No bias here. The Canes are clearly on top at the moment.
Welcome back to SOTU’s weekly ACC Power Rankings. I apologize for the delay. Although, ranking the teams in the ACC after a few weeks should look much more accurate than it would in the preseason or after Week 1 (I’m looking at you, Florida State).
Without further ado, let’s get to the rankings.
1. Miami – 3-0 overall, 0-0 conference
As I said in the byline: no bias here. The Miami Hurricanes couldn’t have asked for a better start to the 2024 season. Their offense looks explosive thanks to the addition of QB Cam Ward. Their defense has NFL-caliber players at all three levels. The coaching has been solid, especially the offensive and defensive play calling. As a die-hard Canes fan, I have no complaints. The only thing I am slightly worried about after three weeks is the health of the offensive line. A few guys are banged up. I hope Jalen Rivers, Anez Cooper, and Ryan Rodriguez get healthy and continue to help make Miami’s offensive line a strength.
2. Louisville – 2-0, 0-0
Some might have Clemson here, but I like Louisville in the second spot for now. They are coming off of a bye and have played two schools they should have dominated in Austin Peay and Jacksonville State. Well, they did dominate both games. Their next two games are home against Georgia Tech and at #17 Notre Dame, so we’ll know real soon just how good this year’s Cardinals team is.
3. Clemson – 1-1, 0-0
I don’t know how impressed I should be with Clemson’s 66-20 win over App State a couple Saturdays ago. While App State’s rise to competent FBS football program is incredibly admirable, they aren’t necessarily the same team who won at Texas A&M a couple years ago. I still have my doubts about Clemson QB Cade Klubnik. He did not play well against Miami last season, and looked even worse against Georgia to start this one. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Tigers as one of the teams playing in Charlotte, but I still think they have a lot to prove.
4. Syracuse – 2-0, 1-0
Syracuse is back baby! Also, another team coming off of a bye week. The Orange’s offense looked better than it had in many years a couple Saturdays ago against Georgia Tech. Kyle McCord absolutely has something to prove this season with how he left that team from Ohio whose name I can’t remember. McCord might be the second best quarterback in the ACC. Having that is a huge advantage during conference play. Coach Fran Brown has the Syracuse faithful more excited than they have been in years. Good for them.
5. UNC – 3-0, 0-0
Mack Brown has his team 3-0 for the fifth season in a row. The Tar Heels have already had to overcome losing their starting QB for the year when Max Johnson went down in their season-opening win at Minnesota. Their next big test will be on 9/28 at Duke. That crowd will be hyped for the rivalry game and Manny Diaz should have his defense ready. Brown has owned Diaz in the past. It’ll be interesting to see how this year’s matchup plays out between two solid, yet flawed teams.
6. Pittsburgh – 3-0, 0-0
The Panthers are somehow 3-0 despite facing double-digit fourth quarter deficits their last two games. They scored the last 15 points to win at Cincinnati by one, then scored the last 14 to beat rival West Virginia at home last Saturday. Pitt QB Eli Holstein makes plays when it counts, plus they don’t play any ranked opponents until the middle of November. The Panthers could be another ACC dark horse this season.
7. Duke – 3-0, 0-0
The Blue Devils had to mount a fourth-quarter comeback at home to beat UConn last Saturday. Not great. Manny Diaz’s defense gave up 179 rushing yards to the Huskies. That seems worse than having to come back to win. With back-to-back games against UNC and Georgia Tech before their October 12th bye week, Diaz will know much more about his offense and team as a whole a month from now, as will we.
8. Cal – 3-0, 0-0
I did not see Cal’s win at Auburn coming. From afar, it seemed like Auburn coach Hugh Freeze was gathering a ton of talent, especially on offense. The Golden Bears defense showed up and carried the day, forcing five turnovers and doing enough on offense to force Auburn to play catch-up. Having said all of this, I haven’t watched a single second of Cal football this season. And I probably won’t until Miami visits them on October 5th.
