Chris Mitch Pat
1. Clemson 1. Virginia Tech 1. Clemson
2. Georgia Tech 2. Georgia Tech 2. Virginia Tech
3. Virginia Tech 3. Clemson 3. Georgia Tech
4. Florida State 4. Florida State 4. UNC
5. Miami 5. UVA 5. Florida State
6. UNC 6. Wake Forest 6. UVA
7. Wake Forest 7. Miami 7. Miami
8. UVA 8. UNC 8. Wake Forest
9. Duke 9. Duke 9. Duke
10. NC State 10. NC State 10. NC State
11. Boston College 11. Boston College 11. Boston College
12. Maryland 12. Maryland 12. Maryland
Power Rankings
*-Bowl Eligible
1. Clemson (LW 1)(8-1)*
Dan: Coming off a loss, even a bad loss, Clemson still has the inside track on accomplishing their goals. At 8-1, they are in the drivers seat for the Atlantic and a trip to Charlotte in December. I still think they are the best team in the ACC, but the gap has closed to include Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech. The bye week comes at just the right time to get the "Fightin' Dabo's" healthy and rested. It will be interesting to see if this young team can close out the ACC or if the Ghosts of past failures rear their ugly heads.
Mitch: I said it in my tweet on Saturday and I'll say it again here, Dabo speaks with intangibles. He says "try harder, focus, want it more." in all honesty it appeared the Tigers wanted it. Instead they could not shut down the Georgia Tech option nor could they find the Jackets' weakness on defense. Tajh made some poor decisions, but Sammy Watkins still has jets up his ass. Damn he can fly.
2. Virginia Tech (LW 2)(8-1)*
Chris: Virginia Tech barely walked out of Durham with a win, a week after struggling to beat Boston College at home. If Virginia Tech had played any two other teams in the ACC the last two weeks they would have lost. Logan Thomas threw two interception in the red zone taking anywhere from six to 14 points off the board. Virginia Tech still didn't score any points in the second half against Duke. Read that again please. Virginia Tech DID NOT SCORE any points in the second half against DUKE. Virginia Tech has a bye week and then goes to Atlanta on Thursday night and if Virginia Tech doesn't figure out how to ball in the end zone, the last few weeks of this season will be trouble. This team can score but has shown it can go completely dry in two games this season, Clemson and Duke. If the offense plays poorly again in any of their remaining games
the Hokies will lose.
Mitch: Not sure what to make of their inconsistent play, but they are the most complete team with a chance at the ACCG. The defense is performing well, but it's Logan Thomas who controls their fate. He can be special and he can be poor. He must be young. The good news is experience comes every game.
3. Georgia Tech (LW 6)(7-2)*
Dan: After an amazing start... folllowed by a lackluster three game stretch it is hard to know which Yellow Jackets team will show up. IF, they can continue to play inspired football at home against Virginia Tech in two weeks they will be favored to win their second ACC CG in three seasons. They looked like a well oiled machine on both sides of the ball last Saturday night in Atlanta. They are the crushers of dreams, they are GEORGIA TECH!
Mitch: After admonishing them last week, Georgia Tech responds. I'll take credit. Damn, they can exploit a defense and time of possession is theirs to control. Washington had an accurate game against Clemson's secondary. They threw it when necessary and kept Clemson honest. That is the team we thought they could be. If Washington would not follow the fullback up the middle as much and provide a little different look, I'm not sure a defense has a chance to stop them. Ps. I called this upset.
4. Florida State (LW 5)(5-3)
Mitch: This is the team we thought we'd see the whole year. They beat a bad NC State team, but they beat them like a good team should beat a bad team. Having Manuel at quarterback has given us the opportunity to extend plays, run to the outside, and keep defenses honest. Damn, having him hurt was such a damper on this season. Hopefully a short turnaround will not set the Noles up for a bad game against a bad Boston College team. It's a shame we screwed up and lost twice with our back up redshirt freshman quarterback. Maybe Wake can lose out and we'll get the second place in the division and draw a bowl in the southeast and around New Years day.
5. UNC (LW 7)(6-3)*
Pat: The key to the game against Wake Forest was turnovers, plain and simple. Coming in the Tarheels had been turning the ball over pretty casually without much help from defenses. Though there were occasional bad read interceptions, the turnovers began to plague the Tarheels as a result of poor ball carrying. So it was to be expected that against a team that had only given the ball away five times all season in the Demon Deacons, turnovers were going to play a huge part in deciding who would come out with the win in this one. And it did…just not like we would’ve imagined. Simply put, the Demon Deacons handed this game away with five turnovers to match their season total. In the game against UNC this led to a collapse by the typically sound possession based squad. As a result, Carolina posted a season high 49 points and Wake didn't have a chance at winning once the third quarter was in full swing.
