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Out of sight, out of mind.
That’s apparently the approach taken by a large number of voters on the Associated Press football poll. How else do you explain the reasoning behind Clemson’s drop from No. 9 into a tie with Iowa State for No. 11 in this week’s rankings despite not playing?
I guess “Open” is a much tougher opponent than those played by Notre Dame, Texas A&M and BYU, all of which leapfrogged the idle Tigers. Then again, Tennessee had the week off as well. And yet somehow the Vols managed to stay at No. 7.
Is it a conspiracy to make it as difficult as possible for the ACC to get more than 1 team in the Playoff? Or simply a case of recency bias?
You know. Out of sight, out of mind.
That’s just one of the 10 things I’m absolutely overreacting to after Week 9 in and around the ACC.
10. College football’s overtime format is superior to the NFL’s
And it’s not even close.
Look no further than SMU’s 28-27 win at Duke on Saturday for proof. The Mustangs got the ball first and scored quickly on a 24-yard touchdown run by Brashard Smith. In the NFL, it would have been game over.
Drive home safely.
Sorry, Duke. Better luck next time.
But because this was a college game, the Blue Devils got an equal shot at answering back. And they wasted no time taking advantage, taking only one play for Maalik Murphy to hit Eli Pancol in the end zone.
That’s when the real fun began. Spooked by a kicker who had already missed an extra point and 2 field goals, including 1 that would have won the game on the final play of regulation, Manny Diaz decided to go for 2 and the win instead of rolling the dice on another kick to extend the game.
The try was unsuccessful and Duke lost. But the mere fact that Diaz was in a position to make the decision gave the game a dramatic finish that never could have happened under the NFL’s rules.
9. They keep shotgunning themselves in the foot
I’ve asked this question before. And no one seems capable of providing a good answer. So I’ll keep asking in the hope that someone can explain the logic to me like I’m a third grader.
Why do coaches keep insisting on running out the shotgun instead of having their quarterbacks under center in situations where there’s a yard or fewer to gain?
Doing so backfired on Virginia’s Tony Elliott and Wake Forest’s Dave Clawson on Saturday.
It nearly cost Clawson’s Deacons a victory when quarterback Hank Bachmeier was stopped short of the goal line on a 4th-down keeper out of the shotgun early in the 4th quarter at Stanford. The Cardinal then proceeded to drive 99 yards in the opposite direction for the tying touchdown.
Even though Wake eventually won on a late field goal and a game-saving interception, it should never have come to that.
I admit that I’m not good at math. But I can figure out that it makes more sense to gain 1 yard from 1 yard away rather than 5 yards.
Why is that such a difficult concept for coaches to grasp?
8. Adding insult to injury
Cal has gone out of its way to make friends in the ACC by playing just well enough to lose to its new conference opponents. The Bears are 0-4 in league play, with the losses coming by a combined 9 points. They’ve even missed a pair of makeable game-winning field goals in the final 2 minutes to keep up the goodwill.
The Calgorithm wasn’t as kind to a fellow Pac-12 leftover on Saturday.
Justin Wilcox and his team could have felt some sympathy for Oregon State. If not for the ACC throwing it and Bay Area neighbor Stanford a lifeline last fall when their former conference imploded, Cal would have suffered a similar fate and been thrown into realignment purgatory.
Instead, the Bears added insult to the Beavers’ injury while also taking out a little of their own frustration by administering a 44-7 beatdown on them. From the sound of things, they took great pleasure in doing so.
“Coach Wilcox talks about trying to take down the dam,” quarterback Fernando Mendoza said after the game. “Ironically enough because beavers build dams, we broke the dam today.”
7. Let’s not get carried away, Mario. At least not yet
As a proud graduate of Miami who was hired by his alma mater to help restore it to the championship glory he helped build as a player, it’s understandable that Mario Cristobal would revel in beating rivals Florida State and Florida. Especially when it entails kicking the Seminoles while they were down.
