What mattered and what’s important from Week 1 of the ACC college football season?
Florida 24, Miami 20
10 Quick Thoughts on Florida’s 24-20 win
Clemson 52, Georgia Tech 14
Two key things to take away from this. 1) Trevor Lawrence, don’t run the ball. There’s no need – he took off a few times for 34 yards and a touchdown. 2) While it worked out and the D held on the goal line, never make a tackle. So what if the defense scored off the pick? That’s not worth a potential injury to the franchise guy. Also, blow off the 13-of-23, 168-yard, one score, two pick stats. 52-14 … move on.
The running game is special – duh. The O line killed the Georgia Tech defensive front, especially in the interior. Run Travis Etienne inside, and kaboom – he was unstoppable with 205 yards and three scores on just 12 carries. Georgia Tech’s defense will be fine, but ir gave up 411 rushing yards.
The adjustment to the new offense under head coach Geoff Collins will go a whole lot better when it doesn’t have to go against the Clemson defensive front. The game got out of hand so fast that the running game was irrelevant. The problem? Georgia Tech isn’t build to start bombing away. Turning the ball over four times didn’t help. Going against USF next week will be the better test.
Wake Forest 38, Utah State 35
This was a fantastic win. Getting to six victories will be tough this season for the Demon Deacons, and pulling this one out in the thriller against a dangerous Utah State team was big. The Aggies kept pressing, Jordan Love threw for 416 yards, and the Demon Deacons still won. Picking off three passes helped.
Love was outstanding, but Jamie Newman did his part with 401 yards and three touchdowns … and no interceptions. He ran for a touchdown, too, and he kept up the pace every time the Demon Deacons were pressed.
There wasn’t the pressure like there needed to be or usually is from Wake Forest, and the D allowed almost 600 yards of total offense, but again, the three picks were a big deal. Wake Forest was +2 in turnover margin and committed just one penalty. As it turned out, the little things meant a lot. Holding on to the ball for almost 13 minutes more than Utah State helped, too.
NEXT: East Carolina at NC State, Duke vs. Alabama, North Carolina vs. South Carolina
NC State 34, East Carolina 6
NC State came up with a strong, workmanlike performance to ease its way into the season. With Western Carolina up next, and very, very winnable games against West Virginia and Florida State on the road, there’s a chance for 5-0 with the way this defense plays. There was no running on the Wolfpack – the Pirates ended up with just 41 yards on the ground.
How was Matt McKay after taking over for Ryan Finley? Terrific. He didn’t throw ant picks, threw for 308 yards, and spread the ball around well to seep things moving. There was little drama – the O just kept going on the way to over 500 yards. There weren’t any turnovers – the defense wasn’t put in a bad position.
The Pack didn’t even turn it loose defensively. The pressure came from several spots and ECU didn’t go anywhere. There’s offensive talent on this Pirate team, and it could only managed two field goals.
Alabama 42, Duke 3
It’s Alabama – Duke wasn’t going to be able to do anything. The run defense was able to hold up relatively well – only allowing 3.5 yards per carry – and it didn’t get pummeled by the Crimson Tide offensive line, but that’s about it for the positives. This was total domination by the other side after the first quarter.
Quentin Harris had to push the ball a bit, and but he didn’t get enough plays and enough chances – the offense couldn’t do anything to control the game. Bama struck quickly, but it also played with enough of a pace to keep the Blue Devil defense on its heels.
It’s a plus that Dylan Singleton was all over the place making plays, but it’s a problem when your safety is making 13 tackles. There was no pass rush and no pressure in the Bama backfield, Tua Tagovailoa had time to get comfortable, and he took target practice. Fortunately, North Carolina A&T is up next to get over this.
North Carolina 24, South Carolina 20
Okay, North Carolina. If a team like South Carolina is going bring the vanilla gameplan and not push too hard, then go ahead and up the intensity and take it over. The Tar Heels made a ton of mistakes, they caught several break, and … they flat-out out-played the Gamecocks when it mattered. Emotion played a huge part in the second half.
The Tar Heels have some ballers. The receiving corps made a slew of big plays – especially in crunch-time – and QB Sam Howell played like a four-year veteran instead of a true freshman. He didn’t throw any picks, he gunned it for 245 yards, and he was magnificent in the fourth quarter. UNC scored 18 second half points and 15 in the fourth. USC was shutout in the final frame.
