The Confidential ACC Football Top 10 Poll: Week 6
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 6. Remember, we include Notre Dame and Louisville. This year, we’ll start with team number 10 and work our way to #1.
10. Boston College (3-2), 8 points. The win over Wake Forest looks better, now that the Demon Deacons beat North Carolina State. The losses at USC and to Florida State are not surprising. The Eagles are halfway to bowl-eligibility. Just think how much that UConn donor wanted to hire Boston College’s head coach Steve Addazio before the A.D. hired Paul Pasqualoni. Maybe he was right? It gets a lot hotter for BC though, with Clemson on deck. Next up: @ Clemson.
9. Pitt (3-1), 15 points. You’ve got to like Pitt’s chances of a bowl game now. First, they are halfway there, with three wins. Second, they have games against Old Dominion, Navy, Syracuse, and North Carolina. And Navy might be the best team of the four. Next up: Virginia Tech.
8. Maryland (4-1), 16 points. In fairness, few expected Maryland to beat Florida State. But most people figured that the Terps would score. And the way Maryland’s defense has played, it was assumed that they could keep the Seminoles under 50 points–having demolished West Virginia (who had beaten Oklahoma State and played Oklahoma tough). Losing 63-0 was style points in reverse, causing Maryland to drop to #7. Next up: Virginia.
7. Georgia Tech (3-2), 18 points. With a two-game losing streak, the Yellow Jackets moved UP in the standings here. Hmmm. Losing to Miami is not the end of the world, but it probably says more about the lack of certainty after the top 6 teams. Next up: @ Brigham Young.
6. Notre Dame (4-2), 34 points. With 4 wins, Notre Dame is about where they should be. The Fighting Irish get a week to prepare for a visit from USC in the annual rivalry game. The Trojans play on Thursday this week, so don’t feel too sorry for them either. Next up: USC on October 19.
5. Virginia Tech (5-1), 35 points. The Hokies are holding steady at #5 here, beating a down North Carolina team last week, 27-17. Virginia Tech is not winning pretty, but they are winning. And now they are one win away from bowl-eligibility. Next up: @ Pittsburgh.
4. Louisville (5-0), 43 points. The Cardinals lost their first place vote this week, perhaps because they did not look overly dominant in defeating winless Temple, 30-7. In a week where the top 3 ACC teams combined to score 157 points against Georgia Tech, Syracuse, and Maryland… Louisville’s 30 against Temple just does not compare. Next up: Rutgers.
3. Miami (5-0), 49 points/1 first place vote. The Hurricanes got a first place vote for defeating Georgia Tech, but it makes you wonder what Florida State and Clemson have to do to impress the voter that refused to give them a #1. But Miami looked quite fine in defeating Georgia Tech. Miami gets a weekend off before traveling to North Carolina next Thursday. Next up: @ North Carolina on October 17.
2. Florida State (5-0), 54 points/2 first place votes. If you weren’t sold on Florida State before the Maryland game, you have to be now. Maryland was undefeated, having beaten West Virginia handily. All the Seminoles did was wallop them, 63-0. Next up: @ Clemson on October 12.
1. Clemson (5-0), 55 points/3 first place votes. Syracuse players were excited to take on Clemson. The Tigers went into Syracuse and took a 21-0 lead before the Orange knew what hit them. Welcome to the ACC, Syracuse. But this Clemson team is special. Very special. Enjoy it Tigers’ fans. Next up: Boston College.
Others receiving votes: NC State 2, Duke 1, Wake Forest 1. No votes for Syracuse, North Carolina, and Virginia.
What do YOU think????
The Confidential 
Louisville is so grossly overrated; their schedule is weaker than a Rutgers’ schedule. That’s actually a compliment to Rutgers fans (something I seldom ever do).
In Louisville’s 5 wins, they have beat: a winless Temple, Kentucky (1-4), Florida Int’l (1-4), E. Kentucky (3-3 in the FCS), and Ohio (4-1) who’s wins include: North Texas, Marshall, Austin Peay, and Akron. Far from murderer’s row….that’s more like, pickpocket alley.
Kudos to Louisville for managing to schedule against God Awful teams and fooling the entire country into thinking they are good, or even somehow relevant. Things will get a lot tougher for them in the next two weeks with games against Rutgers and UCF (the same UCF who beat Penn State and nearly knocked-off S. Carolina).
