What a great weekend of football we had last weekend! Going in, almost all of the games had critical importance to one or both teams. With so many ACC teams nearing the magical 6-5 mark that earns (potentially) a bowl bid, it’s a certainty that the last several weekends will have plenty of triumph and heartache. The ACC may not be as loaded as the SEC this year (it’s far from it), but it’s still been surprisingly competitive and interesting.
Let’s start with the Clemson-Florida State game. Because of the “Bowden Bowl” stuff, this game will always have a reasonable level of interest, but what has made it even better in recent years has been the nearly constant attention paid to Tommy Bowden’s job status. Every year, he seems to be in hot water and needs some critical wins to earn another season. Beating Florida State (and his dad) pretty much always qualifies as a good win.

With just two games remaining on the schedule, Clemson was 5-4 and needed just one win to have a winning season and go to a bowl game. Unfortunately for the Tigers, their last two games were home against the (supposedly) mighty Florida State and at rival South Carolina. Neither game would be an easy win. If Clemson lost to FSU, as would be expected, that last game against the Gamecocks would have been huge. Not only is it a rivalry game, which means you can never chalk it up as an easy win, but USC’s hire last year of Steve Spurrier energized the USC program. The perception immediately became that the Cocks are a team on the rise and if there’s anything Spurrier proved when he was at Florida it was that he could beat his main rivals. His Gator teams simply dominated Tennessee and Georgia. On top of that, he loved needling Papa Bowden and took every chance he could to disparage the Noles in front of a microphone. Remember who coined the term “Free Shoes University?”
If Clemson were to lose both games, there’s a very good chance that Tommy Bowden would have been fired. They would have a losing record, miss a bowl again, and would have been perceived to have lost a step to the cross-state rival – a rivalry that Clemson has pretty much always dominated.
So with all of that on the line, the Tigers came out and played their best game of the year, absolutely dominating Florida State. It was certainly the worst loss the Seminoles have suffered since they joined the conference. Clemson dominated in every way. The only reason they won by “just” three touchdowns was FSU’s touchdown off of a blocked punt.
It was a huuuuge win for Clemson and Coach Tommy. Sure, they still have pressure next week (after all, did you see what USC did to Florida at about the same time that Clemson was whacking FSU?), but it’s nowhere nearly as intense as it would have been. I have to think that a second straight home win over the former conference bullies has to earn Tommy at least another year in Tiger Town.
And how about those Seminoles? What a season they’ve had. They started things off by finally shaking that Miami monkey off their back. They didn’t look sharp in that game, but they won. They then went on and rolled through the rest of the first half of their schedule. It seemed that they were back. Maybe not all the way back to the their 90s dominance, but after a couple of relatively meager years, they looked close to their old selves again.
And then the Virginia upset happened. To me, it didn’t signal that the Noles were bad. They just got beat by a good team, and a good player in Marques Hagans, that got hot at the right time. It happens.
And then a week after a surprisingly close game against Maryland, Florida State lost to a struggling NC State team. At home. Unlike the Virginia game, in this one, FSU was soundly beaten. NC State looked like the better team. Not a lot better, but better. Warning signs were flashing everywhere, but I and many other missed them, as we were focusing rather on what had gotten into the Wolfpack.
And then the Clemson game. This time there was no mistaking it. It was not just a good team getting hot. It was not just one team outplaying another. It was one team dominating the other. Florida State couldn’t stop Clemson (who has hardly been an offensive juggernaut) and they couldn’t move the ball either. The Noles had only 226 yards of offense. Two hundred and twenty-six! That was a good quarter for the old Seminoles.
So what happened? How did they go from a return to glory to a 5-3 conference team with consecutive losses? I won’t claim to have all of the answers, but the most glaring problem is their quarterback play. Drew Weatherford was awful in that first game against Miami, but really improved throughout the year. Unfortunately, while he was improving, the Seminole brain trust decided to stop trying to run the ball. Good thinking. Put the whole burden of your offense on the shoulders of a freshman who was just starting to figure things out. He buckled under that weight and has been terrible the last two games. Against Clemson, Weatherford threw for only 117 yards and had two interceptions. Many of his incompletions were nowhere near their intended targets. Unfortunately for Florida State, their backup, the highly regarded Xavier Lee was even worse. His first series in relief of Weatherford – a delay of game penalty (after a change of possession, no less), a pass waaay off the mark that was somehow caught in a miraculous effort, a pass right off the chest of an unsuspecting Clemson linebacker and then a sack when Lee stayed in the pocket for roughly four minutes. Punt.
Tough times for the Noles. Fortunately for them, they always have this. And honestly, when you have that on your side, does the rest of it really matter that much? (yes, you absolutely should click on that link. Here, I’ll give you another chance.)
The Tortoise And The Prevent Defense
The Maryland – North Carolina game was another critical one. Both teams came in at 4-4, needing two wins in their last three. Carolina has one gimme left with Duke and one no-f’in-way game at Virginia Tech. So to get to the promised land (hey, their expectations ain’t that high), they pretty much needed to beat the Terps.
