ACC Football News & Notes: The Seminoles Lead a Pack at 4-0

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Week five of the college football season is here and the ACC continues to be the league that is getting the most attention. A big reason for this is the six teams that find themselves unbeaten through four weeks of the season. The six unbeaten teams are the most of any conference in FBS, and tie the SEC (2012) for the most teams to begin a season perfect in Power-5 football. It also ties a record for the most unbeaten teams in the AP Poll Era since 1936. Here is more from the league.

For the first time since the season began, four teams have the weekend off. Florida State, Miami, and North Carolina are all at 4-0 overall, and Wake Forest is at 3-1 and 0-1 in the league. For the Hurricanes, this is the first time since 2017 they have been 4-0 to begin a year. The Tar Heels are off to a 4-0 start for the first time since 1997. The league has seven teams without a loss heading into week five, which is the second most in all of FBS. For the fourth straight week, four teams from the ACC are in the AP Top 25 poll. Florida State at #5, North Carolina at #15, Duke at #16, Miami at #18. The same four teams are also ranked in the USA Today Top 25 poll.

Week four saw the league rack up more non-conference wins. The conference is 29-11 (.725%) heading into this weekend. There is just one non-league game, Bowling Green at Georgia Tech. Last weekend the ACC was 3-1 in non-conference games. The lone blemish was Virginia Tech’s loss to Marshall 24-17. Three games were decided by one score or less. NC State kicked a field goal with no time left to beat Virginia 24-21. Florida State needed overtime to beat Clemson on the road 31-24. Nine games were played last weekend. The winning team scored at least 24 points, with six of those teams scoring 30 or more.

The game of the weekend could be Notre Dame (3-1) heading to #16 Duke (4-0, 1-0). The Blue Devils are 3-0 at home so far, and at 4-0 are off to their best start since back-to-back 4-0 starts in 2017, 2018. The Blue Devils’ defense has been very good so far allowing just 35 points in four games to date. That’s an average of 8.8 per game. They have started the season with four straight 20-plus points wins for the first time in school history. For the third straight game, they held the opposing offense to under 300 yards of total offense.

Georgia Tech (2-2, 1-1) heads into their game with Bowling Green with a defense that had a tremendous day vs. Wake Forest. The defensive front recorded eight sacks and 10 tackles for loss in the game. DE Kyle Kennard finished with four sacks, which ties for the third-most in a single game in program history. The unit also forced five turnovers, three interceptions, and two fumble recoveries. Kenan Johnson picked at the Yellow Jacket 11-yard line with two-and-a-half minutes left to seal the win for GT.

Miami’s (4-0, 0-0) defense was just as impressive in their road win at Temple. They held the Owls to just 11 rushing yards on the day. They forced three turnovers which they converted into 14 points. They also registered three sacks and six tackles for loss. On offense, the Hurricanes put up 323 yards rushing, and QB Tyler Van Dyke was 17-of-24 for 220 yards and three scores. Overall the Canes outgained the Owls 543 to 279.

Down 10-3 at the half to Army, the Syracuse Orangemen (4-0, 0-0) rallied in the second half to stay unbeaten. They scored 26 unanswered points to sweep their non-league set of games for the first time since joining the league back in 1991. They have now gone 4-0 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1959-60. The Orangemen put up 403 yards of total offense in the win.

Clemson (2-2, 0-2) did everything they could on offense to pick up the home win vs. the Seminoles last Saturday. They ran for 146 yards and they collected 429 yards of total offense. They recorded 25 first downs to 16 for FSU. QB Cade Klubnil was 25-of-38 for 283 yards and one score. The defense held Florida State to 22 rushing yards, and 311 total yards. They forced four three-and-outs and five tackles-for-losses with two sacks. But when he needed to, FSU quarterback Jordan Travis was just too good. He was 21-of-37 for 289 yards and two TDs and also ran for another with no turnovers. Travis has now thrown at least one TD in 16 straight games and he has multiple TD passes in five straight games, a career-high.

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