ACC Football: 5 storylines to follow during Week 4 action

Clemson is still the ACC’s best team, but after the Tigers there’s a lot of question marks around the league. Here are five ACC football storylines to follow in Week 4.

Most of the college football world is entering into conference play, or started up last week, and the national title picture will start to unravel shortly. The Clemson Tigers are still the ACC’s top football program, especially with Deondre Francois out for the season up in Tallahassee, Fla.

After Clemson, there are a ton of question marks around the league. Can Miami stay focused on such a trivial item like football after tragedy in Hurricane Irma’s wake? Can FSU recover from losing Francois? Is Wake Forest legit or just a fun topic for college football podcasters? Who are all of these young arms around the league?

In the preseason, I lauded the ACC as the elite place for top coaches and playmakers. Dabo Swinney is living up to the hype having groomed Kelly Bryant as a more than respectable replacement for Deshaun Watson at quarterback. What so many others have failed to do, replace a star quarterback with another, Swinney has done. Life after Winston hasn’t been kind of Jimbo Fisher, same for David Shaw and Kevin Hogan, and it took the Ducks two years after Mariota left for the NFL.

The ACC’s head-to-head slate this week sees the NC State defense against new Florida State quarterback James Blackman, UNC’s Chazz Surratt in a passers duel with Daniel Jones, Pitt trying to rebound against TaQuon Marshall and Georgia Tech and Boston College having to be slaughtered by Clemson — just because.

Here are the five storylines from the ACC to follow in Week 4, enjoy.