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ACC QUESTION of the WEEK : What are 3 under-the-radar ACC football games in 2019?
The notion of being “under the radar” can refer to teams which currently lack a strong national profile. However, the truest embodiment of being “under the radar” is to escape national notice altogether.
Before giving you the three best “under-the-radar” ACC football games of 2019, I need to explain why one game isn’t on this list.
If the Virginia-Pittsburgh game was in mid-October, it probably would have made the list. It would have drifted into a more obscure part of the season. National pundits would not be circling the game in red ink and pointing to its undeniable significance.
However, since Cavs-Panthers is a Week 1 game, it stands out as a huge season-shaping contest for both sides. Pitt’s win last season in Charlottesville was central to its Coastal Division championship. Both schools badly need this 2019 reunion to start the season on a high note, and Virginia can’t afford to let a very positive and hope-filled offseason go down the drain before Labor Day.
This isn’t an under-the-radar game because the Week 1 placement makes it too visible. Even national pundits will devote some time to this opener. So it goes.
Let’s deal with the three genuine under-the-radar games which are attracting a lot less national attention:
1 — North Carolina State at Florida State, September 28
Can the Wolfpack continue to flirt with 10-win seasons, or will they regress this year? Can Florida State look like a halfway decent team this season and get Willie Taggart out of the doghouse? Clemson and Syracuse are getting most of the attention in the ACC Atlantic, so this game is comparatively overshadowed. Yet, it is very important in determining how the non-Clemson Atlantic will stack up this year.
2 — North Carolina State at Boston College, October 19
Steve Addazio is on the hot seat in Chestnut Hill. With Boston College playing Clemson and Syracuse after this mid-October game, beating N.C. State becomes a must for the Eagles. This is also the exact kind of road game the Wolfpack have historically struggled with. If State wants to make a statement about staying power, this is a good time to do so. We should learn a lot about these two programs based on this game.
3 — Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech, November 2
This — not Virginia in Week 1 — is Pitt’s under-the-radar game in 2019.
Why Georgia Tech and not Duke or North Carolina, you might ask?
I didn’t pick Duke because Pitt has had Duke’s number in recent years. I didn’t pick UNC because the Tar Heels aren’t overhauling their systems the way Georgia Tech is under Geoff Collins, in Year 1 of the post-Paul Johnson (post-triple-option) era.
Georgia Tech should struggle in September, but if the Yellow Jackets look like a good team in November, that would tell me and everyone else in the ACC that Collins has his program on schedule. This is why Pitt-GT in November is more interesting and revelatory than Pitt-Duke or Pitt-UNC.
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