Continued; UL and ESPN went to several teams after the season. UL & Ohio St each had the same week opened, they chose to play San Diego St instead. There was also talk of UL replacing VT in the opener againat Bama. A&M & Wisconsin were others teams mentioned but nothing was ever worked out. This isnt UL fault. Now they have an agreement to open 2015 against Auburn.
Now to say UL is over rated is foolish, basing it solely on their schedule. UL beat the #3 Gators who were title contenders in the Sugar Bowl and they only improved their team going into this season. They have one of the top dwfenses in the country, several future NFL draft picks
Continued, part 3. I would agree that we dont know how good they are but, IMO, calling them over rated is foolish. I have seen the games and how they coasted past their opponents. They past the eye ball test. Doubt to someone of who hasnt seen them play is understandable but they are not over rated. There isnt anyone outside of the top 10 that they couldnt beat, including Miami. And i will say that if UL did play Bama in week one, the way they VT, UL would have won that game.
This obviously coming from someone of who isnt informed on the subject. First the schedule. When your conference crumbles around you over a several month period and teams like West Virginia, Boise St and TCU are suddenly gone you have very little time to replace them and are working from far behind every one else. FIU was a bowl caliber team at the time of scheduling. Louisville had a home & home set up with Georgia but they bought their way out so they could open last season with Boise. After the Sugar Bowl the Cards & ESPN went to several teams looking for a game. UL
I don’t give a crap who they tried to schedule, the bottom line is who have they actually played? Trying to compare who they played last year as a means of judging this year’s team is foolish and uninformed. They have yet to play anyone who is good, and their top-10 ranking is completely undeserved.
First, the mere fact that undefeated Miami (beat Florida) is not in the top-10 is insanity, but to put them behind Louisville is a travesty. Ditto for Oklahoma (wins against ND, WVU, TCU), and UCLA (wins over Nevada, Nebraska, Utah). Even Michigan at 5-0 (win over ND) should be ranked higher than Louisville,
I also think that one-loss teams like Texas A&M (lost to Alabama), LSU (lost to Georgia), South Carolina (lost to Clemson), Virginia Tech (lost to Alabama), Northwestern (beat Cal, Syracuse, lost to Ohio State), and Washington (beat Boise St. lost to Stanford) should all be ahead of Louisville.
But you keep clinging onto the thought of the teams you once tried to schedule, and those wins over 1-4 Kentucky and a 4-1 MAC team as a reason to be included in the upper echelon of Football.
As a Syracuse fan, I would loved to have played against the soft-underbelly that Louisville has so far instead of opening against Penn State, followed by Northwestern, and most recently Clemson.
As I said above, Louisville’s schedule will get tougher over the next 2 weeks. If they win against Rutgers or UCF then they are a legit top-25 team; wins against both and then maybe you can make a case for top-15. But in my opinion a loss to either of those teams should automatically drop Louisville out of any discussion of the top 25.
Based on the schedule to date, the Cardinals have done NOTHING to deserve any such recognition as a top-10 team.
Well, I think it is fair to keep Louisville behind other undefeated schools based on schedule comparisons. But Louisville is not THAT overrated.
They have not helped their cause by coasting to wins over Temple and Kentucky. To make a case for being ahead of 1-loss teams, they need to start putting up some larger margins of victory. Compare Clemson, Florida State wins recently. Baylor is putting up huge numbers. It’s one thing to not exclusively shoot for 60 points. It’s another to be in the 27 to 30 point range. Louisville needs to get into the mid 40’s.
I think it is fair to say that a lot more will be learned against Rutgers. Rutgers narrowly beat Arkansas and SMU. Texas A&M beat those schools handily and is ranked right behind Louisville. So I think it is fair to deem Rutgers a quality opponent, even though not top 25.
Give it another week before judging the Cards that harshly.
We’re in agreement that we’ll know more about L’Ville’s team after the next 2 weeks when they finally have some tougher competition. If they roll past those two teams then they have a legitimate case to being a top team, but until then I contend that their record grossly inflates their ranking.
