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ACC: What have we learned?

pittdan77

Athletic Director
Jan 5, 2011
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The Vast Wasteland of Central Pennsylvania
Weekend isn’t over yet but there have been some pretty surprising outcomes this weekend. BC losing to Rutgers. We were told Louisville was going to be tough but Syracuse handled them. NC State and UNC just got by. And VaTech?!

I know a couple of the teams in the last three played rivalry type games or quality opponents but for all the talk about the TV deal, the ACC has to step up. Everyone except Clemson has something to prove if the conference wants more money.
 
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Not inclined to overreact too much at some week 1 results, but the next few weeks will be interesting with a number of P5 OOC matchups including ours. An FSU win tonight and decisive Clemson blowout tomorrow too would help.

Of course, a lot of the ACC’s perception is a product of how good Clemson is. A bit annoying everyone acted like they sucked last year despite winning 10 games and finishing ranked 14th. Poor by their high standards sure, but I think they even have the longest winning streak in FBS (with the last L to yours truly). Going to keep a close eye on the QB play though.
 
For all but a couple of teams every year, it’s pretty much a week-to-week deal. Who plays well and wins will depend on:
  • Emotions/attitude of 18-23 y/o’s
  • Preparation/execution
  • Injuries
  • Breaks
  • Weather (and/or other unpredictables)
 
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Nc state and unc at least pulled out the wins. Va tech is a bad loss. I saw the acc has basically played more non P5 road games than the SEC, b10, p12, b12 combined. Why do we keep doing this and setting ourselves up for these losses? The answer is money. For some reason we are too cheap to buy the home games like other conferences.

the BC loss really irks me being up 21-12 at home. These games versus other P5 conferences are huge. Pitt held up their end. If FSU can some how pull off the upset it won’t be a lost weekend for the conference
 
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Thing about the ACC is that the ranked teams all won. Wasn't pretty in some cases, but they won (with Clemson still to come).

No conference is looking particularly strong, other than the SEC. Maybe the BIG, I guess. But the PAC 12 is the worst by a lot. BC and VT might both finish in or near last place in their divisions, which will lesson those blows.
 
I think what we learned is that if we can somehow beat Tennessee this Saturday, we shouldn’t lose a game until we play Miami. Obviously that’s easier said than done and we’re notorious for losing when we shouldn’t, but we have a legitimate chance to go into that game 11-0 or 10-1.
 
Honestly who cares that half of them suck.
Given the expectations of some of these schools, it’s a big deal. NC State is supposed to be one of the top teams in the conference. There were people picking Louisville as a challenger. UNC has these great recruiting classes and needed every last second of that game to win. It kind of matters to the perception of your team’s worthiness if the rest of the conference is underperforming.
 
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Too many ACC teams playing in-state little brother types on the road. Nothing good is ever going to happen doing that.
ECU V NCSU is an important game to both schools.

App State v UNC? Not so much.

 
As was said on another thread, a two-point win at App State is a good win. It may end up being more impressive than beating WVU at home, honestly. The problem was just that it had a bit of a "What did we just watch?" Pitt/Syracuse 2016 feel.
 
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A two point win vs App, ok… but the way that it happened was embarrassing (and I say this as a UNC fan as well, because my 2nd degree is from there). App snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, more than once.
 
A two point win vs App, ok… but the way that it happened was embarrassing (and I say this as a UNC fan as well, because my 2nd degree is from there). App snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, more than once.

Well yeah. If they had won 30-28 no one would care. Or if we beat Syracuse 35-20 instead of 76-61, or whatever it was. UNC's defense has been terrible. But that doesn't change the fact that winning at App State, without their best player no less, is a quality win.
 
