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ACC QUESTION of the WEEK : What are the three biggest ACC bowl storylines beyond specific games or matchups?
If you look around the ACC, the number of unfilled offensive coordinator slots is noticeable. Florida State and Miami — albeit with dynamics which are very different at the two schools — face enormous uncertainties at that position. Georgia Tech will obviously run Paul Johnson’s offense in the Quick Lane Bowl against Minnesota, so the Yellow Jackets can’t be viewed through a 2019 lens. However, other ACC bowl teams will want to show that with a month of preparation, their offenses — especially their passing games — can function well.
That’s one big storyline.
This doesn’t meant that bad bowl performances will doom these teams next season or offer clear-cut indications that they are hopeless. However, various ACC teams definitely want to gain some assurance that they are likely to improve. Walking away from bowl season with legitimate hope for the future is an important goal in the coming weeks.
Storyline No. 2: The ACC’s second-, third, and fourth-best teams this season did not win 10 regular-season games and did not make New Year’s Six bowls. Syracuse, North Carolina State and Boston College are all facing programs with bigger football brands: West Virginia, Texas A&M and Boise State. Pitt, arguably the fifth-best team in the ACC, is facing Stanford in the Sun Bowl. Can the ACC break even in these games? If it can, the league would salvage a measure of respect. If it gets shredded, the offseason will be dreary and filed with concern for the durability of the conference, even with the quality coaching hires at Georgia Tech and Louisville.
Storyline No. 3: Miami.
The Hurricanes just lost Manny Diaz, which will likely hurt their defense in 2019. That means Miami’s offense will have to be even better to offset any defensive slippage. Every bowl season, there is at least one bowl game a program needs to win in order to quiet the “noise within the system” heading into the offseason, so that the coach’s seat isn’t hot — or isn’t TOO HOT — heading into summer training camp.
Miami is CLEARLY that team in the ACC as the 2018 bowl season arrives. It was always ridiculous to think that Richt was in ANY trouble relative to 2018, but in 2019, you bet he is on the hot seat. Miami fans and boosters will not accept a 2019 as bad as 2018. If the Canes lose to Wisconsin in the Pinstripe Bowl — more precisely, one of the worst Wisconsin teams we have seen in recent memory — the wolves will be howling, and the pressure on Mark Richt to turn things around next season will escalate. Of the 66 bowl teams not playing a New Year’s Six game, it is hard to identify a team which must win its bowl game more than Miami.
Maybe Oregon in the RedBox Bowl against Michigan State. Maybe Cincinnati against Virginia Tech. Maybe North Carolina State in the Gator. Maybe Auburn in the Music City — that’s probably the second-best answer. Miami, though, is first in my book. The Diaz departure for Temple cranks up the pressure on Richt to beat Wisconsin.
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