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College Football

10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 12 in the ACC

Brett Friedlander

By Brett Friedlander

Published:

Just win, baby.

The late Al Davis coined the phrase to say that it didn’t matter how his Oakland Raiders won games, as long as they won them.

The concept still holds in the NFL, where wins and losses and only wins and losses determine who gets to play for championships and who doesn’t.

Not so much in the college game.

In a system where there’s a committee that determines which teams fill its Playoff bracket, whether it’s the old 4-team one or the new 12-team version, not all wins are created equally.

There are good wins and bad wins.

Three guesses as to how the committee will view ACC leader SMU’s 10-point victory against Boston College on Saturday. And the first 2 don’t count. Suffice it to say it won’t be looked upon as favorably as Tennessee’s “good” loss to Georgia.

Despite being 9-1 and undefeated in conference play, the Mustangs will be fortunate to maintain their current No. 14 ranking.

That’s just one of the 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 12 in and around the ACC.

10. What’s the difference between a good win and a bad win?

The criteria appear to be completely arbitrary, determined by the whim of Michigan AD Warde Manuel and his committee.

But let’s give it a try, anyway.

Good win: Any victory earned by an SEC team, Penn State or Notre Dame.

Bad win: Any victory in which the final margin doesn’t cover the point spread or passes the “eye test.” Or is earned by Boise State, a Big 12 team or an ACC team other than Miami.

Good win: Any win that comes a week after Kirby Smart grouses about his team being ranked too low.

Bad win: Any win that doesn’t fit the committee’s predetermined agenda.

That about sums it up.

9. Prime-time in Tallahassee

It was Paul Finebaum that first floated the rumor, so there is probably more bluster to it than substance. And yet, Coach Prime returning home to his alma mater to clean up the mess Mike Norvell has made this season makes a lot of sense on a lot of levels.

First and foremost, Deion Sanders is a Seminoles legend whose number has been retired by the program. He’s also proven to be an elite recruiter who won at Jackson State and whose second team at Colorado is one of the most improved in the county. Most of all, though, he’s a national celebrity whose electric personality will draw the media’s attention to Tallahassee and make FSU even more of a marketable commodity.

Is there any chance Norvell pays the price for this season’s 1-9 disaster?

Probably not, even though this will be his 3rd losing record in his 5 seasons with the Seminoles. And not with a buyout of $64-plus million, according to USA Today’s salary database. And yet, after scapegoating both of his coordinators in a purge following a 52-3 blowout at Notre Dame 2 weeks ago, FSU athletic director Michael Alford voiced his support of his head coach, saying that he has “100% confidence in him.”

That might sound reassuring at face value. Then again, the last thing any struggling coach wants to hear is a vote of confidence from his boss.

8. This is already getting fun …

The ACC is part of some of the best rivalries in college football.

There’s the Backyard Brawl, The Battle for the Victory Bell, the Palmetto Cup and even some Clean Old Fashioned Hate.

Its newest rivalry, however, might be the most intense yet. The matchup between Bay Area neighbors Cal and Stanford is so hotly contested that it’s known simply as “The Big Game.”

This year’s showdown, the first as an ACC game, will be played on Saturday in Berkeley. And it got just a little more interesting after the Cardinal snapped a 6-game losing streak with a walk-off win against Louisville. The Bears, meanwhile, will be looking for a win that will make the bowl eligible, in addition to retaining possession of the Stanford Axe for the 4th consecutive year. Their 3-game winning streak is their longest since Aaron Rodgers and then Marshawn Lynch helped Cal win 5 straight in the early 2000s.

Emotions are already on overdrive.

With the teams’ mascots doing most of the yapping.

7. Who made this schedule?

Now that we’ve established that The Big Game really is a big deal, why is it being played a week early instead of on the final week of the regular season like all the other traditional rivalries involving ACC teams?

As much as the Bears and Cardinal have fully embraced their new association with the ACC, it’s incumbent upon the conference to reciprocate by fully embracing their history and traditions,

Including playing their annual rivalry game on the date in which rivalries are supposed to be played.

Not the week before.

6. Miami was off, so somebody had to do it …

Jeff Brohm and his Louisville Cardinals found a way of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory that would have made Mario Cristobal and his Hurricanes proud.

It’s bad enough that they coughed up a 2-touchdown lead in the 4th quarter against a 2-7 team that hadn’t beaten an FBS team at home since October 2022, The way they did it made the meltdown all the more spectacular.

Instead of doing the smart thing by playing for overtime on 4th-and-10 from the Stanford 45 with 10 seconds remaining in regulation, Brohm decided to get aggressive and have quarterback Tyler Shough take a shot at the end zone. That might have been OK had the incompletion taken up all the remaining time.

But it didn’t.

That’s where the Cardinals’ lack of discipline took over. First cornerback Tayon Holloway was called for unsportsmanlike conduct after a short pass from Ashton Daniels to Emmett Mosley, turning a harmless 1-yard gain into a 16-yard pickup. Then, as Stanford lined up for a 57-yard field goal try, fellow DB Quincy Riley jumped offsides to put kicker Emmet Kenney into a more makeable range.

