Weekly ACC Roundup: Week 8 - Don't Let the Doeren Hit You On The Way Out

The Dave Doreen era came to an end last Saturday at NC State.

Maybe he's not gone now, but to paraphrase Bogie, they will fire him soon and for the rest of his life. Because his team lost to a legendarily bad Boston College Squad, and then in the post-game he threw them under the bus with a display of passive-aggressive coach speak for the ages. Losing to a bad team is one thing; blaming the kids while loudly proclaiming you're not blaming the kids is another, far worse one. If he hadn't lost the locker room before - and all signs suggested he had - this will surely push things past the breaking point. I don't think anything will happen until after the season, because NC State likes to toss around nickels like manhole covers, but a change is going to come.


Elsewhere. it was largely a week of reversion to the mean. Virginia Tech demonstrated that it's the top of the second tier of ACC teams to Pitt, a team with annual delusions of same. Dan Marino isn't walking through that door, and even if he were, the guy is 56 years old.
Elsewhere, Clemson allowed Louisville to dream, just for a moment, before slamming the door shut on A)Florida State and B) anyone else's hopes of winning the ACC. Then again, the Tigers have come awfully close to Clemsoning away multiple games this season. One suspects that Alabama, Texas A&M, Michigan and Washington are not quaking in their boots at the possibility of a playoff game against a squad that should have lost to - wait for it - NCSU.

Louisville woke up long enough to check the score on the Clemson game, beat Virginia on a 4th quarter drive, and give reporters desperate for some kind of Heisman horse race a little fodder. Next up, they'll be claiming Lamar Jackson had a private server talking to a Russian bank.

The road to a bowl is looking awful tough for Duke after they lost a squeaker to Georgia Tech. Every year, people say that this is the year that Paul Johnson's offense breaks down, and every year the Wreck wins 8 games. The loss makes the idea of Duke reaching a bowl game pretty far-fetched, considering their upcoming schedule. Ah well, sometimes you have to take a step back to take a step forward.

Wake Forest's early season success is looking more and more like a function of ruthless scheduling, as they dropped the lone nonconference call on the slate, this one to Army. And Miami's season is teetering on the brink of pure Richt-ness after an embarrassing last minute loss to Notre Dame. 

So to sum up, it's all over but the shouting, as the focus on the conference partially shifts from the playoff to "what bowls can we get to take a bunch of 6-6 teams with losing conference records. Why yes, New Mexico sounds lovely. And so does Shreveport.