Clemson Football: When will traditional powers in the ACC be relevant again?

The ACC is bad and Clemson football has taken advantage. The Tigers are far and away the best team in the conference and it’s not even slightly close.

We’ll start this post out by saying that the ACC isn’t as bad as opposing fans want to make it out to be.

However, there’s no questioning the conference’s decline over the past few seasons. Less than half a decade ago, the ACC was arguably the toughest conference in the nation. With powers like Florida State and Clemson at the top and several other talented programs like Louisville, Virginia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, NC State and Boston College not too far behind.

The fall of the ACC, though, can be attested to the fact that traditional powers other than Clemson football have fallen off.

Virginia Tech isn’t what it once was. Florida State is no longer a top-10 program. Louisville doesn’t have Lamar Jackson and that band of talented defensive play-makers. NC State isn’t the same hard-nosed program. Miami is, well, Miami.

The traditional powers- Florida State, Virginia Tech and Miami- aren’t anywhere near being top-25 contenders, much less competition for Clemson football.

So, it begs the question: When will the traditional powers, or anybody else, become nationally relevant again?

Florida State is recruiting at a fairly high level, but Willie Taggart certainly hasn’t turned that program around yet. They are still lacking on the offensive line and don’t have that ‘physicality factor’ that used to run through the program.

Virginia Tech took a step forward under Justin Fuente in his first season, but the Hokies haven’t been able to consistently recruit and went just 6-7 with a bad loss in their bowl game last year.

Miami has been the biggest disappointment in the ACC since the Hurricanes joined the conference. Miami was supposed to be Florida State’s biggest rival and the two programs were supposed to compete for national prominence year-in and year-out. But, they haven’t even won an ACC Championship and there’s no reason to believe that they’re going to any time soon.

The programs most-ready to take the step into becoming top-25 teams in the ACC are Syracuse, Virginia and Boston College. North Carolina is also recruiting at a high level and has momentum after Mack Brown took over as coach.

Perhaps one of the other programs takes a step forward and provides some hope for the conference moving forward, but right now it looks as if there will still be a few years before we start to see an emergence for competition for Clemson football in the conference.