Well, that certainly was a crazy, significant week of ACC football, wasn’t it? It started with that incredible last 6 minutes on Thursday night and ended with UNC knocking off Miami. Something tells me that people will long remember the weekend when the two Florida football powers were knocked off.
Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech – Earlier this year, Georgia Tech ventured up to Clemson and won a game in one of the most unimaginable ways possible, blowing an easy first down and then a bad snap on a punt. What goes around comes around.

In this game, the Yellow Jackets had control the whole game. They weren’t crushing the Hokies, but they never really seemed like they weren’t going to win. They kept the clock moving, kept the margin over one touchdown and were headed for 4-2 in the conference. And then it all changed on play. With 5:28 to go, one play after the Yellow Jackets kicked a field goal to go up by eight, Hokie (it’s tough that I can’t use the simple name “Tech” in this writeup!) QB Bryan Randall heaved an 80 yard bomb to Eddie Royal. Just like that, the game turned into a rout. A Hokie rout.
Virginia Tech made the two point conversion to tie the game. Then, they forced the Jackets to punt after a three-and-out. A couple of plays later, a 51-yard TD gave them the lead. For good measure, they returned an interception for a score just moments later. 22 points in under five-and-a-half minutes. That after they scored 12 points in the first 55 minutes of the game.
For Georgia Tech, the game had to be a killer. They were quietly headed for the top tier in the conference and possibly even some top-25 consideration. Now, they are wondering what happened. You have to hope that this game doesn’t beat them twice.
The comeback for the Hokies gave them new life for the season. Now, they are 6-2, ranked in the top twenty and have legitimate BCS hopes. It’s amazing what a few minutes can do. In reality, they still aren’t a great team, but they’ve shown remarkable resilience and they’ve improved every week. Don’t be shocked if the Hokies end up in first or tied for first in the ACC when it’s all said and done.
NC State at Clemson – A number of years ago a decent NC State team beat a very good Florida State team when Chris Weinke threw six interceptions. I don’t care how good your team is, when your quarterback throws six interceptions, you aren’t going to win. Well, against Clemson on Saturday, NC State’s Jay Davis threw five interceptions. Guess who won?
The crazy thing is that despite the five interceptions and one fumble, NC State still nearly won! They outgained the Tigers 381 to 267, but all those yards don’t do you much good if you give it to the other team at the end of the drive.
So, does this mean that State is really bad? Or does it mean that Clemson is really bad for nearly losing to a team that was so generous? Probably neither. This is the second game this year that State has killed itself with turnovers and costly penalties. Most of that is a result of inexperience at quarterback and a coaching style that thrives on aggressiveness. Aggressiveness very easily become sloppiness; just check where Florida State ranks in penalties every year. When the Wolfpack can avoid making too many mistakes, they are a very good team. When they are sloppy, they aren’t yet good enough to overcome.
For Clemson, you have to give them some credit for the turnovers as well. Clearly, the Tigers were confusing Davis. You can’t count on forcing that many miscues each week, but hey, a win’s a win. One thing Clemson has learned about itself this year is that they aren’t going to blow teams out. They need to scrap for their wins and now they’ve done that two weeks in a row to get their record back to .500. They still have two tough games left out of their three, but if Tommy Bowden has proved anything it’s that he can lead a late season charge. Maybe the Tigers will get to a bowl after all.
Duke at Wake Forest – This game was just about as exciting as you would have guessed. That’s not to say that it wasn’t close – it was – but it wasn’t exactly Michigan – Ohio State, if you know what I mean. Give the Blue Devils credit though, they keep fighting. I really thought Wake will roll them up, but Duke played tough and made things pretty hairy late in the game. For once though this year, the Demon Deacons pulled out a close one.
BTW, after I gave Wake props for being a great 0-4 team, Sports Illustrated followed suit in last week’s issue. Somehow, I doubt they read my article, but I thought it was interesting all the same.
Florida State at Maryland – Remember what I wrote last week? “This is exactly the kind of game that produces one of those upsets that no one saw coming, isn’t it? Well, I don’t have the guts to pick that.” Damn, what a wimp! It really did feel like that to me, but I let my head talk me out of it. Sometimes with sports you have to trust your gut. Or in this case, The Gut, as in Ralph Friedgen. Just when I was starting to doubt his position as the best coach in the conference, he went and reestablished himself. What a great win for the Terps.
You can read more about what I think about the significance of this game (and the UNC-Miami game) here.
For Maryland, this win doesn’t exactly save their season, but it certainly made it much more attractive. The Terps can clearly maintain their claim to being a program on the rise. Even in a relatively down year, they can beat Florida State. With three more games left, albeit three tough ones (Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest), Maryland could still go bowling.
For the Seminoles, this was the other shoe dropping. Everyone knew this was going to happen, but didn’t know when. You can’t keep playing like just showing up will get you the win. Sometimes the only way a team is going to learn is by losing. Of course, that assumes that it’s not too late to fix their problems. You’d think that they could find a way to get their attitude and effort straight, but quarterback play is something else. Wyatt Sexton turned back into a pumpkin during the Wake Forest game and never really returned. The Noles tried Chris Rix for the fix, but he looked just like the Rix of old – some good plays, a touchdown, and then pfffft – overthrows, underthrows, missed reads, etc. Bobby Bowden has said that Rix will be the starter again next week against Duke. At this point, with the BCS no longer an option, I wonder if they’ll be able to get back on top of their game. I’m not so sure that Rix is the answer.
Miami at North Carolina – All year long, I’ve written about how the Tar Heels were actually a talented team that could beat anyone. I kept saying it even as they lost in horrendous fashion. I finally gave up last week after they surrendered nearly 10,000 yards to Utah. I guess I gave up too soon. They can beat anyone and they did. The key really is that Darian Durant finally played a game like he’s capable of playing. When he’s on, as he has been for most of his career, he might be the best quarterback in the conference. The problem for Carolina this year (well OK, one of many, many problems) has been his inconsistent play.
Another Tar Heel weakness has been their running game. They seem to have a different guy every week. I swear, I’d never heard of Chad Scott before, but yet he went out and hung 175 yards on the Miami defense.
Ah, the Miami defense. Maybe they are a bigger reason for this upset than Durant or Scott. Or, more accurately, maybe it was Miami’s Swiss cheese D that allowed Durant to get out of his slump and for Scott to make a name for himself. I mean, despite their rep, the Hurricane defense has been surprisingly porous of late, giving up nearly 1,000 yards of offense in the two game prior to UNC. The Tar Heels continued that trend, rolling up 545 yards. You just can’t win a title with defense like that. There’s a reason that the Pac-10 rarely wins a title.
For the season, the Tar Heels are an astounding 4-4 now. And get this, (take a seat if you must) they could actually go to a bowl game! Isn’t that nuts? The terrible Tar Heels in a bowl! They just need to get two wins out of their last three games against Virginia Tech, Wake Forest and Duke. It’s actually pretty likely.
For Miami, this game obviously cost them a shot at the national title. It’s possible they could work their way back up there, but extremely unlikely. There are too many undefeated and one-loss teams right now. But then, you never really know. Every year, it looks kind of like this, but most of those teams will falter. The question is whether the Canes lost too late to recover. Games left against the two Virginia schools give them a chance to impress the voters and computers, but they’ll need lots of help to get into the top two.
Note: This is gonna be my last one of these Preview/Review articles. They are too much like real work! For the rest of the season, I’ll go back to just posting about stories that seem particularly interesting.