Outside of their loss to Florida State, the Wolfpack hasn't been beaten too badly this season, but that’s the thinnest of silver linings to their five-game losing streak. N.C. State has to win its final three games in order to get to a bowl, but the chances of that happening appear slim.
We’re a long way from Maryland’s 4-0 start to the season that actually had them ranked in the top 25. The Terps are just one win away from going to a bowl, but they’ve been in that position for a month and haven’t come close to winning that sixth game. In fact, outside of their shellacking of West Virginia, there’s nothing impressive about what Maryland has done this year, and few reasons to feel confident about their ability to win one of their final three games.
The Demon Deacons have fallen on hard times, especially with the loss of Michael Campanaro, who’s responsible for most of their offense this season. It doesn’t look like Wake Forest will be bowling this year, but if nothing else, they deserve to stay ahead of the two conference foes they beat this year.
The Panthers beating Notre Dame is a huge win for them, especially after coming so close last year, and a huge win for the conference in general. That being said, their other wins this season have come against Old Dominion, Virginia, Duke and New Mexico, and outside of that September shootout with the Blue Devils, that’s not too impressive. Of course, with just one more win the Panthers will be bowling once again.
The Eagles are better than expected, but other than their win over Virginia Tech and keeping it close against Florida State, there’s not too much about their season that stands out, especially giving up 34 points this week to New Mexico State, a team with no wins of FBS opponents this year. That being said, Boston College needs just one win in its final three games to get to a bowl game, which would be a big step in the right direction for a program that won just two games last year.
Three straight wins against so-so teams gets the Tar Heels into the top-10, but not much higher. A four-game losing streak early in the season is hard to forget about, but if they can win out, there’s an argument that can be made for putting North Carolina among the top five teams in the ACC at season’s end.
Take away their games against Clemson and Georgia Tech, and Syracuse has allowed only 13 points in three conference games this year. In fact, they’re two or three questionable penalties from pitching back-to-back shutouts against conference opponents. The Orange aren’t going to win a beauty pageant anytime soon, but they’ve shut it down defensively against weaker opponents, and that’s not something too many teams in the ACC can say.
The win over Miami this week gave the Hokies a big boost and helped them avoid a three-game losing streak, but they haven’t been all that impressive up to this point in the season. They’ve beaten plenty of decent teams, but they haven’t been overly impressive, so it’s still tough to think of them as being a top five team in the ACC.
A five-game winning streak for the Blue Devils is enough to put them in the top five of the conference power rankings. Duke still has a couple of big tests left on their schedule in Miami and North Carolina, but they fixed the issues they had on defense towards the end of September and have played good football for the past month and a half, and that consistency gives them a slight edge over the rest of the pack.
Two straight losses doesn’t completely erase a 7-0 start, but the Hurricanes did have close wins over North Carolina and Wake Forest leading up to those two losses, so they started to slip before their winning streak came to an end. However, Miami is still a quality team, and as long as they bounce back well the final three weeks of the season, they deserve to be among the top four or five teams in the ACC, and they have a chance to get to the conference title game.
Despite losses to both Virginia Tech and Miami, the Yellow Jackets get bumped ahead of the Hokies and Hurricanes because they’ve played better over the past month. Let’s be clear, there is a huge drop off between the second best team in the conference and everybody else, but Georgia Tech shook off a three-game losing streak and has won three in a row, and they’ve looked impressive while doing so, while early-season wins against Duke and North Carolina look a lot better now.
There shouldn’t be any doubt that Clemson is the second best team in the conference. They’ve had a couple close games, meaning they only won by 10 or 12 points, but outside of their loss to Florida State, the Tigers have been perfect this season and they’re very much a top-10 team.
This one’s obvious; no one in the ACC has come close or will come close to competing with the Seminoles all season. There are only a few teams in the country that deserve to be on the same field as Florida State, and it’s why they have a well-paved road leading them to the BCS Championship Game.
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