9. Boston College – 2-1, 1-0
I think Bill O’Brien is the perfect coach for BC. He’s spent a ton of time coaching in the New England area with the Patriots. He is also a skilled tactician who knows how to coach up an offense. BC has a very manageable schedule moving forward. I think they’ll end up being ranked higher at the end of the regular season.
10. Georgia Tech – 3-1, 1-1
The Yellow Jackets kept up their momentum from last season with an inspired win over Florida State in Dublin, Ireland in Week 0. Then, they ran into rocket-armed Kyle McCord at Syracuse and couldn’t overcome the Orange in the Carrier Dome. Still, Atlanta’s college football team is in a good spot. After this week’s bye, they are at Louisville, host Duke, at UNC, and host Notre Dame. Tech is still in the running for the ACC Championship game and could be ranked again if they win those first couple matchups.
11. NC State – 2-1, 0-0
The Wolfpack had to come back to beat Louisiana Tech at home last Saturday. Transfer QB Grayson McCall went down, forcing Miami’s own CJ Bailey into action. He eventually got things turned around and had a decent day. Bailey finished 13-20 for 165 yards, plus 27 rushing yards and a touchdown. His 7.8 yards per attempt was more than three yards higher than McCall’s. We might have a quarterback controversy brewing in Raleigh. NC State’s next game is at Clemson, so Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren better have his QB room coached up no matter who gets the start.
Photo by Lance King/Getty Images
12. Virginia Tech – 2-1, 0-0
Apparently a few people picked the Hokies to make it to the College Football Playoff this season. Umm, okay. Who are these people and what were they thinking? No offense to Tech and their fans, but I would’ve picked several ACC teams to make the CFP before them. Then, they lost at Vanderbilt in Week 1. Oof. The Hokies have a challenging home game with Rutgers this Saturday before coming to Hard Rock Stadium to open ACC play the following Friday night.
13. Virginia – 2-1, 1-0
The Cavaliers came crashing back down to earth last Saturday with their 27-13 loss vs Maryland. This came only one week after their thrilling comeback win over Wake Forest. Virginia coach Tony Elliott needs to get his offense going if he wants to pull off a few upsets this season. They’ll have several chances come October as they play Boston College, Louisville, Clemson, and UNC to start next month. The only road game of the bunch is at Clemson.
14. SMU – 2-1, 0-0
The Fighting Former Canes, er Mustangs, are not where they thought they’d be after three games. The season-opening win at Nevada was ugly. The home loss to BYU last Saturday was uglier. For a Rhett Lashlee coached team to not score a single touchdown in a game is hard to believe. For it to happen against BYU is even harder to believe. They host TCU and FSU their next two games before another bye week. That FSU game seems kind of fascinating. Just an ugly matchup between two underachieving teams.
15. Stanford – 1-1, 0-0
Is Stanford or Cal the least-ACC team in the conference? I don’t know if I could pick one. They seem to be very similar schools, at least coming from this Floridian’s perspective. Anyway, the Cardinal got their first win of the season against Cal Poly last week. Exciting. They travel to Syracuse and Clemson their next two games. Those are long trips from Northern California. I don’t see Stanford winning either of those games. That said, I can’t name Stanford’s football coach. Geez. I wonder if they will ever be good at football again.
16. Wake Forest – 1-2, 0-1
The Demon Deacons hung with Ole Miss for the first ten minutes of the first quarter last Saturday. That’s something, right? I don’t know much about the 2024 version of Wake Forest football. I do know they are Miami’s final home opponent of this season. Tickets are expensive for that game! I know it’s the home finale, but Wake Forest? Come on. It’s probably a good thing though, my wife might leave me if I attend a fifth Miami game this year.
17. Florida State – 0-3, 0-2
I still don’t think FSU is the least talented or worse overall team in the ACC, but they are the only winless team and are already 0-2 in conference play. My hands are tied. I had my doubts about Mike Norvell after a couple seasons, then 2023 happened. I thought I was proven wrong. After this year’s start, I don’t know what to think anymore. As interested as I am in seeing how the Noles play the rest of this season, I am just as interested in how well they recruit going into 2025. Coach Cristobal and his staff must be going hard after FSU and UF recruits with how the 2024 season is unfolding for those two programs.
See you next week!