Still, the Hurricanes coach might want to pump the brakes a little when it comes to making big-picture proclamations regarding the trajectory of football in the Sunshine State.
https://twitter.com/accnetwork/status/1850622351676727618
Being undefeated and ranked No. 5 is a great place to start. It does have a positive impact on recruits. Just remember, though, FSU was an undefeated top-5 team at this time last year.
The script can flip in a hurry. And Cam Ward won’t be around long.
Staying there is even harder than getting there.
6. Coaching seat temperature check
As we like to say in North Carolina – and probably a lot of other places, too – if you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes and it will change. The same can be said about coaches whose job security might be in doubt.
The climate can change literally from week to week.
So let’s take stock of where some of the ACC’s most vulnerable coaches stand:
- North Carolina’s Mack Brown: Cooling. Speculation was rampant that Brown might step away during his Tar Heels’ open week. But the death of Tylee Craft changed everything. Forget football. There are more important things at play. Brown is the father figure whose leadership is important in helping his players get through a heartbreaking situation. Based on Saturday’s performance at Virginia, he and his staff have done a great job of that. Although Brown might still retire after the season, his presence in the locker room and on the sideline is too important to think about that right now.
- Virginia’s Tony Elliott: Warming. Elliott put himself in position to save his job with a 4-1 start that surpassed his team’s win totals from each of his first 2 seasons. But Saturday’s 41-14 loss to Brown’s Tar Heels could be a turning point that puts him back in hot water. UNC was the most beatable opponent left on the Cavaliers’ schedule. And if the difficult competition wasn’t enough of a warning sign, Elliott has a quarterback controversy brewing. A coach’s worst nightmare.
- Florida State’s Mike Norvell: 7 inches from the midday sun. He has a prohibitive buyout thanks to a new extension. But the folks in Tallahassee have shown they’re willing to throw a lot of money around while they’re crying poor. Norvell’s Seminoles are a mess. And there’s still time for things to get worse.
5. How to win a game without even trying
SMU beat Duke 28-27 in overtime to stay undefeated in the ACC and keep alive the possibility of a chaotic 3-way tie for the regular season championship. But for the life of him, Mustangs coach Rhett Lashlee couldn’t figure out how his team did it.
“We … probably put on a clinic on how to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat,” he said afterward. “There’s 4 or 5 times in the last 10 minutes of the game that I just say, ‘You know, it’s not our night.’”
It shouldn’t have been. Lashlee’s team did everything in its power to gift the the Blue Devils the victory. And Duke refused to accept it.
According to OptaSTATS, the Blue Devils became only the second FBS team since 2000 to record a +6 turnover margin and lose, joining Memphis in a 23-22 loss to Marshall in 2011, in the indignity. It’s inconceivable that a team could force 6 turnovers and fail to turn any of them into points. But the Blue Devils managed to pull it off.
Three interceptions and 3 fumble recoveries. Half of them coming in the 4th quarter of a tie game. With nothing to show for it other than a pair of missed field goals, a failed 2-point conversion in overtime and a result that defied logic.
“We should have lost that game 5 different times late,” Lashlee said. “If we played it 100 times, we’re probably losing 99 of them the way the game unfolded. It just happened to be the 1 time.”
The good news for Duke is that basketball starts next Monday. Judging from the way Jon Scheyer’s team looked in Sunday’s 103-47 exhibition blowout of Arizona State, the sting of Saturday’s football loss won’t last long.
4. Who are those guys in Carolina Blue?
It certainly wasn’t the same team that gave up 70 points to James Madison. Or that coughed up a game by giving up a 68-yard touchdown run to Georgia Tech when the Yellow Jackets were trying to run out the clock to play for overtime.
Maybe it was the motivation of playing to honor their late teammate Tylee Craft. Maybe it was the adjustments made during an opportune open date. Or maybe it was a combination.
