sutomcat
2024 Iggy Award (ACC Tournament Record)
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I am trying to get a feel for where we are versus other ACC schools right now. Thought I would try to list the ACC schools in order and see where we end up.
I know it is going to be hard to separate the to,teams from each other so let’s do this in reverse order.
17. Wake Forest
This is the easiest call.
They barely beat Kennesaw State at home, then beat Western Carolina (believe that is Fran’s alma mater) and then lost badly to NC State. All those games were at home.
Looking at their schedule, they might not win another game. Their best shot is a home game against Delaware in late November.
16. Stanford
They opened the season losing to an awful Hawaii program in Honolulu in a close game. That is disturbing but weird things happen in Hawaii and in season openers. Then they traveled to BYU and lost 27-3. We know that is a tough place to get a win and it would have been nice to keep it closer but it was not a disastrous result.
They then beat BC at home 30-20 and things seemed not so bad. But then they travelled to Charlottesville and got destroyed by Virginia 48-20. Maybe Virginia is a lot better than some think. They crushed Coastal to start the season. But maybe Stanford is also just not very good. .
15. Boston College
They opened their season stomping Fordham at home. Then they traveled to Michigan State and lost to them 42-40 in overtime. Certainly an honorable loss; MSU appears to have a middle of the pack type B1G team. But then they traveled to Stanford and lost 30-20. Again, it is tough to win on the road in conference play, particularly 3 time zones away. But if you want to be competitive in the ACC, you must beat program like Stanford.
This team might not be bad but the bottom line for them is that they have played two BCS opponents and lost both games. They were both in the road but Stanford appears to be very weak this year.
14. Virginia Tech
Losing in a competitive game against South Carolina in Atlanta was not an awful outcome even if it was against a team coached by Frank beaker’s son. We know that program has a lot of talent.
Getting blown out in a home game against Vandy was very disturbing. Now Vandy might be a legit top,25 team. Clark Lea has done a great job there. But you still shouldn’t get blown out at home.
Getting humiliated at home against Old Dominion is an historic failure and it led to one of the earliest firings in recent memory. Beating Wofford kept the Hokies out of the cellar. They play at NC State this Saturday in what should be a fascinating game between two under achieving teams.
13. North Carolina
They have played two low end programs in Charlotte and Richmond and managed to win those games. But they got destroyed playing TCU at home in their season opener and against got beaten badly by UCF in Orlando. The defense looks bad and the offense putrid. They have a bye this week and then host Clemson in Chapel Hill. Not good timing for them.
12. Pittsburgh
The Panthers beat up Duqusene and Central Michigan at home to start the season and then travelled to West Virginia for their first real test.
They lost the game 31-24 in OT (lots of bad losses in OT for the ACC so far). This loss looks a lot worse in light of West Virginia getting destroyed by Kansas last weekend. Of course, the Mountaineers also have already lost to Ohio….
11. Virginia
They started the season well, blowing out Coastal Carolina at home. Then they played at NC State and lost a close game 35-31.
And then destroyed William and Mary and Stanford at home. Their offense has been piling up yardage and points.
They play FSU at home Friday night in a very big game for them they should us a lot about how good they are.
10. Southern Methodist
SMU beat up East Texas A&M (no, I am not making that school up) to start their season. They then lost at home to Baylor in OT in another bad OOC loss for the ACC, struggled for a while and eventually beat Missouri State on the road (another real school) and then got beaten playing at nearby TCU in another bad ACC OOC loss.
So they have beaten no one so far and lost to the two good programs they played. Not much to be proud of but the season is early and there appears to be a lot of talent on their roster.
9. Louisville
Louisville is a mystery so far. They have played 3 not very good programs at home to start the season. They won them all. The only relatively strong team they played was James Madison and they struggled with them, only winning 28-14.
They play Pitt in Pittsburgh Saturday in a game that will tell us a lot about both of these programs.
8. North Carolina State
In a weird scheduling quirk, NC State has already played 3 conference games. They opened the season beating ECU in a close game at home, beat Virginia in Raleigh, Wake on the road and then lost to Duke in Durham.
The defense looks suspect. The offense is scoring some points but I saw CJ Bailey screaming at his teammates and coaches after failed drives in the Duke debacle. This staff has weathered slow starts before and they really haven’t play awful so far. An exceptionally weak schedule has really helped them.
They host VT in Raleigh Saturday. I would not be shocked if they win or lose by 40.
7. Clemson
As of today, Clemson is unbelievably in last place in the ACC with an 0-2 record. How did the season go so far off the rails so fast?
