For some off-season football reading, we want to look at the ACC’s 5 best Out of Conference wins of the 2020s. Unfortunately, this is still a pretty unimpressive list for the ACC. At least we were able to fill out 5 noteworthy if not truly great wins OOC wins.
After last season we couldn’t even fill out 5 games to this list.
There’s still not a ranked power 5 win in the bunch so there is still a lot of work to do for the ACC.
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. Let’s hope the rest of this decade starts approaching the last decade.
1. Pittsburgh 41 Tennessee 34 – September 11, 2021
When Pittsburgh went down to Knoxville and defeated Tennessee 41-34, it raised a lot of eyebrows. There haven’t been many ACC wins over SEC teams in recent years, especially on the road besides Clemson, and this game set in motion what would be possible for the Panthers for the rest of the season. They went one to win 11 games and the ACC Title. Tennessee wasn’t great, but they were a decent 7-6 (4-4) team with a win over Kentucky and near wins over Ole Miss and Purdue.
2. NC State 15 #21 Liberty 14 – November 21, 2020
This was the one win by an ACC team that was a legitimately strong OOC win in 2020, and it was pulled off by NC State. Liberty finished the year 10-1 with a final ranking in the top 25 of both major polls and had wins over Syracuse, Virginia Tech, and a top 15 Coastal Carolina team. It was a stellar defensive performance by the Wolfpack while playing their backup QB Baily Hockman. This was a quality win that NC State fans can take pride in.
3. Louisville 42 UCF 35 – September 17, 2021
UCF has become quite a quality football program in recent years. They even opened the season with a win over Boise State. This game on Friday night had one of the highlight finishes of the year for an ACC team. Louisville returned a tipped pass for a TD with 13 seconds left to win this game in thrilling fashion. UCF went on to have a 9-4 season game with a bowl win over Florida. This was definitely a great win for Louisville in an otherwise uneven year.
4. #22 Miami 25 Appalachian St 23 – September 11, 2021
I never understood why after Miami won this game, people were so critical of Miami. That was a pretty solid Appalachian State team that went 10-4 and a division title. Yea it was only a 2 point win, but the reality was the Canes were not as good as their top 15 ranking so this really was a quality win over a good team.
5. #23 Clemson 30 South Carolina 0 – November 27, 2021
Clemson’s worst team in nearly a decade went down to Columbia, SC, and totally thrashed a South Carolina team some felt could knock off the Tigers. This wasn’t an awful South Carolina team as they went 7-6, and were just a couple of scores from a 9-win season. Clemson proved though the enormous gap that remains between the two schools’ football programs. The win was part of the Tiger’s late-season surge that saw them win their final 6 games and finish with their 11th straight 10+ win season.
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