Whatever the reason, North Carolina’s defense actually looked like it knew what it was doing in Saturday’s 41-14 rout of Virginia. The Tar Heels recorded 10 sacks, their most since matching that number in a 2000 win against Wake Forest, including 3 by star edge rusher Kaimon Rucker – finally healthy again for the first time since early in the season.
Rucker also had an interception, as did fellow lineman Jahvaree Ritzie, who returned his 84 yards for a touchdown.
Combined with an equally productive offensive performance, UNC snapped a 4-game losing streak and rekindled hope of salvaging a season that once appeared unsalvageable. With remaining games against foundering Florida State, Boston College and in-state rivals Wake Forest and NC State, finding the 2 wins necessary for bowl eligibility is hardly out of the question.
But only if the defense that showed up in Charlottesville on Saturday decides to stick around.
3. Eli Holstein hitting the wall
Pitt is still undefeated heading into its showdown against SMU in Dallas next week, a game that will identify one of the teams as a realistic ACC contender. But while Pat Narduzzi’s 18th-ranked Panthers appear to be riding high, there is at least one red flag that can’t be ignored.
After getting off to a blazing start, quarterback Eli Holstein is looking like just another freshman rather than the ACC’s Freshman of the Year frontrunner.
The Alabama transfer is still among the conference leaders at 258 passing yards per game with a .642 completion percentage and 17 touchdowns. His performance has dropped off considerably, however, in his past 2 games. He threw for only 133 yards with a pair of interceptions in a 17-15 win against Cal 2 weeks ago. Then Thursday against Syracuse, he hit on only 11-of-15 passes for 108 yards.
It’s still to be determined whether Holstein has hit a freshman wall or whether his “slump” is nothing more than opposing coaches figuring out how to defend him. If it’s the latter, it’s up to the young quarterback to make some adjustments of his own.
The sooner, the better if the Panthers hope to make a serious run at an ACC title shot.
2. Unraveling of McCord
Oh, so that’s why Ohio State coach Ryan Day decided to push Kyle McCord out the door.
It took 7 games at Syracuse to finally show up. But McCord’s questionable decision-making under pressure – the fundamental flaw in his game that led to his departure from the Buckeyes despite going 11-1 as their starter last season – reared its ugly head in Thursday’s 41-13 rout at the hands of Pitt.
McCord threw 3 touchdown passes in the first half.
All to the wrong team.
His mistakes dug the Orange into a 31-0 hole, all but deciding the outcome before the marching band played the first note of its halftime show. McCord was intercepted 5 times in all, giving him 11 for the season.
In his defense, Thursday’s debacle is the exception, not the rule during his short time with the Orange. He’s thrown for 19 touchdowns to his own receivers and surpassed the 300-yard mark in every game he’s played for Syracuse. Including 321 against Pitt. That might be good enough for a building program trying to get off the ground. Not as much for a team whose legitimate Playoff chances can go up in smoke with 1 inconsistent performance.
Like Thursday in Pittsburgh. Or last November in Ann Arbor.
1. Are the poll voters setting Clemson and the ACC up for an even bigger fall?
It’s easy to write off Clemson’s drop in the media poll as little more than a harmless topic for talk show discussion and social media outrage. Especially since the Tigers actually moved up a notch to No. 8 in this week’s coaches rankings.
It should also be noted that the only poll that really matters, the one compiled by the Playoff committee, is still 8 days from being released.
A lot can and probably will happen in Week 10 that will impact that Nov. 5 poll. Let alone before Selection Sunday.
Still, there’s an ominous vibe to Clemson’s off-week drop. It’s a reminder of how easy it can be for the Committee to stick it to the ACC again – as it did with Florida State last year – if its members decide that the conference is only worthy of a single bid. Even if an unbeaten Miami and 1-loss Clemson meet for the league title in Charlotte on Dec. 7.
Unless the Group of 5 representative is placed among the top 12 of the final poll, a team will have to be rated 11th or higher to get into the Playoff field.
Which coincidentally, is exactly where Clemson is ranked this week.
Or maybe it’s not such a coincidence.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
