Friday, November 07, 2014

ACC Weekly...Oh, The Heck With It.

So the ACC stacks up like this:


  • Florida State - Actually very good, especially when their quarterback isn't doing things with online memes, criminal investigations or seafood that keep him off the field. An almost certain lock for the playoff.
  • Clemson - Pretty good, though still prone to occasional fits of Clemsoning. Last night they nearly hairballed up a game to Wake in which the Demon Deacons would gotten more positive yardage if they'd been dug in at the Somme. 
  • Duke and Georgia Tech - Good, and probably better than anyone thought they'd be. 
  • Boston College, Louisville, and Miami - Decent. Slightly better (BC) or worse (Louisville) than their reputations would have you believe, but good enough to put up a scrap against the big boys without seriously threatening to upset the Florida State inauguration applecart. One of these days Miami will have to make the jump to "Good", because it's Miami and they're only putting up with this sort of thing from Al Golden now because the program was a tire fire visible from orbit before he got there.
  • NC State, UNC, Pitt, Virginia Tech, Virginia - Mediocre. Fattened up on non-conference cupcakes before the conference schedule started - seriously, who didn't play Tulane this year? - then ran into the programs noted above and promptly showed their bellies. Tech in particular is a disappointment, though all of these teams were praised to the skies inappropriately at one point or another this season before faceplanting. UNC still hasn't held anyone under 27 points this season, which is all kinds of special. Some of these teams will crawl their way to bowl eligibility largely because they're all playing each other over the next few weeks and somebody's got to win those games. But Lordy, there ain't a whole lot of good football in this line.
  • Syracuse and Wake Forest - Actively bad, and in the league largely to provide a couple of likely wins to boost the jokers in the next category up into bowl eligibility. Syracuse has beaten 'Nova in OT at home (which is the sort of thing you only brag about in basketball), a directional Michigan on the road, and Wake Forest while playing some ugly, ugly football. Wake Forest, in turn, has beaten Army and Gardner-Webb. The rest is left as an exercise for the student.
  • Notre Dame - Not actually part of the conference. Don't let them lie to you.

No comments: