The ACC missed on every chance to win a game against a Power Five conference in week 1. They were the conference to go winless in matchups featuring two Power 5 teams. Throw in key injuries for multiple teams and the ACC's forecast for the season looks marginal at best.
The Salt Lake Tribune explores this in depth...
Raleigh, N.C. • The Atlantic Coast Conference has an uncertain identity, and it's going to be difficult to learn much about the league's strength early this season.
The ACC stumbled in its first round of reputation-building matchups, losing all four games against Power Five opponents in Week 1. Other league teams generally did what they were supposed to do: beat up on Championship Subdivision or lower-tier Bowl Subdivision opponents.
There are only so many nonconference matchups to bolster the league's standing, and many come at the end of the season. Throw in the fact there are already key injuries across the league — including a season-ending knee injury to reigning league player of the year James Conner at Pittsburgh — and it's not going to get any easier to figure out exactly what the league has and what it doesn't anytime soon.
Week 2 doesn't offer any chances for ACC football to bounce back, but week 3 will give the ACC ample opportunity to bounce back.
The next round of Power Five opponents comes in Week 3, when Miami hosts Nebraska, Duke hosts a Northwestern team that upset Stanford, UNC hosts Illinois, Pitt travels to Iowa and Virginia Tech goes to Purdue. The following week, Indiana visits Wake Forest and Syracuse — which just lost quarterback Terrel Hunt to a season-ending injury — hosts LSU.
