ACC Football With One Week to Go

Most of the ACC football teams have one week remaining before bowls for those teams that qualify. The ACC championship game is set. Clemson, winner of the Atlantic, will take on #7 Georgia Tech, winner of the coastal and currently sitting at 10-1. The ACC Championship game should be good as these two teams played a great game earlier in the year with the Yellow Jackets coming through late.

The only teams that will not be bowl eligible are Maryland, Virginia, Duke, NC State, and Wake Forest. One of these teams, if they get to 6-6, could petition for a bowl spot from the ACC if the conference does not have enough bowl eligible teams at the end of the year. The likelihood is that spot would go to another automatic qualifier from another conference.

The last games for most teams could be interesting....

UNC plays NC State in their annual rivalry game. Since the arrival of Tom O'Brien at State and Butch Davis at UNC, NC State has owned the rivalry. They have won the past two games (when most people thought UNC was the more talented team) and last year won by 31, winning 41-10. This year would appear to be different. UNC has won four straight games with their defense being great to sometimes dominant in all of these games. UNC is sitting at 8-3 and will go bowling no matter the result here, but could get a fairly big bowl invite with a win and a 9-3 final record. State, on the other hand, has had an extremely disappointing year. This was supposed to be the breakout year for State as they returned the ACC offensive rookie of the year in Russell Wilson, as well as almost all of their skill players on offense. State also returned a decent amount on defense, most notably Nate Irving, probably the best LB in the ACC last year. It has not panned out. The defense was killed by injuries and some of the most porous secondary play I have ever seen. The offense has scored, but has been forced to try too much at times to keep up in scoring battles with other teams. My gut tells me that State has kind of packed it in this year (lost last week at VT 38-10) and UNC is on a roll. UNC SHOULD win this game fairly comfortably. However, O'Brien has made a huge deal about rivalry games and has been good in them so far. State can score points and UNC's biggest flaw this year has been a lack of production from TJ Yates and the UNC offense. Still, someone would have to be crazy to pick State to win this game at this point. Stranger things have happened though I suppose.

Duke plays Wake in the private school bowl. Wake has had a sub-par year for them under Jim Grobe, sitting at 4-7 and not bowl eligible. Duke, under second year coach David Cutcliffe, has continued their rise back towards respectability. After going 4-8 in year one and being close in a bunch of those close losses, they sit at 5-6 in year two with a chance to finish a year at .500 or better for the first time since 1994. While they are not bowl eligible with the win (their win of NCCU does not count towards the six wins necessary) this would be a big step for Duke with regards to recruiting, national perception, and so many other things. Simply, Duke will probably need/want this game a little more than the Deacs. Wake has turned into a GOOD program under Grobe but they lost too much last year to the NFL to be able to have a great year this year. Wake is now a good football team, but they are still Wake in that they can't simply replace great talent with other great talent like national powerhouses around the country. They are always going to have years (much like Duke) where they aren't going to be perfect. This should be a good game though and one probably worth watching as two senior QBs (and two of the best in history at their respective schools) play their final games.

Florida State takes on Florida in their annual heated rivalry game. Florida has dominated the series (and college football) recently and should, as long as they aren't looking ahead to 'Bama in the SEC Championship game, win comfortably. FSU has been bad on defense, good on offense, and consistently inconsistent. They sit at 6-5 and will go to a bowl game but an upset here would improve their bowl position and be a start to regaining their standing nationally. Florida is just too good though. Their defense will have the speed to match FSU on offense and be able to slow down what has been a productive offense under coordinator and head coach to be Jimbo Fisher. Their offense will also be the most athletic, fastest offense FSU has seen all year and that is trouble. FSU has been giving up points at a record rate for them and I don't see any reason that won't continue. Florida by at least 3 TDs.

Clemson, fresh off earning their first ACC Championship game appearance under second year coach Dabo Swinney, plays South Carolina in their annual rivalry game. Clemson is red hot, winners of their last six games. CJ Spiller and the Clemson offense have been phenomenal during this stretch. They have scored at least 34 points in all six games (and over 40 in four of them). South Carolina got off to another good start under Spurrier at 5-2. They have been 1-3 since and are 6-5. Clemson killed South Carolina last year and the Gamecocks will be looking for revenge. Clemson, however, is simply the better team. Too much speed on offense and a defense capable of confusing Stephen Garcia. Clemson wins this game.

Georgia Tech takes on archrival Georgia. Georgia has been the better team for most of the past twenty years, but not since the arrival of Paul Johnson. Johnson simply wins games and this year is no different. He has the Yellow Jackets at 10-1 and number seven in the BCS Standings. Georgia is probably having their worst year under Mark Richt. They have been inconsistent and really bad on defense at times. That spells bad news for this one. Georgia Tech continues putting up gaudy numbers weekly running the football. They are second in the country in rushing yards per game and #12 in total offense. Georgia is having such a bad year by their standards that there has been rumblings of Richt losing his job. While I think that would be crazy (he has had a GREAT career there and this is just one minor slip in my opinion), a loss to Tech for the second straight year certainly would not help him. Georgia has been able to score at times and GT's defense has not been stellar, but GT will probably win this one in a shootout.

Virginia Tech and Virginia play their annual rivalry game. This won't be close. Al Groh is probably coaching his final game for the Cavaliers and while this could get his guys to play slightly more inspired football, they just aren't very good. VT is very good even if they didn't have quite the year they wanted. VT is looking to lock up a probable gator bowl appearance and should do so fairly easily.