ACC Football Power Rankings: Does Clemson have a challenger?

Redshirt sophomore Matthew McKay had a fine showing in his first start as the Wolfpack’s new starting quarterback. He went 25-for-27 for 308 yards and a touchdown with 35 rushing yards and two scores as the Wolfpack cruised to a 34-6 victory over the East Carolina Pirates. If we learned anything from this performance it’s that McKay is neither overwhelmed by being the starting quarterback at NC State, nor by taking over for one of the best quarterbacks the school has ever had.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the new faces fare against better competition. We know what you are going to get from the ‘Pack. You are going to get tough defense, a good running game and steady quarterback play. Let’s see how they do against a team they didn’t defeat 58-3 the previous season.

The Virginia Cavaliers rode Bryce Perkins and a second half shutout to defeat the Pitt Panthers 30-14 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. It has to feel good to winning on the road to open the season. Beating a conference opponent isn’t half bad either.

There are questions, however.

Pittsburgh plays tough defense, so how dynamic is the Virginia offense? Is the defense that good, or is the Pitt offense that unremarkable. Perkins was good, but not great. He averaged a mere 5.3 yards per pass, and had 27 of his 44 rushing yards on one play. Their ranking is not a prediction of them winning their division, rather, it is a reflection of how good they looked to the other schools in the Coastal.

We saw a stout performance by the Syracuse Orange in their 24-0 shutout of the Liberty Flames at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Va. The Orange sacked Liberty quarterback Stephen Calvert eight times for a total of negative-51 yards, and allowed negative-4 rushing yards on the day. The offense wasn’t great, but managed 192 rushing yards.

Games like this one can be tricky — just ask the Missouri Tigers. I’m sure Liberty fans are quite dedicated to their Flames, but it isn’t the same thing as opening the season at At&T Stadium or the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

They didn’t play well Week 1, but they survived. They will be better. Syracuse quarterback Tommy DeVito will become more acclimated with being the man since Eric Dungy has graduated. If Syracuse continues to play top-notch defense like they played against Liberty they could — OK, so they won’t be Clemson — win 10 games again.

Man it was so close, but after a contentious flip of the coin the Tigers are first in the Week 1 power rankings with a 52-14 win against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the other Death Valley in Clemson, S.C. Travis Etienne looked like the reason Trevor Lawerence won’t win the Heisman this season after his 205-yard three-touchdown performance against the Jackets. We knew coming into this game and this season it would be a zero year for the Jackets, so this result is to be expected.

Just know if Clemson falls below No. 1 in these weekly power rankings, invest in an underground shelter because the apocalypse is upon us and we aren’t cockroaches. Seriously, the passing game looked like they were practicing against an obviously inferior secondary, but they hammered Georgia Tech for 411 rushing yards at an 8.5 yards per carry clip and five touchdowns, so the aerial attack didn’t need to be sharp.

If they couple this ridiculous running game with what everyone knows what they can do with the passing game this offense will be as close to unstoppable as you can be. Then everyone will truly be on the ROY bus.