By your logic that it doesnt matter how good you really it only matters who you play then i guess Alabama should drop out of the rankings for playing Georgia St that week. Who a team plays is only one measure to be used but you can also tell by the way a team as well. Granted their schedule has been pathetic a schedule doesnt determine how good a team is, the players on the field does that. Also since UL is only missing 3 starters from last years team, IMO, the Sugar Bowl game is another measure that should be used. Now, given their SOS, there is no way they have earned a ahot at the title. Is Ohio St over rated? Their SOS is weak as well. So are others who are ranked.
Syracuse put up 100 points against Wagner and Tulane; quality wins where they dominated in every aspect of the game. Yet they got blown out against Northwestern and Clemson; so because they beat the patsies should they be considered a top-25 team? What if instead of playing PSU, and the other two BCS schools, they instead went up against Kentucky. FIU, and UConn and won in similar fashion. Would you say that a 5-0 Syracuse, coming off a win against WVU in the Pinstripe Bowl deserves to be ranked #7 nationally?
Of course not, because everyone knows that is stupid.
Only the basketball team can manage that.
When it comes to football, I believe that if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. Or at the very least, go up against good competition. And it is not right to punish one school, VPI (for example) who’s only loss is to the #1 team in the country, whereas we laud another school who plays against JV teams.
I give more credit for a team like Virginia Tech who takes on Alabama, or Virginia against Oregon, than I do against
schools that don’t challenge themselves at all.
This isn’t a knock against L’ville; I have the same criticism of Rutgers who have notoriously padded their resumes the past 10 years by winning against weak competition.
Ohio State’s OOC is weak, but they have redeemed themselves over the past two weeks with solid wins over Northwestern and Wisconsin. Which are 2 better wins than L’Ville has right now.
Teddy Bridgewater, DeVante Parker, Micheal Dyer, Gerald Christian. Those are all guys who will be playing on Sundays someday soon and those are just the ones off of UL offense. What separates them from the others is the talent on the field. Sure they should have blasted their opponents instead of coasting and for that reason you could say that rhey havent earned their ranking but not because of their schedule. Are you saying they dont have rhe talent of a top ten team?
How can you be so certain? They haven’t played anyone good! For all you know they could go up against a tough team and completely shit the bed. Then what? Do you say, “Well, they are still deserving of a top ranking because they have all that talent and they beat up the crappy teams they were supposed to”, or do you acknowledge that they were overrated?
I distinctly recall a team last year that was 9-0 and ranked #9 in the country, with wins over Kentucky, Missouri St., UNC, FIU, and Southern Miss, along with a few Big East foes, coming to Syracuse and getting their doors blown off by a team that had a losing record thanks largely to tough games against Northwestern, USC, and Minnesota, and was facing Missouri the next week.
For all that talent you had on the team last year, and for all the wins again mediocre competition, you got smoked by a team that was much better than their record and as a result you dropped 10 spots in the rankings. Teams with 3 losses were ranked ahead of you guys.
Why you suddenly think this year should be any different in how we assess teams is beyond me.
Syracuse went to a bowl game. Losing to Syracuse was not a bad loss for Louisville. Just a very disappointing one. And they beat the same Florida team that you are giving Miami credit for beating. Only that Florida team lost the game as much as Miami won it. It was a turning point game for MIami, but let’s not get crazy. Louisville has a lot of talent. It is unfortunate that they will not get to measure it against better competition. If they go 12-0, they will be ranked appropriately. If they go 11-1, they will be ranked appropriately. No sense worrying about October rankings yet.
I give Syracuse all the credit for beating UL last season & then beating a good WV team in the bowl game, those where quality wins. The Cards learned a lot from that loss. They believed their hype & got swollen heads & got blasted by Syracuse. That was a good loss for that young team. Against UConn, I was there, Teddy struggled with his bad ankel & then broke his wrist. If not for a couple bad throws to the end zone UL wouldve won. This year the players has admitted to struggling with their focus, that is what i find disturbing about this team but they have shown that they are no longer playing down to their competition. Unlike nost teams, UL only lost about a dozen players from last season with only about four or five of who actually saw any playing time, three were starters. Comparing the talent that they lost to what they brought in, there is no comparison, its FAR greater. We will know more about this team over the next two weeks. I dont know how anyone could say that theyre not a top twenty-five team though. Theres atill
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It looks like the results are in; Louisville beats Rutgers in an unimpressive fashion (arguably Rutgers gave the game away), Bridgewater underwhelms 26 NFL scouts and the Heisman Committee, and the entire country (outside of Kentucky) is realizing that L’Ville is overrated.