Mack Brown has certainly changed around the attitude. The Tar Heels lost so many tight games last season, and this time around, they simply executed, were loose, and it all worked. There was almost a perfect offensive balance, the defense was flying around, and it was a big, big win that’s been missing form the program for a long, long time.
NEXT: Virginia Tech at Boston College, Syracuse at Liberty, Boise State at Florida State
Boston College 35, Virginia Tech 28
Boston College didn’t run all that well, the secondary was lit up, and there were several moments in the second half when the O just didn’t work. But it took advantage of the big moments when there were the chances in the second quarter. The Hokies kept screwing up, BC scored 21 points in just under six minutes, and that was enough.
The Hokie D was able to bottle up AJ Dillon. The BC rushing star was able to get loose for a touchdown run, but for the most part, he couldn’t go anywhere. This is where, the play of Anthony Brown took things to another level, throwing for 275 yards and two scores and running for another touchdown. He took over, but …
Virginia Tech gave the ball away five times. Ryan Willis threw for 344 yards and four scores, the passing game pushed the BC defense around, and the chains kept moving, but mistake after mistake killed the Hokies. They were +4 in turnover margin, and that screwed up a big day from the run defense.
Syracuse 24, Liberty 0
It was a strange, strange game. Start with the ACC team going to Liberty in the first place, but Flame head coach Hugh Freeze up in the box high in the stadium in a bed as he recovered from back surgery made things even more bizarre. Syracuse was able to fight through a bad overall performance by bringing the thump from the defense.
The Orange destroyed the Liberty offensive line. They came up with eight sacks and 14 tackles for loss to go along with four takeaways. The Flames were able to drive deep on SU, but there was a lot of bending but no breaking. The defense came though when it had to, and it had to, because …
The team was sloppy. The Orange turned it over three times and committed ten penalties. Tommy DeVito struggled, hitting fewer than half of his passes with no touchdown passes and two picks. The team has to be a whole lot sharper going to Maryland.
Boise State 36, Florida State 31
There were positives out of all of this. Florida State might have totally collapsed – being outscored 17-0 in the second half – and the defense went bye-bye, but for the first half, that was Florida State being Florida State again. The team looked fast, it played loose, and the playmakers were there on both sides. But the D …
Florida State couldn’t stop the avalanche. The defensive front got shoved around as Boise State’s Robert Mahone ran wild, and the secondary couldn’t screw up true freshman QB Hank Bachmeier when it counted. From not falling on a key fumble, to a slew of other miscues, the word to use is discombobulated – that’s what FSU was in the second half. Giving up 621 yards of Boise State offense was disastrous when the O couldn’t move the ball.
Here’s the positive. This doesn’t matter. Florida State wasn’t going to win the national title this year, anyway, and it wasn’t going to the College Football Playoff. However, there was a spark that wasn’t there last season. James Blackman threw the ball well. Cam Akers had room to move. There was a real, live offense, even if it couldn’t score late. The team is past teachable moments under Willie Taggart, but for now, just starting to control the clock would help. Boise State had it over 20 minutes longer, mainly because FSU was 1-of-12 on third downs.
NEXT: Virginia at Pitt, Notre Dame at Louisville
Virginia 30, Pitt 14
Virginia isn’t going to do anything all that pretty, but it was able to win in a blowout, anyway. The offense sputtered at times, but the defense was out of this world in the second half as it allowed Bryce Perkins and company to take over. The UVa QB threw two touchdown passes and ran for 44 yards, but this game was about the other side.
There wasn’t a Pitt running game. There was no explosion – especially compared to last season – and QB Kenny Pickett had nothing happening down the field. The offensive line couldn’t handle the Virginia defensive front.
It’s not like Virginia did anything to amazing. It was +2 in turnover margin, and it controlled the clock for over 34 minutes, but the win because the pressure was there from all sides, the D got off the field when it had to, and even after being down at halftime, the team was never out of control. It wasn’t a sexy performance, but Virginia looked like it might just be the second-best team in the ACC.
Monday September 2
Notre Dame at Louisville
COMING
