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“Settle down! Relax! Take some time to be with your family! Pause! Take a break! Give yourself a breather! Reflect on what the next best course of action is!”
ACC football, in 2019, did not heed any of those words of advice.
This is a season which wasn’t just chaotic. It never truly acquired a linear dimension or a clear trajectory (if we are removing Clemson from the equation). I know we have three more Saturdays remaining, but one of them will be reserved for SEC-versus-ACC rivalry games. There are a few non-conference cupcake games left on the schedule — Miami playing Florida International, Virginia playing Liberty, and North Carolina playing Mercer, among others.
I have seen enough ACC football in 2019 to make this statement fairly confidently: The season never did become predictable (outside of Clemson).
Georgia Tech has actually improved in recent weeks. The idea that the Yellow Jackets are easily and obviously the worst team in the conference is not a slam-dunk certainty. The Georgia Tech-North Carolina State game on Nov. 21 is no sure bet in favor of the Wolfpack. Syracuse also has a claim to being the worst team in the ACC… after being the second-best team in the conference last year.
Florida State beat Boston College — I don’t think most people expected that to happen (though I also don’t think it was a lock that the Eagles would win).
Louisville, on a huge upswing, came crashing back down to earth with another no-show on the road from its defense.
Louisville in many ways embodies the 2019 ACC: The Cardinals will wind up allowing over 50 points to both Miami and Wake Forest… and yet will leave 2019 thinking they can achieve at a high level in 2020.
It all sounds so absurd, but it’s true. Louisville has made enormous strides this season, even though its road-field defense has been especially bad — 55.5 points per game against Wake and Miami.
Virginia’s offense could not light up Louisville’s defense, but it could light up North Carolina’s defense… which held Clemson in check.
North Carolina was good enough to take Clemson to the brink, bad enough to lose to Virginia Tech at a time when the Hokies were struggling, and mediocre enough to nearly lose at home to Duke.
Duke fits into the ACC’s 2019 picture of insanity as well. The Blue Devils are now likely to miss a bowl game, and yet this is the same season in which they beat Virginia Tech by 35 in Blacksburg, and seemed to have a bowl bid all but wrapped up in early October. They haven’t done anything since. Imagine saying to yourself that Duke would win by 35 in Blacksburg and miss a bowl in the same year.
Miami beat Florida State by 17 on the road and smothered Virginia… and yet will almost surely fail to win the Coastal or make a New Year’s Six game. Huh.
Pitt seemed to be a normal, solid, responsible program… and then it lost that game to Miami. Pitt, often the embodiment of ACC wackiness, remained on brand after a month and a half of suggesting that maybe this time it would settle down and enjoy some family time.
Virginia has been all over the place this season, messing around with Georgia Tech and Old Dominion in close home games, stumbling at Miami, and yet playing great on the road against Pittsburgh and well enough against North Carolina.
If there has been anything close to a responsible non-Clemson team in the 2019 ACC, it is Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons have not picked up a bad loss, yet in their two losses, their defense was overwhelmed. Wake still has a good chance for an Orange Bowl bid because it didn’t slip on the banana peel this year. Yet, the Demon Deacons — in this climate of chaos and fragility — will lost at least three games if they can’t figure out how to beat Clemson next.
In 2018, Syracuse was a strong second-place team in the ACC which nearly did beat Clemson. We’ll see if Wake can rise to that standard against the Tigers.
If you wanted stability, linear logic, and the calm disposition of someone who wanted to settle down, 2019 ACC football just wasn’t for you. The season isn’t done, but I think we can already reach that conclusion without much controversy or pushback.
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