ACC Football Power Rankings: Does Clemson have a challenger?

Welcome to the start of the 2019 season of ACC football. Does Clemson have a challenger? Who comes out of the Coastal? So many questions.

Will the challenger to the Clemson Tigers please raise their hand? Anyone? Syracuse? Miami? Florida State, uh, you can sit. Anyone else? A dark horse maybe? Virginia? This will be a question the entire season in the Atlantic Coast Conference. As Dabo Swinney would say, “everyone is on the ROY (rest of ya’ll) bus” in the ACC.

There are some teams in the conference that are completely rebuilding. Geoff Collins is ditching the triple-option, Mac Brown is attempting a second act in Chapel Hill, and Scott Satterfield is attempting to change the culture at Louisville.

Some teams might just be who they are. Steve Addazio and the Boston College Eagles have won seven games five of Addazio’s six seasons in Chestnut Hill. North Carolina State and Wake Forest live in the middle of the pack in the ACC with the likes of Duke, Virginia and North Carolina.

Others have fallen on tough times. Bobby Petrino wore out his welcome at Louisville worse than Larry Fedora wore out his at North Carolina. Something in the water in Blacksburg is making guys want to transfer and leave the Virginia Tech Program.

Then there’s unfulfilled potential. That crown belongs to one team…the Miami Hurricanes. The U hasn’t been The U in almost 20 years. They were supposed to dominate the Coastal division when they came to the ACC, but has played in only one championship game.

What will the power hierarchy look like in 2019? Clemson and the ROY bus? Well, that’s why they play the games. Here are the first batch of ACC power rankings: