The Confidential

The ACC Sports Blog

Archive for the month “December, 2011”

04 Dec 2011

Clemson Wins ACC Championship, BCS Bound

Although they struggled down the stretch, the Clemson Tigers were able to wallop the Virginia Tech Hokies in the ACC Conference Championship Game, 38-10, to win the league’s BCS spot.  With the win, Clemson improves to 10-3 and will likely play West Virginia (9-3) in the Orange Bowl.

The amazing thing about this game is that there was no reason to think that Clemson would win.  Virginia Tech came into the game rolling, while Clemson was reeling.  After 30 minutes, the game was tied at 10.  That was the tempo that favored Virginia Tech. But Clemson exploded in the second-half, outscoring Virginia Tech 28-0.

On the one hand, this result is disappointing for the ACC because its BCS representative could have been a 12-1, top 5, Virginia Tech.  On the other hand, it is decent for the ACC to get some new blood into the championship mix.  Clemson will be well-supported in Miami for the Orange Bowl.  Clemson and West Virginia should be similarly ranked going into the game.  These are two football programs that support their team well and deserve a chance at some January attention.  It should be a great game too.

For Virginia Tech, they were 11-0 when not playing Clemson and 0-2 when playing the Tigers.  They had two chances to beat them–once at home and once at a neutral location–and failed to do so.  Clemson played a much tougher schedule.  While the overall records suggest otherwise, Clemson appears to be the better team.

The future is certainly bright for the Hokies.  Quarterback Logan Thomas is only a sophomore.  While the Hokies may lose Junior RB David Wilson, the ACC Player of the Year, he was certainly bottled up by Clemson in what was easily his worst game of the season.   He was held to 32 yards rushing and a mere 2.9 yards per carry.

Meanwhile, the Clemson offensive trio of Tajh Boyd, Andre Ellington, and Sammy Watkins rose to the occasion.  Each scored a touchdown in the second-half.  Overall, Boyd passed for three touchdowns and ran for one.  Ellington and Watkins rushed for 180 yards, providing Clemson the offensive balance.  And Clemson’s defense was outstanding all game long.

If only Clemson had taken care of business against NC State.  The ACC’s best teams need to improve on “holding serve.”  LSU and Alabama will likely play for the National Championship because they did not lose to teams that they were not supposed to lose to.  The ACC needs a team to step up to the plate in like fashion.  Ideally, the ACC would have a top 10 team representing itself in a BCS bowl.

But, for 2011-2012, credit Clemson for doing what it needed to do to earn the ACC’s BCS spot.  There is no question that they deserve to be there.

 

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Football, Game Review and tagged , , , , ,
03 Dec 2011

#1 Kentucky Defeats #5 North Carolina, 72-73

In what many consider to be a possible National Championship game matchup, the #1 Kentucky Wildcats defended their home court with a 73-72 victory over #5 North Carolina.  For North Carolina, the loss leave them with a split in a difficult week featuring games against two top 10 teams.  Earlier in the week, the Tar Heels defeated Wisconsin.

With the preseason #1 and the current #1 facing off, it is not surprising that many scouts were on hand to watch North Carolina’s trio of returning stars and Kentucky’s annual one-and-done class of super-freshmen:

Freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 17 points and 11 rebounds as a spark Kentucky (8-0) needed early before Doron Lamb took control in the second half with 12 of his 14 points as more than two dozen NBA scouts and front office personnel watching one of the most heavily hyped matchups of the season.

After Ohio State’s thumping of Duke, Kentucky needed this win to hold onto its #1 ranking.

For North Carolina, it is somewhat surprising to see this veteran team sitting at only 6-2 right now.  The nation is on notice that the Tar Heels are beatable.

For the ACC, this is yet another tough hit to the reputation.  After starting out so well, the Big 10 proved to be a much superior conference in the ACC-Big 10 Matchup, winning 8 of 12 games.  And now North Carolina has lost 2 of its last 3 games, including what was essentially a road loss to UNLV last weekend.

Compounding today’s misery was Wake Forest being upset by Richmond and Boston College losing to Boston University. However, the good news is that Miami was able to soundly defeat a good UMass team, while Virginia continued to roll with an 86-53 win over Longwood to get to 7-1.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Basketball, Game Review and tagged , , , , , , , ,
02 Dec 2011

ACC Football Predictions for December 3, 2011

Here are The Confidential’s football predictions for this week’s games featuring ACC teams:

ACC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME: Virginia Tech (11-1) v Clemson (9-3)

There is no compelling reason to pick Clemson here.  After clinching the spot in this game, Clemson has gone on cruise control–only to be destroyed by a mediocre North Carolina State and handled by a decent, but not great, South Carolina team.  Granted, Clemson beat Virginia Tech on the road.  But that was a long time ago.  Since then, Virginia Tech has been rolling, while Clemson has been struggling.  Even Clemson’s wins down the stretch were of a questionable ilk.  In contrast, Virginia Tech dominated Virginia.  There are playmakers for both teams, but Virginia Tech’s just have that much more oomph, including ACC Player of the Year David Wilson.  Prediction: Virginia Tech 27- Clemson 20.

BONUS GAME: Future ACC Member Syracuse (5-6) at Future ACC Member Pittsburgh (5-6):

Major bowl implications here.  And, by major, I mean that the winner becomes bowl eligible and might get selected to a bowl game that is played next Wednesday or something.  For the Big East, it is just pleasing that this is not their Championship Game.  No 6-6 team will ever get a BCS bid out of the Big East.  7-5?  Possible.  Stay tuned for Louisville.  Anyway, both of these teams are limping right now… Syracuse more so than Pittsburgh.  Both teams have demonstrated anemic offenses, despite seasoned quarterbacks.  Smart money says to go with Pittsburgh in a low scoring affair.  Therefore, the prediction is Syracuse 33-Pittsburgh 30.

