ACC Football News & Notes: Chaos at the Top of the League

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With every week that goes by, things get more interesting in the ACC. There is a new name at the top of the league standings. The SMU Mustangs find themselves with a one-game lead on the field. They return to action this Saturday at home vs Boston College. Let’s take a look at the league heading into the weekend.

The ACC has four teams ranked in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll. Miami fell to #12, SMU moved up to #14, Clemson is at #17, and Louisville is at #22. The league has had four teams ranked in this poll for the last six polls, and nine of the previous 12 this season. Four teams are in the US LBM Coaches Poll. Miami at #12, SMU at #13, Clemson at #16, and Louisville at #24. In the second CFP Rankings, the conference has four teams ranked. Miami at #9, SMU at #14, Louisville at #19, Clemson at #20. The league also has nine teams ranked in ESPN’s Top 50 Football Power Index.

The conference now has eight bowl-eligible teams. Four more have a chance to get there with wins this weekend in Boston College (5-4), California (5-4), North Carolina (5-4), and Virginia (5-4). An interesting note heading into last weekend was that there were 53 teams with an active chance to become bowl-eligible in each of the last three seasons. Of those teams, seven already had six losses. Just goes to show the changing world of college football.

The ACC has also been good on the road this year. In true road games, the league is 38-28, the most wins of any conference. The winning percentage of 57.5% is also the highest. In the ACC the road record is 26-23 which does not include the game that took place in Ireland back in late August between Florida St. and Georgia Tech.

Now, for the games themselves. Virginia (5-4, 3-3) heads to South Bend to meet the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (8-1) Virginia has never beaten the Irish (0-4). They are looking for their second straight win over a Top 25 team. Last week, they upset #23 Pittsburgh. The Cavaliers have been pretty good on the road at 3-1 for their most road wins since 2011. WR Malachi Fields has caught a pass in 23 consecutive games and is 11th in school history with 1,706 receiving yards.

Louisville (6-1, 4-3) heads out west to play Stanford (2-7, 1-5). This is the first time these two have met. Last weekend’s win over Clemson was the Cardinal’s first-ever against the Tigers. It was their highest-ranking road win since 2000, when they defeated #13 Southern Miss. Stanford QB Austin Daniels ran for 129 yards vs NC State which tied a school record. Stanford ran for over 200 yards and three scores for the first time since 2022.

A big game takes place in Pittsburgh, between the Clemson Tigers (7-2, 6-1) and the Panthers (7-2, 3-2). Pittsburgh has lost two straight. These two have not met since the 2021 season. The Tigers are unbeaten on the road at 3-0. Since 2015, Clemson is 39-8 away from Death Valley. The Tigers’ offense is averaging 480.1 yards a game which ranks second. Their defense ranks first in defense allowing 317.1 yards a game. Pittsburgh’s freshman QB Eli Holstein leads all FBS freshmen quarterbacks in total offense, passing yards, passing touchdowns, and points responsible for.

Syracuse (6-3, 3-3) also will be heading out west to face the California Bears (5-4, 1-4). The Orange are coming off a tough loss at BC as the defense could not stop the run and the Eagles ran for 313 yards. Their offense is led by QB Kyle McCord who has thrown the ball for 392 yards. McCord leads the country in passing yards per game at 350.3. He is the second quarterback in Syracuse history to pass for more than 3,000 yards. His 23 passing TD also ranked him second in school history for a single season. The Bears won their first-ever league game last week. In the win over Wake Forest, California extended their takeaway streak to 11 straight games. They now have at least one in 44 of their past 47 games.

Boston College (5-4, 2-3) heads to Dallas, Texas to meet SMU (8-1, 5-0). The Eagles got back to what they do best, which is to run the ball. The 313 yards on the ground was a major reason why they defeated Syracuse last Saturday. They will have a new quarterback at the controls as Grayson Allen takes over after a strong last quarter and a half last week. He replaces Thomas Castellanos who was benched after a poor performance vs the Orange. The benching did not sit well with Castellanos who has since left the team and entered the transfer portal. SMU has the #5 scoring offense in college football averaging 40.1 points per game. The team is on a six-game winning streak and is tough to run on as they are the #5 rushing defense allowing 90 yards on the ground per game.

Wake Forest (4-5, 2-3) takes on North Carolina (5-4, 2-3) and the Tar Heels have won the last three straight vs Wake. All three wins were by one score. All-time, the Tar Heels are 72-36-2 vs Wake Forest. Wake is undefeated on the road at 3-0 with all three wins by four points or less. They are one of 12 FBS teams to be unbeaten on the road. North Carolina has the best rushing offense in the league at 200 yards a game. They are one of eight Power-4 schools to do this. UNC is looking to reach a bowl game for the sixth straight year.

Next week, we take another look at how the ACC is shaping up.