ACC Football Power Rankings, Week 3: North Carolina’s stock up
By Dante Pryor
Pick Analysis. player. 1-1. Last Week: 13. Louisville Cardinals. 8. Scouting Report. 849
Two programs on this list — Florida State and Virginia Tech — are trending down; Louisville along with Miami are trending up. They both have first-year coaches with fairly new staffs at each school, and you are seeing the finger prints of first year head coach Scott Satterfield all over the Cardinals’ program.
The offensive staff is taking advantage of Jawon “Puma” Pass’ ability to run, while working with him in the passing game. They are using a power run spread offense to use all the speed they have. They’ve been sound and prepared on defense. They gave Notre Dame all they could handle in Week 1, and they beat up on Eastern Kentucky in Week 2. They should get another win against Western Kentucky this week, and then they get Florida State in Tallahassee. That one should be interesting considering how the ‘Noles are playing so far this year.
Pitt along with Miami desperately need a home stadium. The Panthers, however, have settled into their identity. Head coach Pat Narduzzi wants to run the football, and play tough physical defense. They usually don’t have the firepower to outscore teams, so their margin for victory is paper thin, and teams with better personnel — like Virginia — often dominate the Panthers.
In spite of that, the Panthers seem to just find a way. Somehow they found a way to the ACC championship game last season. As wide open as the coastal is this season, that could happen again. This season has been the 7-10 splits so far. After getting handled pretty well by Virginia 30-14 (a better team), the Panthers righted the ship against the Ohio Bobcats 20-10 (an inferior opponent). Pitt will chug along and beat teams they should and lose to teams they should and maybe steal one they shouldn’t.
6. player. 431. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. 2-0, 1-0. Boston College Eagles. Last Week 6
The Boston College Eagles are the other team on this list (Duke) that didn’t move up or down in these rankings. Being seventh in the rankings would be appropriate since that seems to be head coach Steve Addazio’s sweet spot for wins. There’s something to be said about consistency, however.
Boston College is the perfect picture of a middle of the road Power Five program, with a medium to low ceiling. Addazio has arguably the worst recruiting base in the entire ACC because the Eagles play in New England. That alone makes recruiting the players to compete in the ACC difficult which leaves the Boston College staff to scavenge players that Clemson, Florida State, Miami and even Virginia Tech didn’t recruit, or recruit from the JUCOs. Yet he finds a way to field a competitive team that gets to bowl games.
This season has gotten off to a fine start defeating Virginia Tech week one 35-28 and handling the Richmond Spiders 45-13. They should get close to their high water mark after Kansas travels to Chesnut Hill and they go to Piscataway to play Rutgers. Their first true test comes when they try to stop Jamie Newman and Wake Forest in late September.
The Tar Heels stole this ranking and my heart with their first two games of the season. It was Mack Brown’s tears, and that he’s found 20 years with these first two wins. They’ll come back down to earth, but Brown has a great foundation to build on with two comeback victories. The Tar Heels might begin their descent to the lower atmosphere when they play Wake Forest and their version of the greatest show on turf — field turf that is.
The Deacons want to play fast, and that could expose North Carolina’s lack of depth in their secondary. However, if it’s close late in the game and the legend Sam Howell has the ball, be careful Wake Forest — Miami and South Carolina learned the hard way about Howell and his clutch gene.