Ah opening weekend in college football. It should be great, but for the ACC there should be a healthy dose of worry. It could go really bad. I mean really bad. Take a look at the below matchups and you’ll see where things could potentially go south in hurry.
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— ESPN College Football (@ESPNCFB) May 18, 2021
Alabama vs Miami
I think Miami is a legit top 20 team. QB D’Eriq King should be fully recovered from injury, and Oklahoma transfer Charleston Rambo gives the Canes a dangerous deep threat. Here is the problem. You are playing Alabama in the opening couple weeks of a season. The Tide chews up OOC opponents in their opening games and and spits them out.
Alabama hasn’t lost a single game in their opening two weeks since 2003. Nick Saban is obviously undefeated, and from Penn State, to Michigan, Florida State, USC, Virginia Tech, Clemson, Wisconsin and West Virginia ranked or not, the Tide has beat every single one by double digits. Most really not even competitive. I’m not saying Miami doesn’t have a chance, but Alabama is just on another level.
Florida State vs Notre Dame
This matchup looks great on paper, but this isn’t early 1990s, it’s not even 2014 when as top 10 teams they played a classic in a 31-27 FSU win. The Irish are still among the country’s better teams, but Florida State is a shell of the program it once was.
The Noles haven’t had winning record since 2017, and have only won 14 games the last 3 years. Last year was a 42-26 loss, and it was a considered moral victory as FSU made it relatively competitive. It’s hard to imagine the Noles are ready to beat a team the caliber of Notre Dame.
Ole Miss vs Louisville
Ole Miss probably is who Miami should have been playing. The Rebels don’t scare anyone after a 5-5 season, but The Cardinals are coming off their own ugly 4-7 year. Lane Kiffin’s team can put up points. Seven games last year they put up more than 30 points.
Louisville struggled defensively last year in the majority of their games, and while I certainly give the Cardinals a better chance of winning their game than Miami or FSU, it could easily end up being a loss.
This could be a wild shootout.
Clemson vs Georgia
There’s maybe 2 or 3 teams in college football that can play straight up with Clemson. Georgia is one of them. This is a great game for fans, arguably the best regular season game of the season, but a loss could cripple Clemson’s playoff chances in game 1.
Lose and the ACC’s best chance at a playoff team will need to win out – that’s 12 straight wins the Tigers would need. Yes they’d be favored in every game after Georgia, but there is no depth at QB and running the table in the ACC still isn’t a given. UNC came within a play of beating Clemson in 2019, and Boston College had Clemson on the ropes last year.
The bottom line is the ACC would take a 2-2 record in these four games in a heart beat, but the possibility of losing all 4 is very real. If that happens the ACC will spend the entire season fighting the narrative yet again.
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