ACC Football Power Rankings, Week 3: North Carolina’s stock up

This was a hard one. It was between the Wolfpack and the Cavaliers between Nos. 3 and 4. Virginia has the better win (Pitt) than North Carolina State, so they got the nod at No. 3. However, the Wolfpack are off to a good start against bad teams. They’ve dominated both East and Western Carolina which is both good and bad. The positive is they get their young quarterback sophomore Matthew McKay acclimated and comfortable with the offense, and their new defensive pieces the same level of comfort on defense.

The negative is obvious, there isn’t an accurate measure of how good they are. It might be a while before we know how good they are. They get a rebuilding West Virginia squad and then the Ball State Cardinals. Then they get Florida State and Syracuse which looked like tough games before they started the season. Now? Not so much. The Wolfpack don’t hit a tough game until October when they face Boston College in Chestnut Hill.

If I would have known Walmart would be what it is today, I would have taken my brokers advice and bought stock during their first stock offering. The Cavaliers are the same kind of hindsight stocks. They had a good season last year in Charlottesville, but it wasn’t what Dino Babers did in Syracuse. Bronco Mendenhall quietly put together a fine eight-win season and capped it off with a shutout of the Gamecocks in the Belk Bowl, and the brought back a lot of key pieces including quarterback Bryce Perkins.

This season, so far so good for Virginia. They had an awesome first showing against Pitt, and followed that by dismantling William & Mary. We’ll see just how good they are when they play Florida State although I’m much more confident in Virginia than I am Florida State.

The Cavaliers could have been No. 2, but the coin flip went bad for them, and I’m not sure how much better Pitt is than Utah State (yes, I said that). Virginia might end up here by virtue of them playing in the Coastal and Wake in the Atlantic.

Also, Wake Forest has explosive play potential offensively; Virginia doesn’t. Deacon head coach Dave Clawson has what he needs to make that up tempo spread purr like a kitten. Clawson has a quarterback that can run and push the ball down the field in Jamie Newman, and a big play receiver that can do it all in Sage Surat. Defense is a different story, but they can make a play or two when needed, and they’ll need it sooner than later. We’ll see how good they are when the play North Carolina on tobacco road this Friday night which should be a good one.

So the Tigers are No. 1 on this list, what a surprise. Although, Trevor Lawrence wasn’t spectacular against Texas A&M, he didn’t have to be since Travis Etienne has been outstanding, and Dabo Swinney and Brent Venables have proven you can replace an entire defensive line of NFL caliber players with a defensive line full of NFL caliber players. It’s obvious the Tigers are playing the long game. They simply outclassed the Aggies on their way to a neat 24-10 victory. The Tigers get Syracuse this weekend and I would be concerned, but I watched the Syracuse vs. Maryland game last week, so not this year ‘Cuse.