Clemson Football: ACC Power Rankings headed into Week 9
By Casey Cregan
Yay! It’s this week’s rendition of the ACC Power Rankings, including your Clemson football Tigers.
There were a lot of head-scratching results this past weekend in the conference. Just when we think we have this conference figured out, UVA wins an ugly game at Georgia Tech on a Thursday night, and Duke lays the lumber to the pre-season media darlings Miami in front of 12 people in South Florida.
I’d be lying if I didn’t think that it’s really fun to try to piece this conference together week by week, especially with the aforementioned results. So, let’s try this again. See what you think.
Enjoy!
No. 14 through 10
14. Boston College Eagles – Last Week: 13 – (2-5) – I believe Boston College has officially quit on the season. It would not surprise me to start seeing players opt out of the rest of the season and it’s a shame. It’s no secret that I have a soft spot for the boys from Chestnut Hill, but watching that lackluster performance against Wake Forest Saturday was frustrating and I’m just a fringe fan. Phil Jurkovec was 20-38 for 221 yards and a touchdown and Zay Flowers had 135 yards receiving and a score, but that was the highlight of the day for the Eagles. Back in the bottom spot in the Power Rankings, and it’ll take something special in the weeks to come for them to move out of this spot. Next up: @ UConn
13. Virginia Tech Hokies – Last Week: 12 – (2-5) – It’s hard to move a team that did not play up or down in the rankings, but this is purely a proponent of their rival winning a hard-fought…er…ugly game on Thursday night and therefore a need to move them. Tech has a big Thursday night game this week at NC State, which could move them up next week. A tall task, even without having to face Devin Leary. Next up: @ NC State (Thursday)
12. Virginia Cavaliers – Last Week: 14 – (3-4) – A nice win against a banged up Georgia Tech team last Thursday has thrust the Wahoos up the rankings. It surely wasn’t pretty, and GT lost their starting quarterback early in the game, but they continued to play hard. This Virginia team is not good yet, but they are playing hard every week. Tony Elliott is still trying to figure out how to use Brennan Armstrong, but the talent gap between what he had at Clemson and what he has in Charlottesville is night and day. Next up: vs. Miami
11. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets – Last Week: 11 – (3-4) – Brent Key lost his starting quarterback and his first game in his interim tenure. It was amazing to me watching just how bad Georgia Tech was once Jeff Sims went down with an injury. If you didn’t see it, on the last play of the game the back up quarterback, Zach Gibson just ran out of bounds instead of throwing a hail mary. It was baffling. But then again, not much Georgia Tech has done in recent years HASN’T been baffling. Next up: @ Florida State
10. Miami Hurricanes – Last Week: 10 – (3-4) – Last week I said it was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the former was who showed up this past weekend against Duke. The two teams combined for 10 turnovers. The bad news for Miami fans is that 8 of them happened when they had the ball. Tyler Van Dyke went down early with an apparent shoulder injury. Replacement Jake Garcia proceeded to come in and throw 3 interceptions for the U. They fumbled five times as well in an overall sloppy game. The defense wasn’t good at all, but that could be due to the fact that they were put in terrible positions all day. Next up: @ UVA