Did the ACC preseason football poll get it right? | answered by @mattzemek

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The ACC Question of the week is back with our esteemed friend and college football writer @MattZemek, Editor at @TrojansWire .

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ACC QUESTION of WEEK : Did the ACC preseason football poll get it right?

The 2020 ACC football preseason poll is out. Criticizing the media is necessary when warranted, but if the media does a good job in a specific instance, one should be able to acknowledge as much.

Look at the poll. Is there really anything particularly outrageous, outside of Wake Forest being downgraded a little too much?

ACC media preseason poll:

1. Clemson (132 1st place votes)
2. Notre Dame (2)
3. North Carolina
4. Louisville
5. Virginia Tech
6. Miami
7. Florida State
8. Pitt
9. Virginia
10. Wake Forest
11. NC State
12. Duke
13. Boston College
14. Syracuse
15. Georgia Tech

— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 4, 2020

Virginia Tech fans won’t like being at No. 5, and that’s a reasonable point, but the top five was always going to include Virginia Tech, and the Hokies are there. It’s no insult to put North Carolina above Virginia Tech. Louisville being No. 4 might annoy some Hokie fans, but we can all see why Louisville would get the nod over Virginia Tech: The Cardinals don’t face either Clemson or North Carolina. Virginia Tech has to play the Tar Heels.

Really — there isn’t a lot to sternly criticize here.

Clemson and Notre Dame do figure to be the elite teams in the ACC this season, with North Carolina having a legitimate chance to knock off Notre Dame and become Clemson’s opponent in the ACC Championship Game. It’s perfectly reasonable to pick Virginia Tech instead of North Carolina as the team which could face Clemson for the conference championship, but that doesn’t mean a UNC selection is crazy. No one would think that, given how loaded the Tar Heels’ offense is entering 2020.

Miami is slotted properly, just outside the top five… which leads to this point: If one was to come up with a “dark horse” selection for a big run this year, the Hurricanes would probably be the best choice. This doesn’t mean we should expect it — a “dark horse” is a dark horse for a reason — but the Canes could conceivably cause some trouble. We know that Miami’s great flaw over the past decade and a half has been the quarterback position. There has been no Ken Dorsey-like figure to guide The U’s offense and complement the Canes’ speed and skill-position talent. If D’Eriq King, the transfer from Houston, can be the kind of quarterback Miami has been looking for — and if new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee can deliver the goods under Manny Diaz — everything could fall into place for the Hurricanes.

All in all, the media got it right, with the exception of Wake Forest. Why anyone would underrate a Dave Clawson program at this point in time is beyond me. If that’s the worst mistake the media made, the ACC preseason poll deserves a generally favorable assessment.

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