The Confidential

The Confidential ACC Football Top 10 Poll: Week 2

With two weeks wrapped up, the Confidential correspondents generated a lot more similarity in their polls this week.  So how do the ACC teams stack up?  Well, here is the Confidential Correspondents Football top 10 Poll for Week 2.  Remember, we include Notre Dame and Louisville.  This year, we’ll start with team number 10 and work our way to #1.

10. North Carolina State.  The correspondents loved what they saw from the Wolfpack against Richmond, apparently… ha ha ha.  Any time you can eke out a win over the Spiders, it is good news.  Actually, Richmond.  Hmmm… Syracuse fans?  11 points for NC State, who take on Clemson this week.

9. North Carolina.  Losing to South Carolina, which lost to Georgia, which lost to Clemson, did not hurt.  Except that Clemson should beat the Tar Heels by a lot.  Except that Clemson probably will not–because that would be so Clemson-like.  Anyway, North Carolina looked fair to middlin’ against Middle Tennessee State, winning 40-20.  A week off to prepare for Georgia Tech.  Just a coincidence that North Carolina benefits from a schedule oddity, of course.  13 points.

8. Boston College.  This is not a misprint.  The Eagles may or may not be back. But they are 2-0.  And that is not too shabby ever.  And with a win over Wake Forest, the Eagles are 1-0 in conference play.  It gets tougher though, with a trip to USC and a game against Florida State.  14 points.

7. Georgia Tech with 19 points. The Yellow Jackets have a weird schedule, with 4 of its first 5 games being conference games.  Plus, a week off after the win over Elon, which was an ever-competitive 70-0 game.  Two weeks to prepare for Duke?  Only in football.

6. Virginia Tech.  The Hokies rebounded from a thumping by Alabama to beat Western Carolina, 45-3.  Somewhere in between Western Carolina and Alabama is this week’s foe, East Carolina.  As a road game, the Hokies need to come to play in this AAC-ACC battle.  31 points.

5.  Notre Dame.  Losing to Michigan in front of 115,000 people is excusable.  But the Fighting Irish had to fall behind Miami.  Brian Kelly has Notre Dame looking decent again this year though.  They cannot look past Purdue this week.  A Big 10 foe is usually tough, especially on the road.  43 points.

4. Miami, with 52 points.  A big surge for the Hurricanes, who eked out a win against Florida.  Not sure whether it was Florida’s offense or Miami’s defense, but five turnovers is five turnovers.  And the difference in the game.  Congrats to Al Golden on getting things moving.  The ACC needs Miami to return to being Miami.

3. Louisville.  The Cards are plowing through cupcakes faster than Melissa McCarthy.  First it was Ohio, then it was Western Kentucky.  Next up is the rivalry game with Kentucky.  Given that Kentucky lost to Western Kentucky, this one could get ugly also.  In fact, it has to get ugly.  A close win over Kentucky could damage Louisville’s appeal to voters.  Louisville had 58 votes, including one vote for #1.

2. Florida State.  Jameis Winston continues to be the talking point for the Seminoles.  After a bye week, Florida State hosts Nevada.  Let’s hope they are not looking ahead to Bethune-Cookman.  Although Florida State has a tendency to lose a head-scratcher, it is usually not an OOC opponent.  FSU had 59 points, including one vote for #1.

1. Clemson.  The Tigers received 5 first place votes, good for 67 points and a nice cushion as the #1 team.  As the #3 team in the country, this is not a surprise.  Clemson gets a week off, before facing NC State next Thursday.  Both teams will get extra time to prepare… which is a degree of fairness that one does not see when the ACC schedules North Carolina.  Ha ha ha.  Just trolling.

Others receiving votes: Virginia 7, Duke 7, Maryland 6.  No votes for Syracuse, Wake Forest, or Pitt.

What do you think????