ACC Week 3 awards. The Real Good, The Good and the Ugly.

Remember this date September 18, 2011 if you are an ACC Sports Fan. It may be looked upon one day as the day the ACC ensured it would survive the expansion Armageddon and started to establish itself as a premier football conference. We have been calling this weekly post The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, but I think it was such a strong weekend for the conference I’m calling it the The Good, The Real Good, and the Ugly. Let’s get right to it…

The Real Good

Welcome aboard.

Big East members the Pittsburgh Panthers and Syracuse Orangemen will be joining the ACC. I love this move. The ACC expands its footprint north and provides Boston College a couple of geographical partners. Basketball becomes easily the best in the country, and while not elite football schools, Pitt and Syracuse have a good history in football. They have been my top two choices for a while so I’m happy to have them in the ACC. I’ll have more thoughts on this later.

ACC wins ACC vs BCS Conference Challenge

This weekend the ACC had 5 games against BCS conference opponents and went 3-2 beating two ranked teams, and acquitting themselves quite well in the two losses.

Clemson 38 Auburn 24

Georgia Tech 66 Kansas 24

Miami 24 Ohio State 6

Oklahoma 23 Florida State 13

West Virginia 37 Maryland 31

Records, Records and Records

Georgia Tech put up an astonishing 604 yards rushing and an incredible 768 yards of total offense in a 42 point win over Kansas. Both yardage totals were schools records. Kansas is a pretty bad team, but 700+ yards is just plain ridiculous. Good luck trying to slow this offense down now that Tevin Washington has become a threat passing the ball.

What SEC Speed?

The defending national champions Auburn Tigers came to Death Valley on a 17 game winning streak and left dazed and battered. The Tigers outscored Auburn 38-10 after spotting those Tigers a 14 point lead. Sammy Watkins continues to amaze. He made the Auburn secondary look like they were standing still on several occasions. QB Tajh Boyd threw for over 300s and did an outstanding job managing the game.

You can’t throw on me.

Ohio State threw for 35 yards, yes 35 yards against Miami. The Canes played inspired and dominated the Buckeyes. Al Golden got his first big win as Miami head coach. Lamar Miller had 184 yards on the ground in the monster win for the Canes. Now that Miami is getting back some of their suspended players, you can’t overlook this team.

The Good

Playing defense likes it 1999

Here’s a prediction, no team the rest of the year will play Oklahoma better defensively than the Florida State Seminoles did Saturday. The Noles held the Sooners to 23 points and 310 yards of offense. FSU’s defense is as good as it’s been in over a decade.

Who’s undefeated?

Clemson has the signature Auburn win. Georgia Tech is putting up video game like offensive stats. Virginia Tech is just outside the top 10, but there’s a 4th undefeated ACC team, North Carolina. UNC defeated Virginia 28-17 to move to 3-0 setting up a showdown with another 3-0 team Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Don’t sleep on the Heels, this is a resilient bunch.

Taking care of business

Wake Forest beat Gardner Webb 48-5, Virginia Tech defeated Arkansas St 26-7 and NC State took out South Alabama 35-13. Our ACC friends played some over matched opponents and that’s how you take care of business.

My arm is sore.

Duke’s Sean Renfree completed 40 passes in the Blue Devils 20-19 win over Boston College. It was a rare road ACC win for the Blue Devils, and sent Boston College to it’s 3rd straight loss which leads me too…

The Ugly

Can we run the ball?

Florida State ran for a grand total of 27 yards against Oklahoma. There were whispers from Nole fans concerned about the ability to the run the ball even before the game with Oklahoma. Against the Sooners it was probably the difference in the game. FSU is very close to returning to the nation’s elite, but the offensive line needs to get better.

Keep the resume handy

Boston College coach Frank Spaziani is in serious trouble. After losing to Duke at home 20-19 the Eagles have opened the season 0-3, and when you look at the schedule I’m hard pressed to find more than 4 remaining wins at best. This season is headed towards a disaster for Boston College.