Given the expectations of some of these schools, it’s a big deal. NC State is supposed to be one of the top teams in the conference. There were people picking Louisville as a challenger. UNC has these great recruiting classes and needed every last second of that game to win. It kind of matters to the perception of your team’s worthiness if the rest of the conference is underperforming.
UNC has been the same team every year since Mack showed up. They score a ton of points and play no defense. Are their high expectations for them this year? If anything I'd expect them to take a step back with Howell gone.
 
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UNC has been the same team every year since Mack showed up. They score a ton of points and play no defense. Are their high expectations for them this year? If anything I'd expect them to take a step back with Howell gone.
No, expectations aren’t particularly high. 8-4 type expectations. I’d say a good portion of the fanbase expected a loss to App, after seeing them play FAMU unimpressively.
 
UNC has been the same team every year since Mack showed up. They score a ton of points and play no defense. Are their high expectations for them this year? If anything I'd expect them to take a step back with Howell gone.
Who knows their young QB does look really good. The d looks like it has for a while which isn't very good.
 
Both teams have a ton of talent. THye have a bye week then go to a pissed off Lou. That should tell us!

Yeah, teams with those talent levels can look good on any one given week. If I didn't know any better, I might have thought Travis was the best QB in the country after watching last night.

Week one is goofy, but sometimes you can take some things away from it. Like I thought Ole Miss looked SO good/fast against Louisville in the first game last season, and they did end up being a pretty good team. But these college guys - heck, even the NFL guys - just don't bring their A game every week. It's a long season.
 
Weekend isn’t over yet but there have been some pretty surprising outcomes this weekend. BC losing to Rutgers. We were told Louisville was going to be tough but Syracuse handled them. NC State and UNC just got by. And VaTech?!

I know a couple of the teams in the last three played rivalry type games or quality opponents but for all the talk about the TV deal, the ACC has to step up. Everyone except Clemson has something to prove if the conference wants more money.
Here's what we learned.

The Coastal is a 2 team race between Pitt and Miami. Big drop off to the other 5.

The Atlantic is deeper .... with Clemson, NCSU, Wake, and FSU. But has 2 of the worst 3 teams in the conference with Louisville and BC.
 
Will be interesting to see just how good LSU is, though. FSU has to play more conservative at the end and kick a FG. They got lucky.


All they needed to do was the hand the ball off or run a quarterback sneak on that third down play and score the touchdown to go up by two touchdowns with a little over a minute to go in the game.
 
Here's what we learned.

The Coastal is a 2 team race between Pitt and Miami. Big drop off to the other 5.

The Atlantic is deeper .... with Clemson, NCSU, Wake, and FSU. But has 2 of the worst 3 teams in the conference with Louisville and BC.

You discounting UNC? I'm actually not, yet. Defense has looked terrible, but going blow for blow on offense might not be a great matchup for us. And Miami has to play Clemson and what looks to be a pretty decent FSU team.
 
You discounting UNC? I'm actually not, yet. Defense has looked terrible, but going blow for blow on offense might not be a great matchup for us. And Miami has to play Clemson and what looks to be a pretty decent FSU team.
UNC found another GREAT QB.

If they could ever find a D, they’d be formidable.
 
UNC found another GREAT QB.

If they could ever find a D, they’d be formidable.

I just think offense matters so much more than defense these days that if they can make a few tweaks on that side of the ball they could be a contender in the division. Georgia might have won the national championship on the back of their defense last season, but that's rare these days. So many big games just turn into shootouts. If you have fire power on offense, you have a chance. Hell, if not for a bad snap and a hell of a play by Addison, Virginia - whose defense was a sieve - might have gotten us last season. And I'm willing to bet UNC has better athletes on both sides of the ball than they did.
 
You discounting UNC? I'm actually not, yet. Defense has looked terrible, but going blow for blow on offense might not be a great matchup for us. And Miami has to play Clemson and what looks to be a pretty decent FSU team.
Yes, i am discounting them.

They will be 4-4 in the ACC, tops.
 