Things started out okay. Clemson hosted LSU and played a very competitive game against one of the most talented teams in the country, eventually losing 17-10.
They then played Troy at home and at one point in the game, fell behind 16-0. They eventually rallied and won 27-16. But it was clear there was something really wrong with the offense. There was a ton of experience to work with but this group could just not score points effectively.
Losing at GT was not a huge surprise. I think by now everyone knows GT is a solid program and is going to be tough to beat, especially on the road. GT won a close game 24-21. And then Syracuse game to town and just had their way with the Tigers, who were outmatched from the start.
Is Clemson a bad team? No, I think their defense is solid and their offense has a lot of potential. They need to bench Klubnik and I think they will be okay. The schedule looks manageable from this point forward but I suspect they lose to FSU and South Carolina and either UL, Duke or SMU. Yes, Clemson is going to have 5 losses in the regular season. And maybe 6. Ouch.
6. Duke
It is hard to get a feel for teams this early in the season. This is especially true for Duke.
They destroyed Elon at home in their first game. Then they hosted Illinois and got beaten badly. Though if you look at the box score, it was a very competitive game. The thing that killed Duke was turnovers. Duke had 5, 4 on fumbles, to 0 for Illinois. There was a school of thought Illinois was a great team destined for the college football playoff after this game but that ended after the destruction Indiana imposed on the Illini on Saturday.
Duke then went on the road to Tulane to try and get a win and lost a close game 27-24. This was a big game for Darian Mensah, the QB Duke bought from Tulane over the summer. He returned to Tulane and came home empty handed. Tulane had beaten Northwestern at Tulane earlier this season, and they have a good program. So this wasn’t an awful loss. But you have to win OOC games against non P4 programs if you want to get respect and high rankings from me.
Duke redeemed themselves somewhat beating NC State in Durham last weekend. This is a good team. Not a great one. I think the game against Syracuse should be a close one.
5. California
Cal started their season off well, going on the road to beat Oregon State 45-14. They then beat out Texas Southern and then had one of the best OOC wins for the ACC this season, beating Minnesota 27-14 in Berkeley. All looked well until they traveled to San Diego to play San Diego State last Saturday. Disaster. They lost 34-0. Props to old friend Sean Lewis for doing a great job coaching against the Bears.
I am not sure anyone knows how good this team is. We will know a lot more after they play BC in Chestnut Hill Saturday afternoon.
4. Syracuse
I guess I should point out that these ranking are more about what the teams have done to date than what I think they will accomplish over the course of the season.
There is no question the loss of Steve Angeli is a big deal to Syracuse. Jeff Nixon has been great from day one at SU and now he has his greatest challenge. This is not a dig on Rickie Collins, who appears to have a stronger arm and more athletic ability than Steve, but being a QB is more about simple athletic ability. Collins playing QB will give Nixon the chance to run some more option and maybe some more rollouts than he has been able to do to date and that should help the offense. But anytime you are dealing with a young QB who hasn’t played a lot, there is risk that they will do something bad. Some things are only learned through experience.
I will be really interested to see how the change in QB affects the Syracuse offense. Collins reportedly throws the long ball with great accuracy. Might we see more long passes now? I suspect there will be more incompletions and interceptions but you never know in college football. I know it will be really good for Collins if he gets consistent time to throw the ball. If he is rushed hard and running for his life a lot, it could be a long day on Saturday.
Anyway, I put SU fourth. Their loss was an honorable one to one of the top teams in the country, one I think is destined for the college playoffs. They struggled against UConn but got the win and they played really well against Clemson on the road. Special teams are much improved, the offense appears to be multi dimensional (new QB withstanding) and the defense seems to be getting better with each game.
3. Florida State
FSU is 3-0. They beat Alabama at home in one of the best OOC games the ACC has this season. That was really impressive. They held serve against two tomato canals as well. I don’t think Castellanos is an all conference type QB but he is an upgrade for them and they are going to be a top 25 team all season.
2. Georgia Tech
It was a tough call whether to rank Miami or GT number one. GT has won at Colorado and they beat Clemson at home. This is a solid team who can play defense and control the ball on offense for extended periods. They are tough and well coached. I expect they will probably end up in the ACC championship game.
1. Miami
I don’t like Miami. Dislike having to give them props. But they have gotten off to a very good start, beating ND, Bethune-Cookman, South Florida and then Florida, all at home to start the season. Now, is this a typical ND team? No, they appear to be a step or two down from their normal team of the past 10 years. Florida also appears to be an awful team on offense right now. It was a great time to play them. And all their wins are at home.
