An interesting thought crossed the Confidential’s mind yesterday. Suppose your team is not a football factory. There are several in the ACC–Syracuse, Wake Forest, Boston College, Pitt, NC State, Virginia, and Duke come to mind. Some of those schools have done a great job upsetting Clemson and Florida State in recent years. In the small picture, that is a great win for your team. In the big picture, is it bad for your school? Think about it.
Syracuse looked rough tonight. The 48-27 score was perhaps a bit misleading as it seemed as if Northwestern could have scored a lot more, had they chosen to keep throwing. There is plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth by Syracuse fans tonight. But the Confidential just wants to remind Syracuse fans that they need to come in off the ledge. There are many reasons why.
9-3. 10-3. 11-3. 9-5. 8-5. 7-6. Six straight bowl games after joining the ACC. Two ACC Championship game appearances. Are we talking about Miami or Boston College? Actually, we are talking about Boston College. Since that great start to joining the ACC, however, Boston College has fallen on hard times, with those hard times “peaking” last year with a 2-10 record. But guess who is off to a 2-0 start this year? Boston College! Are they back?
Continuing with our Mount Rushmores… the last school left… Florida State. Look, we all watched the game Monday. Obviously, we are going to have Jameis Winston on the Florida State Mount Rushmore. See who joins him…
ACC (A): Clemson won the game of the week against #5 Georgia. Several ACC teams won the games they were expected to win, and Virginia won a close contest against a respectable BYU team. The conference would have scored an A with a Syracuse win over Penn St.
Big 10 (B+): The Big 10 teams did not play a ranked opponent in the opening weekend, but avoided a major upset in Week 1. However, the American conference Cincinnati Bearcats routed Purdue and Nebraska only won by 3 against Wyoming.
Big 12 (D): The headliner between TCU and LSU went to the Tigers. Meanwhile, Northern Iowa and North Dakota St pulled off wins against Big 12 competition. Plus, West Virginia struggled against William and Mary.
Pac 12 (C-): The Pac 12 went 0-2 against BCS opponents, but Washington pulled off the biggest Pac 12 win with a victory over #19 Boise St. Oregon State lost to Eastern Washington in one of the major upsets of the weekend.
SEC (A-): The ranked SEC teams, with the exemption of Georgia, dominated their opponents. Kentucky lost to Western Kentucky otherwise the weekend went as planned for the football conference.
The ACC made a statement this weekend with Clemson’s win over Georgia and Florida State’s dismantling of Pittsburgh. Here is a list of the a few memorable moments from these contests :
Clemson
FSU
The ACC made a memorable statement in the opening weekend. With expected wins over the next few weeks against inferior competition the Tigers and Noles should continue to dominate the headlines. Welcome to the big time-ACC, it has been a long time in waiting.
Continuing with our Mount Rushmores… only two schools left. Today, we will go with North Carolina.
Today’s Syracuse-Penn State game is a huge transition game for the Syracuse program. Moving from Doug Marrone to Scott Shafer will hopefully signal moving forward and not backward. Since the game is being played in North Jersey it could have a major impact on both schools getting back into a key recruiting area. Penn State always had this area before Greg Schiano and Syracuse thrived in this area during the Paul Pasqualoni era. With Don Bosco Prep, Paramus Catholic, St Peter’s Prep, Bergen Catholic, and St Joseph Regional, just to name a few, all being within a 30 minute drive of MetLife Stadium a Syracuse win could help their recruiting profile in an area loaded with Division 1 players and just 4 hours from their campus. I think most assume Drew Allen will be named the starter just before game time. Syraucse fans should just hope the coach picks the guy who gives the team the best chance to win the game today. While I admit having an Oklahoma transfer QB gives the national media a reason to talk about the program, just getting the win with whoever is actually better will carry more clout in the long run. This is technically a Syracuse home game, but its going to be hard to out number the Penn State contingent in this area.
By now, we all know about ESPN’s hype machine. For the last few years, “no one” has been as good as the Big Ten in basketball (despite zero national championships in over 10 years). “No one” has been worse than Tim Tebow (despite him having a better playoff record than many current starters). It is what it is. As fans, we’re used to it. But last night, ESPN’s “excuse machine” was in full motion. I’ve never heard them try so hard.
I can hear the comments now from the four letter network’s talking heads: “The ACC loses more BCS conference match ups….” The presumption is that the ACC is a weak football conference if they lose lopsided match ups like unranked Virginia Tech vs. #1 Alabama. I’m not convinced. Conferences should not be judged by the performance of middle or bottom tier teams. Would an Illinois victory over Kentucky indicate that the Big 10 is a better conference than the SEC? No way.
The biggest game this weekend for the ACC is Clemson vs. Georgia. As a matter of fact, it is the only game that really matters on the national front.
A Clemson victory would likely catapult them into the Top 5, put them in the national title conversation, and set up a nationally relevant game against Florida State on October 18th. Florida State, the other ranked ACC team, has it’s own responsibility for carrying the ACC flag. The Noles need to win their games against inferior competition and continue their presence near the Top 10 for a majority of the season.
How many years has it been since an ACC football team has been in the national title conversation in November? It’s up to you Clemson and Florida State to buck the trend.
Non-Conference Schedule
How many non-conference ranked opponents will be played by conferences this year?
ACC: 11
Big 12: 2
Big 10: 4
Pac 12: 8
SEC: who cares
Winston Debut
As Florida State finishes up preparations for the Pittsburgh Panthers, most fans are eagerly anticipating the debut of freshman QB Jameis Winston. Winston has generated a significant amount of hype since his MVP winning Elite 11 camp in 2011. The hype reached epic proportions after Winston’s spring game performance highlighted by a 58 yd strike against All-ACC conference corner Lamarcus Joyner.
The Confidential 