Friedlander: 5 questions to ponder before kickoff of Week 10 in ACC football
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For the 1st time since 1967, 4 ACC teams enter November with unbeaten conference records.
Two of them, 18th-ranked Pittsburgh and No. 20 SMU, play one another on Saturday.
But because SMU and the other 2 — No. 5 Miami and No. 11 Clemson — don’t meet during the regular season, there’s a realistic possibility of a 3-way tie for 1st place. That could be a problem, since that’s 1 team too many to meet in the conference championship game.
In anticipation of that possibility, the ACC has announced a tiebreaker procedure that would use the combined winning percentage of the 3 teams’ conference opponents to determine which 2 will meet in Charlotte on Dec. 7.
Even though a game of rock, paper, scissors would be more fair.
And a lot more fun.
No matter what the format, there’s still a lot of football to be played before any scenario can come into play. That starts with a busy Week 10 schedule that includes Clemson’s challenging trip to Louisville, Miami’s home date against better-than-expected Duke and the pivotal showdown between ranked opponents at SMU.
It’s a trio of games that could help provide some clarity to the conference race — or move it 1 step closer to a confusing tiebreaker.
As we wait to find out which it is, here are 5 questions to think about and consider before kickoff:
5. Can North Carolina build on last week’s winning performance at Virginia?
The Tar Heels are coming off their best, most balanced effort of the season in a 41-14 rout of the Cavaliers that broke a 4-game losing streak and potentially saved their season. Their much-maligned defense recorded 10 sacks and a pick-6, while Jacolby Criswell supplemented reliable running back Omarion Hampton with an effective passing attack. The question now is whether the strong performance was a one-off inspired by the emotion of losing teammate Tylee Craft to cancer, or if the adjustments made during the previous week’s open date provided fixes that will carry through to the end of the season. Saturday’s game in Tallahassee against struggling Florida State will go a long way toward providing the answers.
4. Will Virginia Tech get caught looking ahead to Clemson?
Because of their 1 conference loss, albeit a controversial one, the Hokies are going to need some help to get back into the championship game race. But with Clemson coming to Blacksburg next week, Brent Pry’s team can at least put itself in a position to have a realistic chance. First, though, it has to travel to Syracuse in a classic trap game. Even after a turnover-plagued loss to Pitt last week, the Orange are a dangerous opponent with an offense fueled by quarterback Kyle McCord, whose 354 passing yards per game leads the ACC. With running back Bhayshul Tuten and left tackle Xavier Chaplin both pronounced healthy enough to play after suffering injuries in last week’s win against Georgia Tech, the Hokies’ biggest challenge could be maintaining their focus and not getting caught looking too far ahead.
3. Could Cade Klubnik be a bigger threat with his legs than his arm against Louisville?
Clemson’s quarterback is averaging 262 yards per game through the air, and his 20 touchdown passes are tied for 2nd in the conference, behind only Miami’s Heisman candidate Cam Ward. But Klubnik has also been a much more effective runner than in his 2 previous seasons with the Tigers. He’s 2nd on the team in rushing with 276 yards and 4 scores. That makes him a particular threat against a Louisville defense that has had difficulty handling mobile quarterbacks. Five of the 8 quarterbacks the Cardinals have faced this year have led their teams in rushing, with 2 — Jacksonville State’s Tyler Huff and SMU’s Kevin Jennings — surpassing the 100-yard mark. Stopping the run, in general, has been a problem for Louisville, which makes a Clemson team that ranks No. 2 in the ACC on the ground a particularly bad matchup.
2. Did SMU get all its turnovers out of its system at Duke last week?
The Mustangs were among the nation’s best with a turnover margin of plus-7 when they arrived in Durham. They left at just plus-6 after coughing the ball up 6 times on 3 fumbles and 3 Jennings interceptions against the Blue Devils. Because they somehow found a way to keep Duke from scoring any points off the giveaways, they escaped with an unlikely 28-27 overtime win to become only the 2nd FBS team since 2000 to win despite a minus-6 turnover margin. Coach Rhett Lashlee can only hope his team’s ball security returns to its pre-Duke level. It probably won’t be able to get away with being as generous against a Pitt defense that picked off Syracuse 5 times last week, returning 3 for touchdowns.
1. Why isn’t Pitt getting more love from poll voters?
The Panthers are 7-0, are outscoring their opponents by a margin of 19 points per game and claim 2 out-of-conference wins against Big 12 foes. And yet they’re ranked only 18th in this week’s Associated Press Top 25. That’s tied with 2012 Rutgers for the lowest any 7-0 power conference team has been ranked in the 88-year history of the poll. The easiest explanation is that the Panthers, despite having a national championship in their history and an ACC title just 3 seasons ago, aren’t currently a brand name. And, sadly, too many in the national media are quick to dismiss programs they don’t know much about — especially when they’re an ACC team not named Clemson, Miami or Florida State. All Pat Narduzzi’s team can do to get more respect is keep winning. Beating 20th-ranked SMU on Saturday would be a good start. Eventually, the voters will catch on.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