The Confidential apologizes in advance for not picking your team.   Feel free to share why we are wrong. 

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Football, Predictions and tagged , , , , , , ,
01 Dec 2011
1 Comment

ACC Football “Post-Season” Awards Released

With a conference championship game yet to play, the ACC went ahead and released its post-season awards anyway.  The Confidential is always a bit surprised that awards are issued before the relevant period is over.  Is the ACC suggesting that this Saturday’s HUGE game doesn’t matter?  Of course not.

In any event, Mike London was named the ACC Coach of the Year.  In his first season, he improved Virginia from 4-8 to 8-4.  He dominated the voting, receiving 31 votes, significantly more than runners-up Frank Beamer (3) and Dabo Swinnney (2).

The ACC player of the yearwas Virginia Tech running back David Wilson.  The junior has TEN 100-yard rushing games already.  In fact, he also was named the ACC offensive player of the year.  In the player of the year voting, he earned twice as many votes (18) as the nearest vote-getter, Luke Kuechly of Boston College (9).  Also receiving votes were a Clemson duo, Sammy Watkins (8) and Tajh Boyd (7).  The remaining three votes were cast for Wilson’s teammate, quarter back Logan Thomas.

In the offensive player of the year voting, Wilson received 26 votes.  Boyd and Watkins finished with 9 and 8 votes respectively.  Oddly, although Thomas had three votes for ACC player of the year, only two votes were cast for him as offensive player of the year.  Apparently, some voter though he was the best player in the league, but not the best offensive player in the league.  Yep, that makes as little sense as it sounds.

On the defensive side, Kuechly was named the ACC defensive player of the year.   The Boston College linebacker’s numbers are mind-boggling:

Kuechly averaged 15.92 tackles per game for Boston College, which won three of its final five games to finish at 4-8. The figure is almost certain to set an NCAA single-season record. In order to catch Kuechly, his nearest competitor, Utah State linebacker Bobby Wagner, will need to make 73 stops over his final two contests. Kuechly’s total of 191 tackles fell two short of the NCAA mark, and his career achievements are equally compelling. In only three seasons, he has been credited with 532 stops; that’s the second-highest total by an FBS player since the NCAA began compiling individual tackling statistics in 2000.

He has done that in only three seasons and has another year of eligibility remaining.

Not surprisingly, he picked up 30 of the 45 votes.   The remaining 15 votes were split between North Carolina cornerback David Amerson  (14) and Duke safety Matt Daniels (1).

 

Posted by acaffrey in Uncategorized
01 Dec 2011

De Ja Vu: ACC Fairs Poorly in Day Two of the ACC/Big 10 Challenge

The ACC started slow in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge and finished slow, allowing the Big 10 to win 8 out of the 12 games.  This is shaping up as one of those years where the Big 10 is quite strong and the ACC is subpar.

Of course, the ACC does get to claim a victory in the biggest matchup of the night–#9 Wisconsin at #5 North Carolina.  In a 60-57 score more befitting of a MAC football game than an ACC basketball game, Wisconsin was able to control the tempo but not the final scoreboard.  But even this win was not overly impressive for the ACC, given the large margin by which Ohio State beat Duke.  At least North Carolina was able to rebound from its loss to UNLV over the weekend and improve to 6-1.

The other ACC win came from Wake Forest, who improved to 5-2 by beating Nebraska.  The 55-53 slugfest gives Wake Forest a nice road win.

The rest of the ACC lost.  In a bit of a surprise, Indiana showed that it is a legitimate 7-0 team by beating NC State on the road, 86-75.  Tom Crean may finally be turning things around in Hoosier-land.  The Wolfpack fell to 5-2 with the loss.

Virginia Tech also fell to 5-2, losing a road game to Minnesota, 58-55.  Minnesota is another team off to a great start at 7-1.  It seems like the entire Big Ten is off to a really good start.

Michigan State is one team that did not get off to a good start this year, losing to North Carolina and Duke.  However, the Spartans have responded with 5 straight wins, including a 65-49 victory against overmatched Florida State.  With the loss, the Seminoles drop to 5-3.

And, in a result that should surprise absolutely no one, hapless Boston College lost to Penn State, at home, 62-54.  Even the Nittany Lions are 6-2.  Boston College dropped to 2-5.

With all precincts reporting, the results are in.  The Big 10 walloped the ACC, 8-4.  Not to beat a dead horse, but the Big 10 is starting out much like the Big East did last year.  They have four undefeated teams (Ohio State, Indiana, Illinois, and Northwestern).  In addition, they have two 7-1 teams in Minnesota and Purdue.  Meanwhile, three teams that expect to be in the Big Dance lag behind those schools, with Wisconsin at 6-1 and Michigan/Michigan State both at 6-2.  Only Iowa, at 4-3, is not 2 games above .500 in the Big 10.

In contrast, the ACC has no undefeated schools.  Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia have one loss apiece.  The ACC does have 6 more schools that are at least two games above .500.  Unfortunately, the head-to-head matchups with the major conferences are suggesting that this is going to be a down year for the ACC overall.  The good news is that Duke will likely rebound and North Carolina will be making news all season long.

Posted by acaffrey in ACC only, Game Review and tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

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