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Friedlander: Miami and Clemson have separated from everyone else as the class of the ACC

Brett Friedlander

By Brett Friedlander

Published:

On Friday, I published a column suggesting that the process of separating the contenders from pretenders in the race for the ACC championship would begin with that weekend’s games.

I was only half right.

While the results of the games were telling, they didn’t exactly start the process of identifying serious candidates for the league’s championship game on Dec. 7.

They ended it.

The list of contenders consists of exactly 2 teams. Miami and Clemson.

Everyone else is playing for the consolation prize of eating a giant animated Pop-Tart in Orlando around Christmas time or playing a bowl game in a famous baseball stadium.

It’s not that the rest of the ACC is substandard. Although it’s a narrative you’re going to hear more and more frequently in the coming weeks as the gap between the No. 7 Hurricanes, 17th-ranked Tigers and everyone else continues to widen.

Louisville is deserving of its No. 15 national ranking. Pitt is looking legit with Alabama transfer Eli Holstein at quarterback, Duke is still undefeated and Bill O’Brien’s Boston College Eagles just knocked off an undefeated Big Ten team on a night in which it didn’t bring its “A” game.

But they’re all basically the JV compared to the talent and depth their conference’s 2 frontrunners can put on the field.

Questions still remain about how the Hurricanes and especially the Tigers stack up nationally and their viability once at least 1 of them gets into the Playoff. The uncertainty is warranted after the way Clemson was dominated in its opener against Georgia.

And the answers won’t be known until we see how both teams, especially the Tigers, evolve over the course of the season.

That being said, there is absolutely no disputing the fact that they’ve separated themselves from the rest of the conference, even Louisville. Their performances on Saturday showed why they’re on a collision course to meet for the ACC title in Charlotte on Dec. 7.

Clemson didn’t just beat NC State, something it has done in each of the past 10 times the Textile Bowl has been played at Death Valley. It dominated the Wolfpack from the opening kickoff until the time Dabo Swinney mercifully called off the cats just after halftime.

The Tigers continued a trend that has seen them roar out of the starting gate and put their opponents away before the end of the 1st quarter. They outscored Appalachian State and NC State by a combined 63-0 margin in the opening period.

All told, they’ve put up 125 points in the 2 games since coordinator Garrett Riley took the reins off his offense and turned quarterback Cade Klubnik loose with a more aggressive game plan than he had against Georgia.

Saturday’s 59-35 beatdown of the Wolfpack was especially notable because it came at the expense of a conference rival that started the season in the national rankings and is still likely to finish in the top half of the ACC standings.

Miami’s win against South Florida made an even louder statement about the Hurricanes’ legitimacy as an ACC frontrunner.

Even though the result has no bearing on the conference race.

Simply put, this is a game Miami would have lost – and has lost – in previous years. And all the elements seemed to be in place for another “Mario Special” when the Hurricanes limped into the halftime locker room clinging to just a 22-15 lead.

But instead of struggling to the finish and leaving the door open for the kind of loss that has been The U’s trademark since joining the ACC in 2004, this version of the Hurricanes showed that they really are different.

After being admonished in the locker room by coach Mario Cristobal, who told his players that it was “time to stop the BS” and play, they showed some new-found substance to go along with their swagger by scoring the game’s final 28 points and pulling away for a convincing 50-15 victory.

Prior to kickoff on College GameDay, Nick Saban related a conversation he had with Cristobal in which the Miami coach called USF his team’s most challenging opponent.

That might not actually be the case. But it’s close.

With an already manageable ACC schedule softened even further by rival Florida State’s early flatlining and a difference-maker at quarterback in Cam Ward, the road from Coral Gables to Charlotte is a 6-lane highway with minimal traffic and no speed limit.

It’s an even shorter and less congested trip from Clemson.

Because the Hurricanes and Tigers don’t play each other in the regular season, avoiding a potentially damaging conference loss for 1 of them, there’s less chance of a pretender sneaking into the top 2 of the standings and spoiling the party.

The ACC desperately needs to have its best teams in its championship game to showcase the conference and give itself a shot earning a 2nd seat at the Playoff table.

Everyone else can fight over the Pop-Tarts.

Brett Friedlander

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

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