Around the ACC: Week 8 – Routs at the Top, Road Upsets, and a Fired Coach
From Blacksburg to Berkeley, reflections on the weekend in ACC football...and another week of conference craziness in the middle of the league.
It was just another normal week in the ACC. The contenders kept their positions, but the middle is still a muddied mess. Six ACC teams have only two league losses, while seven teams have three losses each.
At the top, Miami and SMU won again and Wake Forest enjoyed a break. Meanwhile, at the bottom, Syracuse finally won an ACC game but remained in sole possession of last place in the league.
Barring any more upsets (I won’t hold my breath), The ACC title game should include two of the current top three teams. But as we know, anything can and will happen in ACC football, and the new tiebreaker stands a good chance to be utilized. With 15 teams, there is an unlikelihood of common opponents, so we could find ourselves referencing Team Success Rankings or a Commissioner’s draw. Like that won’t cause controversy!
Conference championship weekend is over a month away, though, so let’s leave ACC tiebreaker talk alone for now and review the big storylines of week 8:
ACC Football
@ACCFootball
𝗣𝗟𝗔𝗬𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗞: Week 8 🔗 theacc.co/26FBpotwwk8 https://t.co/YMt
Finally, a Big Win for Virginia Tech
After years of failing to punch above their weight class, Virginia Tech finally won a game against a team of equal or better status. Going into the game, Clemson was 4-2 and ranked 48 in ESPN's Football Power Index (FPI). Tech’s FPI was 47.
Clemson was favored, and it was a night game at Death Valley – emerging victorious in that situation is never an easy task – but the Hokies did what they have not done since 2007, and that is win at Clemson. In fact, the Hokies had lost the last seven matchups with the Tigers before Saturday. So this win was long overdue! (Now, can the Hokies break that five-game Miami losing streak?)
It wasn’t always pretty – again the Hokies played poorly in the third quarter, being outscored 13-0 – but they were very resilient and pulled out the victory in the closing minutes.
Down 16-13 late in the game, James Franklin’s decision to go for it on fourth-and-one on the Clemson five yard-line was a gutsy call, and I’m sure it would have been wildly criticized had the attempt failed. But it was successful, and the Hokies secured a big win, becoming bowl-eligible in the process.
CFB Kings
@CFBKings
VIRGINIA TECH GAMBLES ON 4TH DOWN AND GRUNKEMEYER FINDS REYNOLDS TO TAKE THE LEAD 👀
When is the last time Virginia Tech was bowl eligible in October? We have to go back almost a decade to 2017. The Hokies finished the regular season 9-3 that year – it's a tall order to expect the same from this year’s crew, but 8-4 is very much in play.
Even with the two disappointing losses to Pitt and Cal, 8-4 would be a very good first year for James Franklin. This is still a young team, and the offensive line has suffered multiple injuries. Losses were bound to happen, but if Tech can finish with two wins for every loss, it will be quite a successful campaign, and it would be the most regular season wins since 2019.
"Before you can learn to win games like this, you've got to figure out not to lose them.''
James Franklin after beating Clemson in the final minutes of the game
Miami and SMU Roll
After narrowly escaping disaster with their home overtime win against Florida State last week, Miami unleashed a world of hurt on Pitt, hammering the Panthers 52-23. Darian Mensah completed 31 of 37 passes for 387 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Malachi Toney caught 3 of those TDs, breaking his own record with 16 total receptions and 194 yards. The sophomore receiver has already surpassed 2,000 career receiving yards!
Pitt falls to 5-3 and has now lost three straight since losing their starting quarterback in their victory against Virginia Tech. To earn a bowl berth, the Panthers will have to find a way to beat Georgia Tech, Florida State, Louisville, or Cal. The way Pitt is playing right now, that could be a struggle.
Underdog CFB
@UnderdogCFB
Sophomore Miami WR Malachi Toney has surpassed 2,000 career receiving yards during the 1st quarter vs Pitt today It is just Toney's 23rd career collegiate game
Meanwhile, SMU rolled it up on Cal, scoring the final 21 points en route to a 59-20 victory. It was a balanced attack for the Mustangs who amassed 256 yards on the ground and 236 yards through the air.
On the other side of the ball, Cal was limited to just 40 yards of rushing. With no turnovers and limited penalties (5), SMU showed how dangerous they can be when clicking on all cylinders.
Barring any further chaos - which I wouldn’t bet on - this should be a three-way race for the ACC championship game, with the Wake Forest-SMU game in November deciding who will challenge Miami in Charlotte.
The Sharp Republic
@TheSharpRep
🏈 THE SHARP REPUBLIC | ACC TITLE FORECAST 👑 🔥 Miami is in the driver's seat for the ACC crown! Our latest model ran 250,000 simulations using our locked power ratings, and the Hurricanes are the clear favorites. 🏆 ACC Championship Probabilities: 🟠 Miami — 82.3% 🔵 SMU — https
BC, Syracuse, and Stanford Surprise
Like the Undertaker rising from a WWE ringside coffin, Boston College showed some new life when it pummeled Georgia Tech 49-27. The Eagles ran all over the Ramblin’ Wreck, gaining 399 yards on the ground. At 4-3 overall and 2-2 in conference, BC suddenly has a realistic chance to make a bowl, and, although unrealistic, they could win out and end up in a tiebreaker scenario for the ACC title game. But let’s just focus on the bowl berth right now, which would be a huge accomplishment for Bill O'Brien and the Eagles this year.