I couldnt disagree more with most of that! I would agree that Teddy will not win the Heisman, the schedule never was set up for it. After 8 sacks & 4 INT & you think Rutgers was in the game, seriously? Honestly I never doubted the outcome. Rutgers best play was on a fack field when they completed a pass to the one yard line, thats all they had. UL defense is one og the best in the country. Comparing UL offense to Baylor or Oregon is fair, they run diferent styles of offense. UL isnt a no huddle, run & gun, air raid type of offense. They are a balanced & mothatical offense that keeps the opposing offenses off of the field which keeps them from scoring & by the fourth qtr the opposing defense is to worn out to prevent them from running out the clock. This isnt a Petrino offense. UL offense had only one 3 & out vs Rutgers. Perry rushed for more yards against them then any team they played, including Arkansas. This style of play wins championships for the SEC, like for Strong at Florida. Is Baylor in the title hunt? How many titles has Oregon won? My only concearn from the game is that they didnt have a WR step up in the red zone to replace Parker, who is automatic there. Surprisingly to me this group of receivers hasnt earned the title of ‘AFROS’ yet.
The point you keep missing is that while Louisville may have a lot of talent, and while their stats may belie the final score, the bottom-line is that they haven’t played anyone that is good. Even Rutgers, who was supposed to be a BCS contender from the American, looked downright pedestrian – and Louisville failed to put them away.
It is apparent that the nation is no longer buying the Louisville hype; as evidenced by the latest rankings.
Louisville won, and yet they stayed at the same ranking as the week prior – despite #5 Stanford and #7 Georgia both losing; which could have opened up a spot for Louisville. Instead, 1-loss teams like Texas A&M and LSU both leapfrogged L’Ville and Florida St., who was idle this week, still had a better ranking than before.
If you look at it objectively, and not through the rosy-colored glasses of a fan, you’ll realize that Louisville is overrated. I will still hold that a win against UCF will make Louisville a deserving top-15 team, but their strength of schedule is just too weak and their wins against better competition is just not that impressive. A loss against UCF should drop L’Ville out of the top-25.
I am objective. Louisville is ranked #8 in the new poll, rhat is appropiate. Thier schedule wont allow them to move up. I am saying they are a top 10 team because of their talent. Maybe I am misunderstanding you but you said that they are over rated solely because of their schedule. Where do you think they should be ranked? Another question, if Alabama or Oregon played UL schedule would their talent suddenly vanish and no longer even be a top ten team? They are just an example, i am not saying UL is as good as them. What I am saying is that you cant judge a team solely on their schedule.
Its impossible to compare Alabama and Oregon with Louisville because their conferences are so much different.
However I would put Louisville ~19 right now.
Lets compare UL vs UK to their last three games. The UK & Fla game was similar score to the UL game. UK played S Carolina close. Only Alabama slaughtered them. We shall get our chance to see how good or bad UL is in their BCS bowl game. UCF & Houston (undeafeted) wilk also be decent tests. You are right though that the offense needs to perform better than they have the last two games to hold their ranking.
Teddy was twenty one of thirty one for three hundred and ten yards and two touchdowns, not bad for an off night. Sure he had one INT and fumbled on a blind side sack. Stilk not to badfor an off night. UL also finished with four hundred and sixty one yards of offense. Again, not bad for an off game.
I rest my case: Louisville – 35, UCF – 38. Make no mistake, UCF has proven themselves as a very good team having now knocked off both Penn State and L’Ville, and hanging tough with S. Carolina; they are very worth of a top-25 ranking and there is no shame in losing to them. By that same token, Louisville is also a good team – even though their schedule has left them untested and with much to be desired. Neither team is worthy of the top-10, let alone the top-15 but both are definitely deserving of a top-25 ranking.
Also, for what it’s worth, the announcers tonight were absolute idiots. Making an argument that Louisville (if they had won) should result in a higher ranking by virtue of #3 Clemson and #5 FSU having to play each other this week, and #1 Alabama eventually facing #6 LSU is a stupid and ridiculous argument. Again, it’s great when a team can go undefeated; but you have to look at who they play. No one will fault the loser of Clemson/FSU or LSU/Alabama. But barely beating an unranked/top-25 team is hardly the same.