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ACC Proud, Still Work To Do
By BJ Bennett
SouthernPigskin.com
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SouthernPigskin.com ACC Columnist Marc Hudgens explains why the ACC gained a little respect last weekend, but needs another strong performance this Saturday.
By Marc Hudgins
SouthernPigskin.com ACC Columnist
SouthernPigskin.com ACC Columnist Marc Hudgens explains why the ACC gained a little respect last weekend, but needs another strong performance this Saturday.
ACC should be proud this weekend, still has ton of work to do
This past weekend the ACC went 4-1 when up against non-conference foes, and two of those wins were actually against Big Six teams.
It all started Thursday night when Butch Davis’ Tar Heels went up to Piscataway, N.J., and laid the old proverbial smackdown on the Big East’s Rutgers, 44-12. It was a dominant performance that, although North Carolina was heralded in the preseason as a possible Coastal Division favorite, no one expected. North Carolina completely dismantled the Scarlet Knights. Whether the Heels are just that good or Rutgers is just that bad is beside the point—the ACC needed this badly and North Carolina provided big-time.http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/md/sports/m-footbl/auto_action/2284758.jpeg
Saturday came and gone and we discovered that it didn’t end there. Duke won again (can you believe it?), beating Navy 41-31 and is now sporting a 2-1 mark. And keep in mind, Duke winning anything is big stuff. Florida State hosted Chattanooga and crushed their souls 46-7. The Seminoles, now at 2-0, have outscored their past two opponents 115-7, which is exactly what you would expect from such a storied football program. But the conference’s biggest win was when Maryland put the wood to the Cal, 35-27, in Byrd Stadium, thus redeeming itself from the embarrassing loss to Middle Tennessee State last weekend. And make no mistake, beating a mid-card Pac-10 team is always a feather for the ACC’s hat. So far, the Terps are the only ACC team to have beaten a ranked, non-conference foe.
The only loss sustained was Virginia’s 45-10 barf-up to UConn in East Hartford. At this moment the Cavaliers are at the bottom of the ACC’s Coastal Division. Should they find themselves at the same spot in December, if they don’t fire coach Al Groh at that time they never will.
As for the other teams, Clemson, N.C. State, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech all played conference foes while Wake Forest, Boston College and Miami were off. So we’re only talking about non-conference games.
The struggling conference still has a ton of work to do, as thus far into the season the ACC is 1-4 versus Top 25 opponents. Regarding this Saturday’s non-conference matchups, Tom O’Brien’s Wolfpack will face undefeated East Carolina, a team that beat defending ACC champ Virginia Tech and defending Big East champ West Virginia this season, Georgia Tech will host the SEC’s Mississippi State, Boston College hosts George O’Leary’s Central Florida, Maryland hosts Eastern Michigan, Clemson hosts South Carolina State and Miami travels to Texas A&M.
Of these six non-conference games, two should be easy wins; Clemson should trample S.C. State and Maryland, if they play like they did against Cal, should whip EMU. That leaves four marquee games where the only sure-losses appear to be Miami to the Aggies and N.C. State to East Carolina. The Jackets should beat Mississippi State and the Eagles should beat UCF quite handily. While a 5-1 mark would be great for the conference next weekend, a 4-2 mark should be the minimum expectation.
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