But undefeated is undefeated and wins over ND and a good SEC program are great to have on the resume. I have my doubts about Beck in big games but we will see how he does.
I know it is going to be hard to separate the to,teams from each other so let’s do this in reverse order.
17. Wake Forest
This is the easiest call.
They barely beat Kennesaw State at home, then beat Western Carolina (believe that is Fran’s alma mater) and then lost badly to NC State. All those games were at home.
Looking at their schedule, they might not win another game. Their best shot is a home game against Delaware in late November.
16. Stanford
They opened the season losing to an awful Hawaii program in Honolulu in a close game. That is disturbing but weird things happen in Hawaii and in season openers. Then they traveled to BYU and lost 27-3. We know that is a tough place to get a win and it would have been nice to keep it closer but it was not a disastrous result.
They then beat BC at home 30-20 and things seemed not so bad. But then they travelled to Charlottesville and got destroyed by Virginia 48-20. Maybe Virginia is a lot better than some think. They crushed Coastal to start the season. But maybe Stanford is also just not very good. .
15. Boston College
They opened their season stomping Fordham at home. Then they traveled to Michigan State and lost to them 42-40 in overtime. Certainly an honorable loss; MSU appears to have a middle of the pack type B1G team. But then they traveled to Stanford and lost 30-20. Again, it is tough to win on the road in conference play, particularly 3 time zones away. But if you want to be competitive in the ACC, you must beat program like Stanford.
This team might not be bad but the bottom line for them is that they have played two BCS opponents and lost both games. They were both in the road but Stanford appears to be very weak this year.
14. Virginia Tech
Losing in a competitive game against South Carolina in Atlanta was not an awful outcome even if it was against a team coached by Frank beaker’s son. We know that program has a lot of talent.
Getting blown out in a home game against Vandy was very disturbing. Now Vandy might be a legit top,25 team. Clark Lea has done a great job there. But you still shouldn’t get blown out at home.
Getting humiliated at home against Old Dominion is an historic failure and it led to one of the earliest firings in recent memory. Beating Wofford kept the Hokies out of the cellar. They play at NC State this Saturday in what should be a fascinating game between two under achieving teams.
13. North Carolina
They have played two low end programs in Charlotte and Richmond and managed to win those games. But they got destroyed playing TCU at home in their season opener and against got beaten badly by UCF in Orlando. The defense looks bad and the offense putrid. They have a bye this week and then host Clemson in Chapel Hill. Not good timing for them.
12. Pittsburgh
The Panthers beat up Duqusene and Central Michigan at home to start the season and then travelled to West Virginia for their first real test.
They lost the game 31-24 in OT (lots of bad losses in OT for the ACC so far). This loss looks a lot worse in light of West Virginia getting destroyed by Kansas last weekend. Of course, the Mountaineers also have already lost to Ohio….
11. Virginia
They started the season well, blowing out Coastal Carolina at home. Then they played at NC State and lost a close game 35-31.
And then destroyed William and Mary and Stanford at home. Their offense has been piling up yardage and points.
They play FSU at home Friday night in a very big game for them they should us a lot about how good they are.
10. Southern Methodist
SMU beat up East Texas A&M (no, I am not making that school up) to start their season. They then lost at home to Baylor in OT in another bad OOC loss for the ACC, struggled for a while and eventually beat Missouri State on the road (another real school) and then got beaten playing at nearby TCU in another bad ACC OOC loss.
So they have beaten no one so far and lost to the two good programs they played. Not much to be proud of but the season is early and there appears to be a lot of talent on their roster.
9. Louisville
Louisville is a mystery so far. They have played 3 not very good programs at home to start the season. They won them all. The only relatively strong team they played was James Madison and they struggled with them, only winning 28-14.
They play Pitt in Pittsburgh Saturday in a game that will tell us a lot about both of these programs.
8. North Carolina State
In a weird scheduling quirk, NC State has already played 3 conference games. They opened the season beating ECU in a close game at home, beat Virginia in Raleigh, Wake on the road and then lost to Duke in Durham.
The defense looks suspect. The offense is scoring some points but I saw CJ Bailey screaming at his teammates and coaches after failed drives in the Duke debacle. This staff has weathered slow starts before and they really haven’t play awful so far. An exceptionally weak schedule has really helped them.
They host VT in Raleigh Saturday. I would not be shocked if they win or lose by 40.
7. Clemson
As of today, Clemson is unbelievably in last place in the ACC with an 0-2 record. How did the season go so far off the rails so fast?
Things started out okay. Clemson hosted LSU and played a very competitive game against one of the most talented teams in the country, eventually losing 17-10.