ACC stil has some strong teams. Clemson, FSU, Miami, and Pitt.
Then NC state, UNC and Wake.
Then Virginia and Syracuse.
Remember all of those years the Big East needed Pitt to be a flag bearer and strengthen the perception of the conference and we never really did? Hopefully Pitt is in position to continue to do it in the ACC. This week scares me.
 
Remember all of those years the Big East needed Pitt to be a flag bearer and strengthen the perception of the conference and we never really did? Hopefully Pitt is in position to continue to do it in the ACC. This week scares me.
Scared of UT putting up 59 against ball state and Miami putting up against 70 against Bethune. Would people feel less scared if we had opened up against Rhode Island and won 63-7? UT faces more pressure this week. They should be ranked and Pitt has that experience from this past week. It won’t be easy, but they are not Bama or Georgia.
 
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Scared of UT putting up 59 against ball state and Miami putting up against 70 against Bethune. Would people feel less scared if we had opened up against Rhode Island and won 63-7? UT faces more pressure this week. They should be ranked and Pitt has that experience from this past week. It won’t be easy, but they are not Bama or Georgia.
I always had this next game circled as a W. But after the WV performance and a couple injuries, I am a bit worried. I’m not sure any of us have a strong reason for our opinions though. 1st games of the season can be Outliers.
 
This is definitely the era of out-scoring your opponent. The game and most important officiating has evolved to heavily favor the offense, and the passing game in particular.

Let’s face it, for all sides, offensive holding happens far more frequently than it ever did. On Thursday our OL got away with our share, and WVU’s OL definitely did so blatantly on almost every pass play, or we would have had even more pressure on Daniel. Refs, consciously or not, seem to give the OL breaks with that when it’s facing a better DL, and of course that negates a great deal of Pitt’s advantage, since it’s the foundation of Duz defense.

Of course, defensive PI is chronic, and calling targeting penalties (whether it truly reduces injuries or not) frequently also helps the offense tremendously, as it takes away much fear for receivers going over the middle. That even extends to players and coaches, as it is painfully the norm now for DBs to never look back on the ball. That had to be a combination of zero fundamentals being taught to players in early years, or defensive coaches in college not giving it any priority (because they tend to be better at it in the NFL). That of course adds tremendous advantage to a long passing game as well.

The issue with all this is that Narduzzi’s stated wish for more ‘balance’ and running the ball and TOP and promotion of a “game manager” QB like Slovis seems to be a great risk. Anytime it fails to put the ball in the end zone is putting more pressure on a defense already hamstrung in the ways I mention above to make repeated stops. Against teams with great offensive firepower that isn’t too realistic.
 
Yet Pitt put up 31 points against what might be one of the better defenses they face this year. That remains to be seen, but nobody jumps off the schedule right now until they get to Miami. Not sure about Tennessee, but I know they don't have a Dante Stills on their roster.
 
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Florida st looking good tonight. Would be a nice win over the sec
2 unranked teams. One coach coaching for his job, the other in his first game. Essentially ended up a draw. Not sure what quality of win that was quite yet. What I will say is that FSU still has lots of athletes and I thought Travis looks like a player at QB.
 
2 unranked teams. One coach coaching for his job, the other in his first game. Essentially ended up a draw. Not sure what quality of win that was quite yet. What I will say is that FSU still has lots of athletes and I thought Travis looks like a player at QB.
I still can't figure out why a Big Pretender spends so much time shilling on this site.

In your mind, it ends up a draw? How can you say that? I get that you want to do your constant ACC belittlement act, but how can you say a pressure packed missed XP is luckier than the other team fumbling on the 1 and even giving you that chance?
 
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Thing about the ACC is that the ranked teams all won. Wasn't pretty in some cases, but they won (with Clemson still to come).

No conference is looking particularly strong, other than the SEC. Maybe the BIG, I guess. But the PAC 12 is the worst by a lot. BC and VT might both finish in or near last place in their divisions, which will lesson those blows.
Kelly gets it.

 
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