boston College (4-3, 1-2) tonight. Louisville QB Tyler Shough is having a heck of a season for the Cardinals. In the loss to Miami last week, he recorded his third 300-yard passing game at UL, along with his fourth game of at least 300 yards of total offense. He ranks in the top 10 in the country in passing TDs (18) and passing yards (2,016). His counterpart, Eagles QB Thomas Castellanos, is fifth in passing efficiency at 176.2. The Eagles will look to stay unbeaten at home (3-0) on Friday night.

Georgia Tech (5-3, 3-2) heads to Virginia Tech (4-3, 2-1) The Yellow Jackets have won four of the last six games between the two. They have won the last three straight in Blacksburg. A win would make GT bowl eligible for the second season in a row. Hokies RB Bhayshul Tuten is sixth in the country in rushing yards with 871 and in touchdowns with 12. He is fourth in the nation in total touchdowns with 14 and total points scored with 84.

Virginia (4-3, 2-2) hosts North Carolina (3-4, 0-3). The Tar Heels have won nine of the last 14 meetings. They have the top running back in the league in Omarion Hampton. He leads the league in rushing yards with 901 and rushing yards per game at 128.7. He is fourth in the league with seven rushing touchdowns. Special teams may play a role in this one. Virginia has the best punt defense in the conference at 2.20 yards per return. North Carolina, on the other hand, leads the league in punt returns averaging 18.67 yards per return.

Florida State (1-6, 1-5) heads to Miami to face the Hurricanes (7-0, 3-0). The Seminoles have won the last three meetings outscoring Miami 103-51. Hurricanes QB Cam Ward leads all of FBS in passing yards with 2,548, passing yards per game at 362.8, 24 passing touchdowns, and 166 points responsible for. He has won the ACC Quarterback of the Week Award five times this year. Florida State’s special teams have been a bright spot. They have blocked five kicks, the most in FBS. Their punter Alex Mastromanno leads the country with a 49.4 average per punt.

SMU (6-1, 3-0) takes on Duke (6-1, 2-1) on the road. These two have not faced each other since 1956. Both teams are bowl-eligible and both teams have made it three straight seasons. This will be Duke’s first game vs a ranked team this season. The Blue Devils defense has been very good. They give up an ACC-low 17.3 points per game and 153,6 passing yards. SMU has allowed just 87 yards on the ground, the lowest in the league and seventh in FBS.

Wake Forest (3-4, 1-2) heads cross country to face Stanford (2-5, 1-3). This is just the third all-time meeting between the two. The Cardinals will be looking to snap a four-game losing streak. They ranked third in the league in time of possession at 32:21 per game. Wake’s Nick Anderson leads the ACC in total tackles at 10.9 per game and solo tackles at 5.4 per game.

The lone non-league game is Oregon State (4-3) at California (3-4, 0-4). This will be the 76th all-time meeting between these former Pac-12 members with Cal leading the series at 39-37.

Next week we look at the final month of the season in the ACC.