They then played Troy at home and at one point in the game, fell behind 16-0. They eventually rallied and won 27-16. But it was clear there was something really wrong with the offense. There was a ton of experience to work with but this group could just not score points effectively.
Losing at GT was not a huge surprise. I think by now everyone knows GT is a solid program and is going to be tough to beat, especially on the road. GT won a close game 24-21. And then Syracuse game to town and just had their way with the Tigers, who were outmatched from the start.
Is Clemson a bad team? No, I think their defense is solid and their offense has a lot of potential. They need to bench Klubnik and I think they will be okay. The schedule looks manageable from this point forward but I suspect they lose to FSU and South Carolina and either UL, Duke or SMU. Yes, Clemson is going to have 5 losses in the regular season. And maybe 6. Ouch.
6. Duke
It is hard to get a feel for teams this early in the season. This is especially true for Duke.
They destroyed Elon at home in their first game. Then they hosted Illinois and got beaten badly. Though if you look at the box score, it was a very competitive game. The thing that killed Duke was turnovers. Duke had 5, 4 on fumbles, to 0 for Illinois. There was a school of thought Illinois was a great team destined for the college football playoff after this game but that ended after the destruction Indiana imposed on the Illini on Saturday.
Duke then went on the road to Tulane to try and get a win and lost a close game 27-24. This was a big game for Darian Mensah, the QB Duke bought from Tulane over the summer. He returned to Tulane and came home empty handed. Tulane had beaten Northwestern at Tulane earlier this season, and they have a good program. So this wasn’t an awful loss. But you have to win OOC games against non P4 programs if you want to get respect and high rankings from me.
Duke redeemed themselves somewhat beating NC State in Durham last weekend. This is a good team. Not a great one. I think the game against Syracuse should be a close one.
5. California
Cal started their season off well, going on the road to beat Oregon State 45-14. They then beat out Texas Southern and then had one of the best OOC wins for the ACC this season, beating Minnesota 27-14 in Berkeley. All looked well until they traveled to San Diego to play San Diego State last Saturday. Disaster. They lost 34-0. Props to old friend Sean Lewis for doing a great job coaching against the Bears.
I am not sure anyone knows how good this team is. We will know a lot more after they play BC in Chestnut Hill Saturday afternoon.
4. Syracuse
I guess I should point out that these ranking are more about what the teams have done to date than what I think they will accomplish over the course of the season.
There is no question the loss of Steve Angeli is a big deal to Syracuse. Jeff Nixon has been great from day one at SU and now he has his greatest challenge. This is not a dig on Rickie Collins, who appears to have a stronger arm and more athletic ability than Steve, but being a QB is more about simple athletic ability. Collins playing QB will give Nixon the chance to run some more option and maybe some more rollouts than he has been able to do to date and that should help the offense. But anytime you are dealing with a young QB who hasn’t played a lot, there is risk that they will do something bad. Some things are only learned through experience.
I will be really interested to see how the change in QB affects the Syracuse offense. Collins reportedly throws the long ball with great accuracy. Might we see more long passes now? I suspect there will be more incompletions and interceptions but you never know in college football. I know it will be really good for Collins if he gets consistent time to throw the ball. If he is rushed hard and running for his life a lot, it could be a long day on Saturday.
Anyway, I put SU fourth. Their loss was an honorable one to one of the top teams in the country, one I think is destined for the college playoffs. They struggled against UConn but got the win and they played really well against Clemson on the road. Special teams are much improved, the offense appears to be multi dimensional (new QB withstanding) and the defense seems to be getting better with each game.
3. Florida State
FSU is 3-0. They beat Alabama at home in one of the best OOC games the ACC has this season. That was really impressive. They held serve against two tomato canals as well. I don’t think Castellanos is an all conference type QB but he is an upgrade for them and they are going to be a top 25 team all season.
2. Georgia Tech
It was a tough call whether to rank Miami or GT number one. GT has won at Colorado and they beat Clemson at home. This is a solid team who can play defense and control the ball on offense for extended periods. They are tough and well coached. I expect they will probably end up in the ACC championship game.
1. Miami
I don’t like Miami. Dislike having to give them props. But they have gotten off to a very good start, beating ND, Bethune-Cookman, South Florida and then Florida, all at home to start the season. Now, is this a typical ND team? No, they appear to be a step or two down from their normal team of the past 10 years. Florida also appears to be an awful team on offense right now. It was a great time to play them. And all their wins are at home.
But undefeated is undefeated and wins over ND and a good SEC program are great to have on the resume. I have my doubts about Beck in big games but we will see how he does.
