Clemson Football: At some point, the ACC has to step up

The Clemson football program has been built as a national powerhouse, but at some point, other teams in the ACC have to step up.

Dabo Swinney has built the Clemson football program to a national powerhouse.

The Tigers are consistently competing for CFB Playoff appearances and National Titles. Clemson football currently holds the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation and it doesn’t look as if the Tigers are going anywhere anytime soon.

That being said, there has been a consistent theme surrounding this entire 2019 Clemson football season: The awful ACC.

As good as Clemson has been, the ACC has been equally as bad. As a result, we’ve had to hear the entire season about how the Tigers are beneficiaries of playing in a weak conference and how Clemson has the ‘easiest path to the playoff,’ as if it’s somehow their fault.

Clemson football has no benefit of the doubt when it comes to scheduling and it’s all because of the absolute incompetence from the rest of the conference.

Throughout the season, we’ve defended Clemson. We’ve even talked about how many programs in the ACC are underrated.

However, one thing has become clear: It’s time for other teams in the conference to step up. The ACC- outside of Clemson football- has consistently been the laughing stock of the College Football world.

The second-best team in the conference- Virginia– has three losses.

Just as the Cavaliers vaulted into the rankings and were looking as if they had a chance to make a run, they lost back-to-back games to Notre Dame and Miami. While the loss to the Fighting Irish is understandable, Miami has been absolutely terrible this season.

Speaking of Miami, what about ‘The U?’ Whatever happened to that confident, cocky program that actually won games? Instead, Miami sits in a swamp of mediocrity with no clear way out.

As we think about Florida programs sitting in mediocrity, there’s another one by the name of Florida State.

Just a couple of seasons ago, the Seminoles were competing for National Championships. Now, they’re getting drubbed 40-17 to in-state rival Florida, getting blown out by Boise State and escaping with overtime victories against Louisiana Monroe.

Let’s not even get started on Virginia Tech, who finds ways to win games and put themselves in position to win the ACC Coastal, but barely beats Furman (24-17) and loses to Boston College- a program that just fired its coach- to begin the season.

Oh, and then there’s Louisville.

The Cardinals understandably lost games to Notre Dame and Clemson, but after beating Virginia, they got completely blown out by a mediocre Miami team. Even with that loss to the Hurricanes, Louisville had shown promise. All of that went out the window this past Saturday, though, when Louisville got blown out 45-13 to rival Kentucky- a team that finished 3-5 in the SEC and tied for fourth-place in the SEC East.

We could go on.

The point is this: The ACC has some promising talent and upstart coaches. However, there’s absolutely no consistency and the top programs- Florida State, Miami and Virginia Tech- aren’t holding up their end of the deal.

Instead, it’s just Clemson carrying the entire conference.

At some point, these programs have to look in the mirror and make the moves to get better. It’s absolutely embarrassing that the second-best team in the ACC is a three-loss Virginia and someone other than the Tigers needs to step up.

Until then, the ACC will continue to be a laughing stock.