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You can throw out that convoluted list of tie-breaking procedures in the event that 3 teams go undefeated in the ACC.
You won’t need it anymore.
Louisville saw to that by going into Death Valley and taking down Clemson on Saturday.
The Cardinals’ 33-21 upset doesn’t mathematically eliminate the 11th-ranked Tigers or a handful of others from a shot at the conference championship and a spot in the expanded College Football Playoff. But with only 2 remaining unbeaten teams in the league, it has provided a lot more clarity to the ACC race than there was entering Week 10.
No. 6 Miami and No. 20 SMU find themselves on a collision course to meet for the ACC title. The Hurricanes maintained their frontrunner status by rallying in the second half to beat Duke while the Mustangs dominated No. 18 Pitt from start to finish in an unexpected battle of ranked teams.
Since they’re not scheduled to play each other during the regular season, they can both secure a trip to Charlotte on Dec. 7 by winning out over their final 3 games. But the way things are going in college football this season, that might not be as easy as it sounds.
That’s why the conference has another set of tie-breaking procedures ready just in case.
The sudden separation at the top of the standings is only one of the things we learned about the ACC in Week 10. Here are some of the other big takeaways from around the conference:
Coming up big in the Big D
SMU should have lost last week at Duke. Coach Rhett Lashlee was the first to admit it after his team somehow managed to become only the second FBS team since 2000 to commit 6 more turnovers than its opponent and still win.
It was a great escape that provided the Mustangs with a second chance at remaining tied for first place in the ACC and kept alive their chances at winning the conference in their first season as a member. And they weren’t about to waste it.
Fueled by a festive homecoming sellout crowd, the Mustangs bounced back from one of their worst performances of the season by putting together one of their best in an emphatic 48-25 rout of Pitt. Kevin Jennings threw for 2 touchdowns and Brashard Smith ran for 161 yards and a pair of scores to help SMU make a statement it hopes will reverberate beyond the boundaries of the ACC to members of the Playoff committee that will announce its first rankings on Tuesday.
Because of the circumstances involved and the stakes that were at play in the Mustangs’ long-awaited return to power conference competition, Saturday’s game was billed as SMU’s most important game since the NCAA imposed its crippling Death Penalty on the program in 1987.
It won’t stay that way for long, though. With their victory, Lashlee and his team have put themselves in a position to play even more meaningful games over the next few weeks.
‘Big Game’ Brohm strikes again
Sure, Louisville’s win at Clemson was an upset. The Tigers were at home, they were ranked and were a 10.5-point favorite. But that doesn’t mean the result was a total surprise. Considering coach Jeff Brohm’s track record for beating ranked teams, maybe we should have seen it coming.
Brohm earned his “Big Game” nickname by knocking off 3 top-10 teams during his 6 seasons at Purdue. That’s in addition to the 4 other Top-25 victories his Boilermakers earned. He enhanced that reputation by upsetting No. 10 Notre Dame last year on the way to leading Louisville to the ACC Championship Game in his first season at his alma mater.
This latest triumph was anything but a fluke.
Brohm’s Cardinals dominated the line of scrimmage and ran for 210 yards, never let Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik find his rhythm and blocked 2 field goal attempts on the way to their school’s first win against the Tigers in 9 tries since joining the ACC.
End of the line for the Hokies
Virginia Tech’s home game against Clemson next Saturday will still have ACC Championship Game implications. Just not the kind Brent Pry’s team had hoped.
At 3-1 in the conference with that head-to-head showdown coming up, the Hokies still hoped to finish in the top 2 of the standings and earn a shot at the league title on Dec. 7 in Charlotte. But that dream died Saturday at Syracuse with a 38-31 overtime loss to the Orange. It was an especially devastating defeat because of the circumstances.
Tech played the game without starting quarterback Kyron Drones and leading rusher Bhayshul Tuten, the ACC’s 2nd-leading rusher with 950 yards. Despite their absence, the Hokies still rang up 31 points and 455 yards with UCLA transfer Collin Schlee running the offense and freshman Jeremiah Coney doing most of the running.
Schlee went 16-of-24 for 206 yards and a touchdown through the air and Coney picked up 96 yards on the ground on 9 carries. That was enough to build a 21-3 lead midway through the third quarter and a 31-24 advantage heading into the final minute. But a defense that had been the team’s strength through its 3-game winning streak couldn’t hold on.
LeQuint Allen scored with 29 seconds left in regulation and again on the extra possession to help Syracuse earn bowl eligibility while relegating the Hokies to the role of spoiler when Clemson comes to Blacksburg next week.
Tar Heels continue to get defensive
It’s still hard to tell whether North Carolina’s defense has finally figured things out or simply taken advantage of 2 opponents with poor offenses. Either way, there’s no questioning that coordinator Geoff Collins’ much-maligned unit made the most of its open date 2 weeks ago.
The Tar Heels allowed an average of 30.4 points and 399.9 yards per game while going 3-4 before their week off. In the 2 games since returning to action – a 41-14 beatdown at Virginia that snapped a 4-game losing streak and Saturday’s 35-11 win at Florida State – they’ve lowered those numbers to 10.5 points and 244.5 yards.
They’ve been especially good when it comes to rushing the passer. After combining for only 15 sacks in their first 7 games, they’ve taken down opposing quarterbacks 17 times in the past 2 – 10 against UVa and 7 more against FSU. Defensive end Beau Atkinson led the way with 3.5, just a half sack off the school record set by Hall of Famer Julius Peppers against Virginia in 2001.
UNC’s defensive improvement will be put to more of a test next week against an improved Wake Forest attack. But with 5 wins already in the bank and a remaining schedule that also includes Boston College and rival NC State, the Tar Heels are all but a lock to earn bowl eligibility. A goal that was in serious doubt just 2 weeks ago.
NC State’s running men
UNC isn’t the only ACC team to make good use of a well-timed week off. Rival NC State also took advantage of its opportunity to regroup and adjust, especially when it comes to running the football. Coach Dave Doeren and his offensive coordinator Robert Anae put a major emphasis on improving a ground attack that ranked 15th out of 17 conference teams heading into last week’s open date.
And it obviously paid off.
The Wolfpack came into Saturday’s game against Stanford averaging just 106.4 rushing yards per game. Graduate Jordan Waters nearly got that on 1 electric run in the third quarter. His 94-yard touchdown dash was the 2nd-longest in school history, topped only by a 95-yard run by Hall of Famer Ted Brown against Syracuse in 1977.
Waters finished the game with 115 yards on 5 carries. But he wasn’t alone. Teammate Hollywood Smothers also reached triple figures, picking up 100 yards on 16 carries as State racked up a season-high 281 yards on the ground in their 59-28 win. Waters and Smothers are the first 2 Wolfpack players to rush for more than 100 yards in the same game since Zonovan Knight and Ricky Person did it in the 2021 season opener against South Florida.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
