A month into the ACC Football season and its a sight to see how far the mighty have fallen. It started Friday where we learned our first point:
1) UVA is in dire need of a fresh start.
And that’s no shade to Mike London, Cavalier fans, but a 56-14 drubbing by a non Power 5 opponent in Boise St at home, should pretty much seal Mike London’s fate as the head football coach. With so much success on the basketball court for Tony Bennett going, UVA officials have got to make a change, fast. The game itself was a hard one to watch from the very beginning too.
The Cavaliers threw an interception on their first play from scrimmage and Boise State never looked back after that going up 7-0. To put the icing on the proverbial cake, the Cavaliers didn’t even score in the second half, again, they’re playing at home. If this game didn’t send message, I don’t know what will, but the Cavaliers need a new head coach policing things.
Then there’s Virginia Tech…
2) The Hokies are like Jekyll and Hyde
In Week 3, they were stellar, well not stellar but let’s say they played well defeating Purdue 54-17 on the road. We’ll call that performance “Jekyll.” Fill in the blank, and in week 4, we got “Hyde.” Although we could say “Jekyll” performed for the first 7-8 minutes of the 1st quarter.
The Hokies jumped out to a 14-0 lead, forcing 2 early turnovers and looking like they would run away with this one. But then in a shocking turn of events, it was as if the Hokies just transformed. Amongst a bevy of penalties, missed tackles, and miscues, the Hokies lost to ECU for the second straight season, this time on the road 35-28.
The Hokies had 7 penalties for 97 yards, some questionable, and will even be without back up middle linebacker Sean Huelskamp, who was ejected for a targeting penalty and will be forced to miss the first half of next week’s game against Pittsburgh per NCAA rules. Let’s hope the Hokies can contain themselves this week and get back to their old selves (Again, that’s Jekyll).
3) Georgia Tech Tricked Us in the First 3 Weeks
2 weeks after having me convinced they’d win the ACC Coastal Division, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets have me perplexed losing 2 straight games. Notre Dame was a formidable foe and so is Duke. But it’s been the offense that’s left us wondering, have teams figured the Yellow Jackets out now?
The Blue Devils bounced back after a bad week all around against Northwestern, with scoring on a 100 yard kickoff return and held the Yellow Jackets to just 173 rushing yards, their fewest since 2013. The Yellow Jackets average 377 rushing yards a game on the season, so kudos to Duke’s defense there.
which leads us to our next learning point…
4) The ACC Coastal Division title could come down to 1 Game
Aside from UVA’s 1-3 record, the ACC Coastal is pretty much anybody’s to win. Duke already has a headstart as they’re 1-0. North Carolina and Pittsburgh are always competitive, don’t look now “Fire Al Golden!” fans but Miami is 3-0, and who knows which Virginia Tech team will show up the rest of this season?
It’s safe to say as we enter conference play, the ACC Coastal will be quite an entertaining one, regardless of whether that’s a good or bad thing.
5) The NC State Wolfpack may need some attention
The Wolfpack are 4-0. Jacoby Brissett has thrown 6 touchdowns, ran for a touchdown, and he has zero turnovers on the season. Is it time to give NC State some love in the ACC or what? I know, we did this dance last year. And I know their opponents weren’t of the Power 5 variety, but they’ve got Louisville this week. A good test on the scale of “Are they forreal or not?” This season, the Wolfpack don’t start out playing Florida State in ACC play either.
After all, it seemed Louisville got their act together too on offense against Sanford, behind quarterback Lamar Jackson’s 2 touchdowns and 184 rushing yards. So it will certainly be fun to see how these teams match up this Saturday.
