Duke : A+
David Cutcliffe is working his magic again. There are road wins at Northwestern and Baylor, and that is without starting QB Daniel Jones who got hurt in the Northwestern game. They are 3-0 to start the season.
Virginia Tech : A+
Virginia Tech’s win at FSU has lost some luster since we’ve found out how bad the Noles are, but let’s not take anything away from Virginia Tech. They went to Florida State and dominated with an inexperienced defense. They look like the ACC Coastal’s most complete team.
Boston College : A
While Boston College still has a tough remaining schedule, they’ve opened the year right on schedule. They passed their first test with a good win at Wake Forest. They are the ACC’s highest scoring team averaging more than 50 points a game.
Syracuse : A-
Syracuse has 3 straight 4-8 seasons. They are 3-0, with a blowout win over Florida State. Dino Babers has that offense humming, and they should be 4-0 when they play Clemson in a couple of weeks.
NC State : B+
NC State was a bit sluggish in a 24-13 win over James Madison, but they are 2-0 having only given up 20 points in 2 games.
Clemson : B+
Clemson is graded on a different scale than the rest of the of the ACC. They’ve looked dominant against weak competition, but that the defensive secondary got lit up against Texas A&M is a concern.
Virginia : B
Virginia has a 4 point loss at 3-0 at Indiana, and sits 2-1. What I like about the Hoos so far is they seem to have more offensive pop than they’ve had in years – scoring over 40 in their other two games.
Wake Forest : B-
I would have given Wake Forest a B+ or higher had they been able to beat Boston College. Still they showed they can be pretty explosive on offense so far, even if they seem to have some real secondary issues.
Miami : C
Miami has a couple of blowouts against bad teams. In their one game against a quality opponent (LSU), the Canes were completely outplayed from start to finish. For a team that started the season in the top 10, it was discouraging way to open the year.
Pittsburgh : C
The Panthers are 2-1, and 1-0 in the ACC, but they were destroyed by Penn State 51-6 in a game they outscored 37-0 in the 2nd half. They seem like a perfectly average team that had an average start. That equals C.
Louisville: C-
Louisville has the 2-1 record we expected at this point in the season, so the grade is passing – barely. Western Kentucky had Louisville on the ropes late into the 4th quarter. A QB controversy is brewing there too.
Georgia Tech : D-
Mental errors and blown leads are the identity of Georgia Tech now. They have a 41-0 win over Alcorn State which is the highlight of the early part of the season. That’s not saying much.
North Carolina : F
North Carolina was crushed by an ECU team 41-19 that lost to North Carolina A&T at home. Is that enough for you? There might not be 3 worse power 5 teams in the nation. Thank goodness for Rutgers.
Florida State : F
It’s been nothing short of a complete disaster at Florida State to start the season. There were not competitive in either ACC game against Virginia Tech and Syracuse and they were outplayed by Samford for 3 1/2 quarters. The offensive line is among the worst in country.
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