Just as he did in his team’s only other ACC win, at Syracuse back in September, Kenney drilled it as time expired. In doing so, he helped Stanford gain some momentum heading into next week’s Big Game against rival Cal. At the same time, though, he also may have lessened both SMU and Miami in the eyes of the Playoff Committee by depriving both teams of a ranked victory.

5. Another week, another officiating embarrassment

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The ACC has a serious officiating problem that needs to be addressed immediately and decisively.

The latest example came with about 4 minutes left in Saturday’s Clemson-Pitt game. With the score tied and the Panthers facing a second-and-9 play from their own 46, quarterback Nate Yarnell was sacked by Tigers’ linebacker Dee Crayton for a 3-yard loss. In the process, Crayton’s arm made contact with Yarnell’s helmet and facemask, snapping the quarterback’s head back before he hit the ground.

Even though the hit was obvious to the naked eye in real-time, none of the 8 officials on the field saw it or chose to call it. That sent boos raining down from the stands at Acrisure Stadium while Panthers coach Pat Narduzzi, who has already been fined at least once this season for public criticism of the ACC’s refs, threw a tantrum on the sideline.

The play wasn’t supposed to be reviewable. But after a replay of the hit was shown on the big screen while trainers were attending to Yarnell, a flag was thrown and the officials decided to call the penalty.

They got the call right. And no trash was thrown onto the field. But that doesn’t make the way they handled the situation. Needless to say, Dabo wasn’t pleased.

“I can’t wait to have a conversation (with the league) on that one,” Swinney said after his Tigers rallied for a 24-20 victory.

Maybe Phillips and his director of officials Al Riveron will listen now that the criticism is coming from their conference’s most accomplished coach and finally do something to fix their problem. Because previous complaints from Narduzzi, Brent Pry, Jeff Brohm and others have fallen upon deaf ears.

4. Where there’s smoke …

Sunday night, Hayes Fawcett of On3 Sports reported that 3-star wide receiver prospect Arrion Concepcion has decommitted from NC State. That’s a major development in its own right. But it’s even more consequential because Anton is the younger brother of current Wolfpack receiver and woefully under-used star KC Concepcion.

Though it’s still too early to tell what KC’s plans are moving forward, it doesn’t take a fortune teller to read the tea leaves and come to the conclusion that there’s a good chance he’ll be moving on from the Wolfpack soon, too.

3. Mack’s magic

Want to know the difference between a Hall of Fame coach and a coach who’s on the fast track to collecting a big buyout?

Look no further than Norvell and North Carolina’s Mack Brown.

Both of their teams had quarterback issues. Both were challenged with adversity. But while Norvell lost his locker room, allowed the season to completely implode and eventually passed the blame off to his staff, Brown led his Tar Heels in the opposite direction.

A month ago, we all had him put out to pasture. Go ahead and admit it, because you know you did. It was just a matter of when, not if, he was going to announce his retirement. But the 73-year-old coach surprised us all.

All, except for his players.

Brown’s experience and grandfatherly presence helped keep the Tar Heels together and motivated in the face of a 4-game losing streak. His confidence in his coordinators produced adjustments, especially on defense, that got the team back on track. And his compassion helped his players deal with the heartbreak of losing teammate Tylee Craft to cancer.

While FSU is 1-9 and doomed to a last-place finish in the ACC, UNC has won 3 straight to earn bowl eligibility with 2 games still to play. If it wasn’t for Rhett Lashlee guiding SMU to the league lead in the Mustangs’ first season in the conference, we’d be talking about Brown as a possible Coach of the Year.

2. Miami should move up, but …

Losses by No. 6 BYU and No. 7 Tennessee should theoretically help Miami move up from No. 9 in this week’s rankings and into a more comfortable position to earn a first-round Playoff bye as 1 of the top 4 rated conference champions.

But a lot depends on what the committee decides to do with 2 other teams.

Only one of which will be included in its rankings.

The first is Georgia. Beating Tennessee on Saturday will give the committee an opportunity to appease Smart and overcorrect for their decision to drop the Bulldogs out of the top 12 following their loss to Ole Miss a week ago.

The other team is “Open Date.”

Okay, so that’s not actually a team. But the week off ended up costing SMU a spot in the last set of rankings. Now it’s the Hurricanes’ turn to find out what happens when they’re out of sight and out of mind of the committee.

1. Crouching Tigers, hidden Playoff contender

UNC’s Brown isn’t the only one in the ACC to have turned things around after being written off earlier in the season. Dabo Swinney and Clemson may also be in the process of proving their doubters wrong. Don’t look now, but the Tigers have quietly snuck back into realistic Playoff contention.

Even if they don’t qualify for the ACC Championship Game.

In fact, they might end up having a better shot at getting in if they don’t make it to Charlotte.

The Tigers aren’t likely to move up much from their current No. 20 in the Playoff poll this Tuesday after needing a last-minute 50-yard touchdown run from quarterback Cade Klubnik to escape Pittsburgh with a win Saturday.

But with 2-loss SEC teams and Big Ten frontrunners preparing to cannibalize each other over the next 2 weeks and a regular-season finale against fast-rising rival South Carolina coming up, Clemson could – as the kind of brand-name program the Committee favors – conceivably leapfrog enough teams to get into the top 11 and steal an at-large bid.

Including the ACC title game loser.

Brett Friedlander

Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.

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