Maryland had a similarly tough three games left in which to get two – at UNC, home against BC and at NC State. Nothing quite as hard as a game at Virginia Tech, but there are no Dukes in there either.
Basically, both teams really needed the win. Badly.
For most of the game, Maryland appeared to me to be the better team. They moved the ball more consistently, but they kept shooting themselves in the foot. Paw? Claw? What do turtles have? Anyway, two missed field goals and an int returned for a touchdown had put the Terrapins in a 10 point hole late in the fourth quarter.
Now, my wife isn’t a big football fan. Frankly, she just doesn’t like the sport that much. When she does watch it though, she loves to see bombs. It seems like every time she watches a bit of a game, she’ll see some 60 yard play and ask why they don’t just do that every time. It looks so much easier! Well, I guess Ralph Friedgen agrees, because when down 10 late in the game, Maryland decided to make it easy. Bombs away! Sam Hollenbach hit Jo Jo Walker for a 67 yard score to make it a three point game. On their very next offensive play, they tried it again, this time hitting Danny Melendez for an 80 yard score. Nice job Tar Heel defense!
Fortunately for the Heels, Dan Ennis can’t kick and he missed the extra point, giving the Heels life. Down only three, they tied it with just seconds left. Unfortunately, the Heels kicker Connor Barth isn’t much better and he missed his chippie in overtime and the Heels lost.
Tough way to go down. Now the only chance Carolina has to is to go up to Lane Stadium and knock off the Hokies. While that’s not impossible, I think they have a better chance of overlooking Duke and taking an ugly upset.
For Maryland, while they aspire to better results than 6-5, that still has to be their goal. All they need to do now is split their remaining games against BC and the schizophrenic Wolfpack. I think they have a good shot.
The Curse of Scott Sisson
Did you know that Georgia Tech hasn’t won a football game in Charlottesville since 1990, the year of their classic shootout that ended with Scott Sisson’s winning field goal? Tech knocked off the #1 Cavaliers that day and went on to win the national championship. Do you think they’d trade that for at least one win in fifteen years in Scott Stadium? No, me neither.
Going into this year’s game with Virginia, the Yellow Jackets had to feel pretty confident. Sitting at 6-2, they were one of five ACC teams with a bowl game locked up. Virginia was 5-3 and was in a similar situation to Maryland and UNC. While the Cavs needed only one more win to get to 6-5, their last three games were all against ranked teams – Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech at home and at Miami. A win against the Rambling Wreck looked to be a critical goal for the erratic Cavs. Lose that game and a three-game skid seemed very likely.
Instead Virginia came out with a focus not seen since their now-devalued Florida State win and controlled almost the whole game. Taking all the factors into account, it was probably the best effort of the season for the Cavaliers. Now that they are 6-3, they can go into those final two difficult games with a bit more confidence and less pressure. They will probably still lose both, but losing two in a row and still going bowling (possibly) is a WHOLE lot better than skidding home with three losses and not going anywhere.
No Steak For You
There’s an expression in sales that you don’t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle. Chuck Amato must have taken some sales training. He’s a master of the sizzle, but seems to have a hard time procuring the steak. Sure, NC State beat Florida State on the road for the second time last week, and they looked great doing it, but they were still sitting at just 4-4 and 2-4 in the ACC. Beating the Noles is the kind of sizzle that gets you on ESPN, but beating Wake Forest and North Carolina every year would be the steak that would keep the Wolfpack nicely fed.
Going into last weekend’s game in Boston, State was on a high, having won two games in a row. They had a new, undefeated starting quarterback, a new running back that had people evoking the name of *cough* *cough* Herschel Walker (!!), and a rejuvenated defensive line that was tearing apart opposing offenses. It seemed to all of the world that they had righted the ship and might just make this season a good one after all. With one cupcake left on the schedule (Middle Tennessee) to assure a fifth win, all the Pack needed to do was beat either BC or Maryland to get to a bowl game.
Losing to BC wouldn’t be the end of the world, since they still would have that Maryland game to get things together, but they way they did lose … well, let’s just say the sizzle is quiet now. The Eagles positively smacked the Pack around. If not for one 97 yard play, State would have had almost no offense. The length of the seven drives after that 97 yard one – 4, 4, 3, 10, 2, 4, 3. BC, particularly freak Mathias Kiwanuka, just beat State up. It was very reminiscent of the Clemson beatdown.
For BC, it wasn’t a critical win, but it was important. They had lost two in row and needed to get back on track. Their loss in Blacksburg proved that they didn’t belong with the ACC elite, and the loss in Chapel Hill put into question whether they were the best of the ACC’s broad middle class. There should be no more doubt about that now. Actually, with the collapse of the Noles, I’d say BC is the #3 ACC team now.
As for the Pack? Well they have to beat Maryland now in their last game. If the Terps lose to BC this weekend, then they too will need to win that game. Should be a doozy.
And for Chuck Amato and his sizzle? Put the coffee down! Coffee is for closers.