Clemson Football: ACC falls short in week 3 games that provided an opportunity

It’s weeks like these that make it difficult for the Atlantic Coast Conference, and by extension Clemson football, to gain any traction in the college football world.

Sure, every conference has clunkers and we know the SEC isn’t all it’s cracked up to be from the middle on down and the reality is the ACC didn’t suffer any humiliating losses, save the embarrassment that was Georgia Tech, which was expected, just not quite on the 42-0 level.

In what amounted to the SECs pre-rivalry week FCS fest, the conference won the games, albeit unimpressively.

There was Clemson’s 48-20 win over Louisiana Tech, which was iffy for a half, Wake Forest needed to stop a 2 point conversion to hold off Liberty 37-36 and Virginia needed a walk-off field goal to beat Old Dominion 16-14.

Pitt had to pull away from Western Michigan, who by the way beat ACC Champ Pitt last season, after a 13-6 first half.

Virginia Tech jumped on Wofford early and cruised 27-7 and Duke moved to 3-0 by beating North Carolina A&T 49-20, while Boston College got off the schneid by defeating Maine 38-17.

Miami, with a golden opportunity against Texas A&M in College Station, couldn’t score a touchdown in a 17-9 loss, while North Carolina State defeated Texas Tech 27-14 despite being outgained by 83 yards.  That’s what winning the turnover battle by three will do for you.

The one conference game was an exciting one, as Florida State moved to 3-0 on Friday with a 35-31 win over Louisville, despite losing Jordan Travis for the second half.

Perhaps the most entertaining game of the day was Syracuse’s win over Purdue, where the Boilermakers snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and then snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with incredibly dumb penalties after taking the lead late.  I said exciting, not good.

The ACC did itself no favors with a mediocre to putrid display of football this week against lesser opponents in many instances

A win is a win and as Dabo says, “It’s hard to win in college football”, but the conference did itself no favors with a mediocre to putrid display of football this week against lesser opponents in many instances.

Conference play cranks up this week, but there are still some interesting non-conference matchups for ACC teams, such as undefeated Duke at undefeated Kansas and no, this is not basketball.

Plus, West Virginia visiting Virginia Tech on Thursday and Notre Dame visits North Carolina.

Clemson travels to Wake Forest in a battle of unbeatens, which headlines the conference slate and as the ACC is wont to do, has scheduled the game for noon.

That is so ACC.