Down Tobacco Road, Syracuse did their own Undertaker impersonation, surprising a recently resurgent UNC squad in overtime, 31-30. This is the second OT win for ‘Cuse, and it is also the second time that they went for two and the win after the first overtime session. Kudos to Fran Brown for joining James Franklin in the “Cajones of the Week” club.
Out west, Stanford found an offense and put up 31 points to outlast NC State 31-28. However, Outside of the Bay Area and Raleigh, North Carolina, not too many people had interest in this game, and come to think of it, not too many in the Bay Area cared either (see tweet below). Both teams are near the ACC basement, hoping to just earn a bowl bid. And NC State is now looking for a new coach.
Noah Fleischman
@fleischman_noah
The crowd at kickoff for NC State at Stanford.
Would This Game Have Been Better on the Hardwood?
It seems that each week we can easily ask which matchup would have been better in basketball. For this weekend, it was Duke at Virginia. Clearly the fans agree, because Scott Stadium appeared to have fewer bodies in the bleachers than John Paul Jones arena would hold had these two schools squared off in hoops.
The Blue Devils scored on a trick play in the last minutes to escape Charlottesville with the win, 19-16. To add insult to injury, Duke’s winning score came on a double pass, the same play that UVa unsuccessfully ran to end the ACC championship game against Duke last year. As if that isn’t bad enough, UVa officially has a quarterback controversy on its hands. Woe to the Wahoos.
Mike Barber
@StillMikeBarber
People always worry about Friday night college games taking away from high school football. But here in Charlottesville, it seems like the fans may have picked high school games…
NC State Fires Their Coach
As mentioned above, North Carolina State is officially looking for a new football coach. After 14 years and 98 wins, Dave Doeren has been let go by the university. He had been on the hot seat for the past few campaigns, but the loss at Stanford was the final nail in his head coach coffin, and the administration decided to move on from the longtime Wolfpack leader.
Doeren was a good for NC State. However, he could not get that program over the hump, failing to win 10 games in any of his 14 seasons. Still, he finishes his NC State career as the winningest coach in program history. Here are some other accolades as we say goodbye to the league’s second-longest tenured coach no more:
NC State posted winning records in 10 of Doeren’s 14 seasons.
From 2017 to 2023, the Wolfpack won 8 or 9 games every year except one.
NC State earned 11 bowl bids in Doeren’s 13 full seasons (the 2021 Holiday Bowl was cancelled due to Covid protocols).
29 of his NC State players were drafted from 2016-2025.
He may have been fired, but he holds no grudges. "I might be in the mountains somewhere, sitting in a river fishing or at the lake. But I'll always be cheering for the Wolfpack, I promise you that," Doeren said.
It’s been a tough month for the Wolfpack faithful, first losing former player and coach Chuck Amato, now firing their long-time football coach. They are a passionate fanbase, and they deserve a winner. The league is better when they are good, so here’s to a successful coaching search for NC State!
The off-season
@TheOffSeasonCFB
ACC standaings through week 8
Looking Ahead to Week 9
There are 8 games on the slate involving ACC schools this week, and all of them will be conference matchups, so the standing should evolve again, hopefully for the better (but as I already said, this is ACC football, and anything can and will happen!)
SMU at Syracuse – The Dome does funny things. Upset watch?
Cal at NC State (Friday night) – Can the Wolfpack avoid consecutive losses to the two California ACC teams? Loser drops to 4 league losses,
Boston College at Duke – Both teams are coming off exciting wins; it will be interesting to see if either can carry that momentum over. For some reason, I feel that BC is the team with more moxie right now.
Stanford at Louisville – Stanford has been terrible away from home, so look for Louisville to win the Cardinal Bowl (or is it the Cardinals Bowl?)
Virginia at Wake Forest – With these two teams heading in different directions, this should – should – be a Demon Deacon victory, but again, this is the ACC...
Clemson at Florida State – Oh how this game has lost its luster! This was once the premier ACC matchup - heck, it was a premier national matchup - but right now the stakes are merely to see which coach can keep the heat off himself for the week.
Miami at North Carolina – Was Carolina looking ahead to this one? They have a good pass rush, but is that enough to stop the Miami machine? Hurricanes typically are not good to North Carolina; let’s see if that holds true in football, not just weather systems.
Georgia Tech at Pittsburgh – This game has zero juice. Both teams are struggling mightily. Why is this primetime ESPN2 viewing?
Virginia Tech is on a bye, so Hokie Nation gets an extra week to celebrate its recent win. Enjoy it!
Go Hokies!
Columnist
Born in the Bronx but otherwise raised in northern New Jersey, my Hokie life began in the fall of 1989. I walked on to the baseball team and spent a year and a half as a redshirt catcher.