For some off-season football reading, we already looked at the ACC’s 5 best Out of Conference wins of the 2020s. Unfortunately that was an unimpressive list especially with the lack of OOC games in the first year of the decade, and an 0-6 bowl record.
The narrative doesn’t just get set with lack of quality wins though, ugly OOC losses set you significantly back as well.
With just 1 season in for the 2020s there are already some black eyes on the ACC’s football resume.
For the previous decade we ranked the ACC’s 50 biggest OOC wins of the 2010s. They were some great wins there. That’s for sure.
1. Virginia Tech 35 Liberty 38 – November 7, 2020
Liberty turned out to be a pretty good team finishing the season with just 1 loss and ranked, but under any circumstances should Virginia Tech be losing at home to the Flames? Being a loss to an in-state school compounded the issues with this one. A debacle of a finish with Justin Fuente’s timeout giving Liberty’s kicker another chance to win the game cost the Hokies dearly, and sent Virginia Tech fans into an irate frenzy.
2. NC State 21 Kentucky 23 – January 2, 2021
In a disastrous bowl season for the ACC, NC State losing to Kentucky took the dreadful top honors. Kentucky was a bad football team in 2020. They came into the this bowl with an ugly 4-6 record and without a win over a team with a winning record. NC State came in with an 8-3 record, and who I still believe should have been ACC COY Dave Doeren. By any measure the Wolfpack were one of the ACC’s better teams. NC State turned the ball over 3 times, trailed the entire time and just added to the ACC’s miserable bowl season with the worst loss of the bunch.
3. Syracuse 21 Liberty 38 – October 17, 2021
As Syracuse was the ACC’s worst team in 2020, any of their losses are going to carry less weight. That said a 17 point loss to Liberty is still pretty bad. After being tied 14-14, Liberty went on to outscore Syracuse 24-7, and completely dominated the game outgaining Syracuse by over 200 yards. Syracuse’s 10 win season seems like a lifetime ago.
4. Wake Forest 28 Wisconsin 42 – December 30, 2020
Wake Forest losing to Wisconsin is not such a bad loss actually. It is the way Wake Forest lost that stung so much. Wake Forest led 14-0, then promptly played some of the sloppiest football in recent years from Dave Clawson coached team. Wisconsin went on a 42-14 run, as the normally reliable Sam Hartman had a nightmare of a game throwing 4 interceptions. That’s how you lose a game by 2 TDs when you outgain your opponent in yards 518-266.
5. Georgia Tech 21 #14 UCF 49 – September 19, 2020
The ACC lost a total of 9 OOC games in 2020, so some game has to fill the 5th spot. The other 4 losses were to teams that finished in the top 20, and UCF turned out to be really not that good. Let’s face it, UCF was better than Georgia Tech, but this UCF team finished the year unranked and a pedestrian 6-4, going 4-4 in their final 8 games. This game was relatively competitive through 3 quarters, but UCF’s superior depth of talent sent the game out of hand. No ACC teams should be losing to 6-4 4th place Conference USA teams by 4 touchdowns, not even bottom tier ones like Georgia Tech.
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