Chris: This game surprised me and I think that's a fair analyses of Carolina's season. They've surprised me with their great play and poor play at different times this season. Maybe instead of criticizing UNC I should be criticizing the conference. This is a weird conference that only has one team that seems clearly better than the rest, Clemson, and even they lost this weekend. UNC can go as high as 4th in these power rankings and possibly as low as 8th depending on how they play. The thing is, they aren't the only team that falls into that category. ACC is a weird mess in the middle.
6. Miami/UVA (Miami LW 3/UVA LW 8)(Miami 4-4/UVA 5-3)
Chris: I could just copy and paste what I wrote about Carolina and then substitute Miami for all the UNC's. Miami seemed to be rising until they lost to UVA this weekend. I think it makes sense that these two teams are both ranked 6th in this week's power rankings. Miami has more talent on the field but UVA is coached very well. Both of these teams could continue to rise up the power rankings with big match-ups the next few weekends.
Mitch: I give up trying to determine what this team can do. They have a solid game and then lay an egg. My initial observation stays, they have some talent and can even play well but are not deep enough to stay competitive through a whole game.
Mitch: Mike London's team is really playing well. I thought Miami would be the late surging conference team, but it may be the Hoos. Not looking forward to this meeting sandwiched between Miami and Florida.
8. Wake Forest (LW 4)(5-3)
Chris: Here's what I was talking about with UNC. Last week this team was 4th in the power rankings and now end up at 8th. They got blown out by UNC last weekend but on a different Saturday they could blow out UNC. Lack of consistency hurts these middle of the road teams. Wake Forest turned the ball over too many times this weekend but that's not a problem that has plagued this team this season. They play Notre Dame this weekend and then go to Clemson the next. A tough stretch for any football team. If they keep the turnovers down, Wake Forest can be in both games. If they turn the ball over five times any of these next two weeks they get blown out again.
Pat: As I said a few weeks ago, you could make a case that Wake Forest is the best coached team in the ACC, (but be sure to give full credit to the Beamer-Foster two headed monster as being the undisputed favorite at X’s and O’s). The Deacon squad prides itself on maintaining possession of the ball. Coming into the game against the Heels, Wake had only given the ball away five times all season. As a result, opponents are forced to play sound fundamental football for 60 minutes with a chance of losing if this challenge poses too difficult. However, against North Carolina, Tanner Price threw three interceptions and his wide receiver, Michael Campanaro, helped him out by throwing another. Being a basic cable subscriber, I had the misfortune of not being able to see the game live, but instead listened to it via Jones Angell. As such, I was unable to see whether the interception spree was caused by overly aggressive defense or poor passing selections from the (let’s be honest) underrated sophomore quarterback of Wake Forest. Anyway, in a game where the on the field talent is in UNC’s favor, turning the ball over five times will have no other affect than being outscored 2 to 1.
9. Duke (LW 9)(3-5)
Mitch: They have lost some close ones so I am ranking them the best of the worst three. They appear to be playing better than the other bottom teams despite their losses.
Chris: Duke played extremely well against Virginia Tech this weekend and probably deserved to win this game. They didn't and that's where Duke needs to get to to be successful. They need to win these close games and until they do, fans of Blue Devils will continue to be non-existent. This team has four tough games remaining, Miami, UVA, Georgia Tech and UNC, and they will not get the three wins they need to be bowl eligible. If they do get one win out of this stretch of four games I think that's good for Duke.
10. NC State(LW 10)(4-4)
Chris: They only reason this team is 4-4, which surprised me, is their weak out of conference schedule. NC State beat Liberty, South Alabama and Central Michigan for three of their wins. Their only conference win is against UVA. That's how a team this bad gets to four wins. They might need this week of an out of conference schedule again next season.
Mitch: They showed no sign of knowing what to do or how to do it against Florida State. This is not me crowing about Florida State, this is me justifying their place at number 10 in the TSPPR.
11. Boston College(LW 12)(2-6)
Mitch: Fun fact, they got their first conference victory this week.
Chris: If you are in or around Boston this weekend and don't want to watch a replay of Boston College playing Florida State from Thursday night here is a list of things to do. The Phantom Tollbooth is in the middle of a month long run at the Wheerlock Family Theatre on the Wheerlock College campus. There are shows Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and tickets run from $30-$20. If you want to get out the house this weekend and work on your fitness with your dog at your side, there is a Doggy 5k Run/Walk on Castle Island on Saturday. The cost is $30 plus $5 more if your dog runs with proceeds going to the Angell Animal Medical Center. Enjoy your weekend people of Boston.
12. Maryland(LW 11)(2-6)
Mitch: It's been a free fall since the Miami game. I think they may have officially given up. A team can only go so many weeks playing hard and having close games (or blow outs for that matter) not pan out. I think for Maryland, that threshold was this weekend.
Chris: Could Edsall be fired after one season at Maryland? Probably not but this season is a disaster. I really thought Boston College would not win again this season and they beat Maryland 28-17. Boston College only scored more than 28 points once this season and that was against Massachusetts. Edsall is not looking great in his debut season. I'm sure Maryland fans are worried about this hire at this point in the season.
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