In 2016 ACC football was on top of the world. Clemson was a national champion. There were 9 bowl wins. Florida State had just beat Michigan in the Orange Bowl. Louisville had the reigning Heisman trophy winner, and ACC teams were routinely beating SEC teams on the field. It was not a debate. The ACC was the best football conference in the land in 2016.
Not even two years later, ACC has fallen back to being arguably the worst power 5 football conference in the country.
No one ever thought the ACC was going remain at the top each year, but most felt it would be perennially competitive. That doesn’t seem to the case this year. Just this weekend 2 of the 4 ranked ACC teams, Boston College and Virginia Tech took on some embarrassing losses. Boston College went down 30-13 to an 0-3 Purdue team. Virginia Tech’s 49-35 loss at 0-3 Old Dominion was beyond embarrassing. It was humiliating to be honest.
That’s just adds to the carnage of the early season. Miami was plastered by LSU. UNC got crushed by a bad ECU team. Georgia Tech went down at South Florida. Pittsburgh played a disaster of a 2nd half against Penn State. Frankly I could go on for awhile like this.
What happened? How did it happen so fast, and should ACC fans be concerned we’re headed back to the down ACC football of the BCS era?
As we begin this discussion, a few teams are excused. Clemson is still Clemson, and is a legitimate playoff caliber team. Duke has been the most consistent team in the ACC with wins at Northwestern and Baylor, sits 4-0 and should be ranked. Syracuse looks explosive on offense and is 4-0. We’ll wait to pass judgement on NC State, and Virginia you look improved.
Most everyone else is a trainwreck.
The most obvious difference between 2018 and 2016 is QB play. Look at this ACC QB list from 2016 – Even Justin Thomas while not a QB in the NFL, is getting an NFL paycheck at the moment. Is there any wonder why Syracuse with Eric Dungey might be the conference’s best offense? Clemson with established QB Kelly Bryant, and uber talented Trevor Lawrence is still fine, and Duke even without starter Daniel Jones is getting solid QB play from Quentin Harris. David Cutcliffe is one of the best QB coaches in football.
It’s also why the SEC has moved back to their customary top spot. Their quarterback play is light years from where it was in 2016.
It’s not time to hit the panic button on ACC going forward in the future. The ACC went from 2012-2017 playing solid overall football. They still produce a lot of NFL talent, and many of the coaches have solid track records. I think the ACC got caught in a cyclical down turn of quarterback play. I don’t expect a multi-year trend of bad football.
Florida State isn’t going to stay down. Miami may be ready to move on from Malik Rosier at QB, and start N’Kosi Perry. I’m still a big believer in Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente. Their loss today was more of a function of a thin and inexperienced defense. Bud Foster didn’t forget how to coach, but OK credit Old Dominion – nobody saw it coming still. Louisville invests heavily in their football program, but it was expected there would be an offensive downturn after Lamar Jackson left no matter what Bobby Petrino tried to say.
2018 is probably going to end up being a rough one for most of the ACC, and that’s what happens when the quarterback play falls off.
