ACC Football: Season preview and final standings predictions

ACC Coastal Division

Not all divisions are created equally. That’s certainty the case for the ACC this season. The Coastal is definitely the weaker of the two divisions, but it’s continuing to show improvement. Mark Richt and Justin Fuente are two of the better coaches in the country. Richt was a 10-win machine at Georgia and Fuente is an up-and-coming mind that could play his way into a job at a blue-blood school if he continues his winning ways at Virginia Tech.

More: Game by game predictions for Virginia Tech in 2017

After those two teams the rest of the division gets sketchy, fast. Pittsburgh, under the direction of new LSU offensive coordinator Matt Canada, was the No. 10 scoring offense in the country last season. The Panthers were the No. 106 scoring defense. Replacing running back James Conner is going to be a tough ask. It’s safe to assume that the Panthers are in for some sort of regression.

Also a candidate for a step backwards from a season ago, North Carolina will be without the leadership of No. 2 overall NFL draft pick Mitchell Tribusky. Stuck somewhere between bad and elite, the Tarheels look be a lock to finish just about .500 in the ACC without too many surprising results along the way.

Then there’s Georgia Tech, Duke and Virginia bringing up the rear. None of those teams has the pieces to make a legitimate run at a conference championship. All three were offensively challenged last season. None of those teams finished better than 70th in the nation in total offense a year ago and they haven’t done enough to give anyone confidence they’ll be significantly better in 2017.