ACC Football Power Rankings: Does Clemson have a challenger?

The Hurricanes have a lot to be excited about despite a 24-20 loss to the Florida Gators. Redshirt freshman Jarren Williams threw the ball fairly well while being harassed by Gator defenders Jabari Zuniga, Ventrell Miller and Jonathan Greenard all game long. When he had time, Williams climbed the pocket and made throws on time to his receivers. If you take away the yards the Hurricanes lost because of sacks, they ran for 130 yards on the ground.

The Hurricanes got to debut the new Turnover Chain with two interceptions and two fumble recoveries. There’s also a lot to work on as well. The pass rush only generated one sack and three hurries. The offensive line was both young and inexperienced, and it showed.

Although they didn’t leave their opening game with as many question marks as the Gators, they have plenty that need to be answered before they can be considered a legitimate contender in the ACC Coastal.

It’s the Mack Brown era II down in Chapel Hill. For the most part sequels aren’t better than the originals, but there are exceptions (The Empire Strikes Back, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) to that rule. The question is will Mack be the exception or the rule? We do know they will be extremely young this year including at quarterback with true freshman Sam Howell starting over redshirt freshman Jace Ruder.

That didn’t seem to matter as the true freshman led the Tar Heels to a come back victory over the rival South Carolina Gamecocks 24-20. The game was neither perfect nor pretty for the Heels, but you saw a group of young men excited to play football again.

If they put two wins together, they might just move up in the rankings. They probably won’t stay around the top 10 in these conference rankings, but seeing Brown choked up and happy to be coaching again made this a heart ranking.

It’s appropriate for the Eagles to be ranked No. 6 in these Week 1 rankings since that’s the number of games they’ll most likely win this season. Boston College head coach Steve Addazio has won exactly seven games in six of the seven years he’s been with the Eagles. They will more than likely be their win total this year.

Speaking of the team that beat the Virginia Tech Hokies 35-28 in their home opener, the Eagles are the epitome of “what you see is what you get” they want to play physical ball-control offense which gets you 7-8 wins a season. In fact, Addazio has done just that since he’s been in Chestnut Hill. He’s won exactly seven games every year he’s been head coach save one.

Expect more of the same from the Eagles, which isn’t a bad thing. They are a small school in one of the worst recruiting bases in the country (New England).

The Demon Deacons played in what was one of the more entertaining games of the weekend going back and forth with the Utah State Aggies in a 38-35 win. It was an outstanding first performance by starting quarterback Jamie Newman and wide receiver Sage Surratt that secured the win for the “Old Gold and Black” in Winston-Salem. He had four total touchdowns while Surratt had 158 yards receiving with a receiving touchdown.

If you are a Demon Deacon fan, prepare for a season full of games just like this one. They will be dynamic on offense with a dual-threat quarterback like Newman and four really good receivers. What is of concern for Deacon nation is almost 600 total yards the defense surrendered. If Wake stays in the top 10 and goes to a bowl it’s because they’ve outscored people all season.