The Confidential ACC Football Top 10 Poll: Week 5
We are into October now… and the Confidential correspondents have identified some trends. So how do the ACC teams stack up? Well, here is the Confidential Correspondents Football top 10 Poll for Week 5. Remember, we include Notre Dame and Louisville. This year, we’ll start with team number 10 and work our way to #1.
10. Pittsburgh (3-1), 11 points. A win over Duke in a slugfest… a win over Virginia in a defensive battle. The Panthers look like they can play any type of game. Except against Florida State. But a lot of teams have that problem. Next up: bye, then Virginia Tech.
9. North Carolina State (3-1), 12 points. The Confidential remains perplexed by the love for the Wolfpack so far. They may be a good team–they sure played Clemson close. But they also played Richmond close. The other two games averaged a 44-14 win, but against middling competition.
8. Georgia Tech (3-1), 17 points. At 3-1 overall, the Yellow Jackets deserve a top 10 spot. Tough schedule though… with trips to Miami and Brigham Young up next. They do not return home until they host Syracuse on October 19.
7. Maryland (4-0), 27 points. The Terps are a surprise team at 4-0. That win over West Virginia looks a lot more impressive now that the Mountaineers beat Oklahoma State. Of course, the win over UConn looks even worse, now that the Huskies have fired Coach Pasqualoni after losing… BIG… to both Buffalo and Towson. This week is THE test, with a game at unbeaten Florida State.
6. Notre Dame (3-2), 28 points. Wins over Purdue, Michigan State, and Temple. Losses to Michigan and Oklahoma. The Fighting Irish look like a 7 or 8 win team this year. Not going to match up to last year, but still a pretty good season. Next up… a tough road game @ #22 Arizona State.
5. Virginia Tech (3-1), 32 points. The Hokies got a huge road win at Georgia Tech this past Saturday to climb back into the Confidential top 5. The wins over Marshall and East Carolina were not that impressive, although the latter’s destruction of North Carolina bears emphasis. Speaking of the Tar Heels, they travel to Virginia Tech this week.
4. Louisville (4-0), 45 points/1 first place vote (no, not a Louisville correspondent either). The Cardinals had a week off to prepare for winless Temple. Winless Temple returns home after losing at Idaho. Idaho beat Temple to improve to 1-4. Long story short, do not bet grocery money on Temple beating Louisville. However, it may not be pretty if the Cards are looking ahead to the big game against Rutgers in the Leaving-the-American Bowl.
3. Miami (4-0), 47 points. No first place votes for the Hurricanes, but they got a lot of top 3 appreciation to move ahead of Louisville. They need to hold serve against a tough Georgia Tech team this week. If they can do that, then it is Wake Forest and North Carolina before the November 2 matchup with Florida State. First things first… the Yellow Jackets.
2. Florida State (4-0), 51 points/1 first place vote. The Seminoles looked sluggish against Boston College, but still stormed back to win convincingly. Florida State takes on Maryland next. This is a chance for the Seminoles to show that they are not going to lose winnable games. It would not be the worst upset ever to lose to Maryland, but Bobby Bowden in his peak would not lose this game. Right?
1. Clemson (4-0), 57 points/4 first place votes. Next up for the Tigers is a trip to Syracuse. The Orange are rejuvenated a bit with a new quarterback, Terrell Hunt. The Carrier Dome can be a challenging venue. But Clemson has a lot more talent on offense than Syracuse had on defense. Should be able to put up a lot of points this week.
Others receiving votes: BC 2, Duke 1. No votes for Syracuse, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wake Forest.
What do YOU think????
The Confidential 