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By Marc Hudgens
SouthernPigskin.com ACC Columnist
SouthernPigskin.com ACC Columnist Marc Hudgens reflects on week 11 in the ACC.
No non-conference games were played so let’s jump into the conference bouts, shall we?
Running Tally
Non-Con mark: 29-15 overall (8-8 BCS & Notre Dame)
In-Conference Thoughts
First, the championship stuff.
With its whopping 49-10 win over Duke in Durham, Georgia Tech won the Coastal Division crown and the resulting berth in the ACC title game in Tampa. It was pretty expected this would happen regardless that Duke clearly is a program on the rise in the ACC under second year coach David Cutcliffe. At first you’d think the Blue Devils had a fighting chance, going up 10-0 with only 1:30 left in the first quarter and a couple of muffed Yellow Jacket special teams catches off kicks and punts. But the Jackets turned it on and never took their foot off Duke’s throat, scoring 49 unanswered points from that juncture. With the conference’s top rushing offense in total yards and scoring, Georgia Tech simply looks unstoppable and a clear favorite to win all the ACC’s marbles.
Clemson inched closer to its first-ever Atlantic crown with a 43-23 blasting of an injury-devastated N.C. State in the annual Textile Bowl. Much like Georgia Tech, the Tiger’s offense started off slow but took off in the second quarter. Heisman candidate C.J. Spiller had three touchdowns on the day (one rushing, one receiving, and one passing) and proved he’s still a massive threat even if he’s smarting from nagging turf toe. Clemson also did it without star defensive end DaQuan Bowers. From the looks of this game, and a couple others actually, it appears Clemson’s defense is getting a bit sloppy. Poorly-timed penalties (two defensive penalties led to a Wolfpack touchdown) are the most noticeable, not something we’re used to seeing in a Clemson defense. Maybe it’s being masked by all those interceptions they get but it’s still a problem. They’ll have to get that squared away and quick if they face the Yellow Jackets in Tampa.
But Clemson hasn’t clinched the Atlantic yet, as Boston College beat Virginia 14-10 in a yawner at Charlottesville. Had the Eagles lost, (well, first it would have been a miracle for Virginia to beat anyone), the Tigers would have clinched the Atlantic. Ironically Clemson plays for the marbles next weekend against Virginia, who can only play spoiler at this point as they are at the bottom of the Coastal Division. The Wahoos won’t have a bowl invite this December, and, outside of poor decision-making at Pergola Plaza, won’t have coach Al Groh either. Unless an early announcement is made on Monday morning, a la University of Memphis and Tommy West. But unlike what West has done in Memphis, The Cantankerous One didn’t really bring Virginia football to any sort of next level. Not really.
(Virginia students, monitor the athletic department parking lot Monday morning at or around 6:00am -- if Groh’s car is present, there might be a press conference at noon.)
Part of me feels bad for Miami. For the ACC’s sake I was hoping for a 10-win Hurricane team in order for the ACC to have a chance at a BCS at-large berth. But the Tar Heels poo-poo’d on all that Saturday with a 33-24 win over the Canes in Kenan Stadium. Turnovers will kill you (just ask Florida State about last week’s loss to Clemson), and Miami gave North Carolina the ball back four times. Like for N.C. State, there is a pandemic of injuries in Coral Gables, and this may have accounted for a couple of their losses.
Florida State bounced back after an embarrassing loss to Clemson last weekend, beating Wake Forest 41-28 in Winston-Salem. Taking over for an injured Christian Ponder who will be out for the season, freshman E.J. Manuel made his debut as the starting quarterback for the Noles. 15 of 20 for 220 yards and two scores (one rushing, one passing) versus one pick. Not a bad outing for a freshman playing in someone else’s yard, and he helped keep Florida State’s bowl hopes alive. But will Bobby Bowden be there in January? That’s the big question.
Wake, on the other hand, will be home for the holidays with a now 4-7 record, the most losses suffered by Jim Grobe since 2005 and the season’s not even done. The Deacons’ losing streak is now at five, the team’s worst skid since 2000. We look to next season, one without quarterback Riley Skinner, the ACC’s most efficient passer, and I wonder how Wake will fare without him.
In the Project Runway Bowl, No. 21 Virginia Tech and its futuristic get-up did what it had to against hapless Maryland and its camouflage uniforms, 36-9 at College Park. Nothing really to see here, as this kind of lambasting was expected. The Hokies are an elite ACC team and Maryland is at the bottom of the Atlantic Division. Armed with a 2-8 mark, the Terps have the most losses since 1998. Clearly coach Ralph Friedgen is not what Maryland needs to right the ship regardless of what Terp boosters purportedly like him.
Virginia Tech, on the other hand, won’t be in the ACC title game for a third straight year. But with three losses and N.C. State and Virginia next up, a top bowl will be awaiting a 9-3 Hokies team. Should Clemson win out the regular season, get to the ACC title game and lose, the Chick-fil-A Bowl will have a tough choice to make between the Tigers and Hokies.
At this point, we can safely say the ACC won’t be sending an NCAA record 10 teams to bowls this year. Four teams are already ineligible (Wake Forest, N.C. State, Maryland and Virginia), and that number may increase should Duke or Florida State stumble. There are six teams that have clinched bowl eligibility (Clemson, Boston College, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Miami, North Carolina and the ACC and the ACC has nine bowl spots. Even if the Blue Devils and Noles become eligible there’s still one slot open that will go to another conference (probably the GMAC bowl but who really cares about that one anyway, right?) But we’ll know more next weekend.
There weren’t any non-cons this week, and there won’t be any next week. But next week the Atlantic Division champ will be decided, and the following week after is Rivalry Week, which will be the tell-all of the ne’er-do-well conference.
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Stories written by SouthernPigskin.com columnists are done independently. Views do not always coincide with those of the remainder of the staff or the ownership of SouthernPigskin.com.
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