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The ACC was ridiculed by college football media and fans, and beaten often in ugly fashion during the BCS era in their biggest OOC games. The conference spent the better of the past decade improving and gaining national respect, peaking in 2016 as college football’s best conference.
The last couple of years the ACC has declined (outside of Clemson). The on field results and the last 2 NFL drafts confirm that.
We wrote that last year’s less that stellar NFL draft was a warning sign for the ACC.
This year’s draft was slightly worse.
2020 NFL Draft by conference:
SEC — 63
Big Ten — 47
Pac-12 — 32
ACC — 27
Big 12 — 21
AAC — 17
MWC — 10
CUSA — 10
Ind — 9
Sun Belt — 7
FCS — 6
MAC — 2
D2 — 2
D3 — 1— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) April 25, 2020
Clemson and Miami had 11 combined picks, leaving the other 16 picks among 12 ACC Schools. That’s 1.3 NFL pick per non Clemson/Miami ACC school.
That’s not good no matter how you look at it, and despite a decent draft for Miami, we know how they performed on the field last year.
Clemson
8. Isaiah Simmons, Arizona Cardinals
16. A.J. Terrell, Atlanta Falcons
33. Tee Higgins, Cincinnati Bengals
100. Tanner Muse, Las Vegas Raiders
109. John Simpson, Las Vegas Raiders
127. K’Von Wallace, Philadelphia Eagles
250. Treymane Anchrum, Los Angeles Rams
Louisville
11. Mekhi Becton, New York Jets
Florida State
52. Cam Akers, Los Angeles Rams
Boston College
62. AJ Dillon, Green Bay Packers
Virginia Tech
101. Dalton Keene, New England Patriots
North Carolina
126. Charlie Heck, Houston Texas
154. Jason Strowbridge, Miami Dolphins
Miami
140. Shaquille Quarterman, Jacksonville Jaguars
144. DeeJay Dallas, Seattle Seahawks
176. KJ Osborn, Minnesota Vikings
242. Jonathan Garvin, Green Bay Packers
Syracuse
148. Alton Robinson, Seattle Seahawks
228. Sterling Hofrichter, Atlanta Falcons
Virginia
151. Joe Reed, Las Angeles Chargers
158. Bryce Hall, New York Jets
NC State
174. Larrell Murchison, Titans
229. James Smith-Williams, Washington Redskins
Wake Forest
178. Justin Strnad, Denver Broncos
195. Justin Herron, New England Patriots
Georgia Tech
206. Tyler Davis, Jacksonville Jaguars
Pittsburgh
239. Dane Jackson, Buffalo Bills
Wins largely correlate to talent which largely correlates to recruiting. Don’t let anyone try to convince you otherwise. For every exception, I’ll give you twenty examples of the best teams recruiting well and producing the most NFL talent. Great coaching is a must, but it helps to have that talent.
The ACC has let the talent base slip, and it shows up in the recent NFL Drafts.
I think a rebound is coming though.
In the 2021 recruiting current class – UNC, Clemson, Miami, FSU, Virginia Tech, Duke, and Virginia are in the top 35.
In the 2020 recruiting class – Clemson, Miami, UNC, FSU, and Georgia Tech finished with top 35 classes.
These are signs in the right direction, and for the ACC to return to 2016 form it’s needs to continue and show up with on the field results.
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