Jake Russell
@oreojakesters
Going into this season, the overwhelming consensus opinion, right or wrong, was that in the ACC it was Clemson and everyone else. Clemson had a historic returning production rate, a National Championship-winning coach, and a quarterback that was highly-touted in Cade Klubnik as someone who could be in New York for the Heisman trophy ceremony. The defensive line of TJ Parker and Peter Woods, guys that will be going in the first round and that are MENACES in the trenches, gave the Tigers a defensive identity that we associated with the Venables teams that gave quarterbacks nightmares as Lawrence, Watson, and Boyd were Dabo Swinney’s heyday.
Well, we may have gotten a little too ahead of our skis with the conference being so boring that it was going to be a one bid league where they cakewalked to the one autobid. We have the dumb sports brain recency bias where the last thing we saw of them, a College Football Playoff appearance where they won the ACC and went toe-to-toe with Texas, took precedence over everything else. There’s so much movement that merely because they look the same, we thought that because it was a known quantity it was a safe bet!
So far, they’ve lost to LSU at home albeit in admirable fashion, but then did everything in their power to NOT win against Troy where they were favorites by over 30 points. The Tigers were lost, Cade threw a pick-6, and after being down 13 at half, they came back and won 27-16. We’re talking about it as if it was as bad as a loss despite the win, though.
If Clemson is as vulnerable as they appear to be, the door is open for a conference that once felt boring in the preseason.
Florida State was a downtrodden, proud program that went 2-10 last year, and suddenly they’re 2-0, have a win against Alabama, and are a top 10 team that hung 77 points in week 2.
Miami was getting clowned on for following up having Cam Ward by bringing in Carson Beck in the portal, a once top NFL prospect Georgia was happy to see leave, and now they’ve got a win over Notre Dame and are in the top 5.
Georgia Tech bowling balled over Deion and Colorado Week 1, and there’s no one the people love more than Haynes King and his willingness to die on the field if he has to. They bully you into playing a style no one wants to play.
Even Cal is 2-0 with maybe the most electrifying true freshman quarterback in the nation in Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who is 46-57 with 3 touchdowns and can sling the rock.
And did we just forget about Louisville and Jeff Brohm, the Chopped contestant coach where he just makes a 5-star meal out of nothing with the amount of transfers he has? While you were watching Chiefs-Chargers Friday night, the Cardinals got a huge win against JMU and Isaac Brown remains one of the best runningbacks in the country.
Then North Carolina is… interesting?
“The ACC: Actually Compelling and don’t leave us to make money in the SEC or B1G just yet!” is the slogan!
