Around the Conference Table: ACC College Football 2025 - Week 6

Presented by Headlands On Campus

Welcome back to Season 2 of Cal in the ACC. Let’s take a look at what our neighbors on the East Coast are doing.

3 Miami at 18 Florida State (Miami wins 28-22)

Piotr T Le - Miami is the class of the ACC. FSU isn’t out of the race but they are a solid tier below the U.

Ben - Missed most of this game while actually at our game, but interested by the scoreline. Florida State 19 points in the 4th Quarter? But win probability didn’t drop lower than 88% for Miami midway through the 3rd? Fascinating that Miami would let Florida State back in after being up 28-3 at half.

Jesse Miller-Gordon - This is the sort of in-state blood feud stuff best viewed from 3,000 miles away if it’s not your beef. Miami looks back in an institutional way. I don’t know if it’s possible to roll the way they did at times before, and I know it’s rare to get that many cool insane talented people together, but institutionally they’re all set, and you can expect em in the playoffs and knocking on the door every year. Supplanting Clemson as the ACC sputters to the end of this TV deal isn’t out of the question, depending on Dabo and a few other things. Someone’s gonna spend a top 10 pick on Carson Beck. No idea if that’s good or bad.

Nick Kranz - It appears that Mario Cristobal has finally amassed so much talent that not even Mario Cristobal could screw up game management so badly that they could lose. Please inform God so that he can start heating up a burrito.

Christopher H - Once Miami’s defensive line shut down the FSU run game and forced QB Thomas Castellanos into obvious passing situations, he struggled. FSU looked like the more talented team individually, but Miami was cohesive and capitalized on FSU mistakes. I’m not all that impressed with Carson Beck but he played a much safer game.

TD_24 - Don’t let the score fool you, Miami runs the state of Florida and were steamrolling the Noles. I fully expect the Canes in the ACC Championship with how more mature they look this seaosn.

24 Virginia at Louisville (Virginia wins 30-27 in OT)

Piotr T Le - Virginia’s rise should be the model for Cal to use in our future rebuild. The answer the Cavs arrived at? A lot of money was pumped into the program and it pays off.

Ben - Surprised this went to OT which suggests to me that Cal might go 0-2 against both of them.

Jesse Miller-Gordon - Last week at the banner Ron Rivera name checked Virginia as a program Cal would do well to mirror. I’m curious if this is purely from an institutional fundraising standpoint, as they too have a wealthy donor base that’s been stagnant, now coming to life, with real results, or if it means more of what happened at Indiana, the other school he mentioned, where they also imported a whole new head coach, QB, and offensive line, then paid cash money to keep it rolling year two.

Nick Kranz - Virginia is riding their luck a bit - they needed two defensive touchdowns just to make it to overtime, and one of those was a completely unforced pitch play fumble. But they also got a lot of pressure on Miller Moss and took advantage of their good fortune, and now they have OT wins over FSU and Louisville and have a real dark horse shot to get to the ACC title game.

Christopher H - First observation: the turf in Louisville is dangerous, and I am now concerned about injury risk when Cal visits in a couple weeks. Louisville QB Miller Moss made a number of terrible throws instead of eating sacks, and was lucky he got away with so many dropped interceptions. Louisville may have more individual talent, but ultimately it was the 2 turnovers by Louisville (a 61 yard scoop and score on an RB Isaac Brown fumble, and an awful 47 yard pick-6 by QB Miller Moss) that led to 14 UVA points and made the difference in a game where Louisville outgained UVA 383 yards to 237 yards.

TD_24 - Virginia just keeps on winning which is good for them and that program. Their offense will always give them a chance but the defense is gettable. UVA’s pass attack against the chipped away Cal pass rush defines that game.

Boston College at Pitt (Pitt wins 48-7)

Piotr T Le - Pitt found a phenom QB and Boston College was quashed. Making our win against them even worse.

Ben - Y I K E S

Jesse Miller-Gordon - Pitt isn’t good, so this certainly makes the Cal back and forth win over BC a little squiggly feeling. Important to remember that the whole causal wins thing in CFB is going away, along with Saban type dominance and single loss seasons sinking championship hopes.

Nick Kranz - I’m sorry but if you lose to THIS Stanford team in any capacity and then lose to THIS Pitt team by 41 points, I don’t see how you can move forward as a coaching staff or even a football program. I get that BC is a really tough job, and that Bill O’Brien just got there and looked solid in year 1, but COME ON.

(good gravy Cal was one dropped goal line pass from losing to this team)

Christopher H - You guys remember when I said Boston College wasn’t very good at running the ball?

TD_24 - Boston College may be mega turbo *** aren’t they.

Clemson at North Carolina (Clemson wins 38-10)

Piotr T Le - lol Chapel Bill coming to Cal. Ultimate battle of some of the worst fandom vibes in the ACC.

Ben - Shocked, but not?, by this result honestly. Expected North Carolina coming off a LUDACRIS performance at 9:45 AM would have more juice.

Jesse Miller-Gordon - Dabo sticking it to Bill for spending the offseason calling college coaches dumb was fun, he should have kept running it up until the clock stopped. Cal better beat this group of 5 lookin’ Tar Heels side by two or three scores.

Nick Kranz - I don’t know which play was funnier or more indicative of UNC’s season: getting fooled by a double pass for a 75 yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage, or running a wildcat play on 3rd down for a loss of yardage that wouldn’t have counted even if it had gained yards because UNC lined up illegally. A broken team in every sense of the word.

Christopher H - North Carolina is a get-right game for teams this year. Hope UNC doesn’t find their own get-right game soon.

TD_24 - UNC may be ultra mega turbo *** aren’t they.

I do not want to envision a world where Cal doesn’t beat this wretched team but I have Colorado and FSU PTSD. Cal has to beat them.

Wake Forest at Virginia Tech (Wake Forest wins 30-23)

Piotr T Le - Wake looking spicy this season. Keep an eye out for Dickert and what he can do at Wake Forest. VTech looking like a must win for Cal to stave off a collapse by the Bears.

Ben - Interesting. VTech I had chalked up as a loss but now it looks gettable?

Nick Kranz - Thanks to a turnover and various special teams shenanigans, Virginia Tech started at midfield or better at least four times but only turned that into 23 points thanks to a passing offense that was completely dysfunctional. If you can stop them from running the ball they don’t really have an answer.

Christopher H - It seems like the game plan for both of these teams is to force them into obvious passing situations. WF QB Robby Ashford did have a few nice throws, but they are few and far between, he’s just inconsistent. Virginia Tech, on the other hand, is even more one-dimensional in their run game.

TD_24 - Wake Forest is quietly putting together an alright season? If they hadn’t self destructed against NC State and held on against Georgia Tech, the Deacs would be a cinderella.

Campbell at NC State (NC State wins 56-10)

Ben - Congrats to NC State for beating a soup company.

Jesse Miller-Gordon - This is what a healthy program does to lesser talent. It’s what is expected. The Wolves met the standard this week.

Christopher H - The Fightin’ Camels just didn’t have the horses to compete.

TD_24 - Buy games in week six should be an arrestable offense.

That kicking game has been a total travesty and mix that with a style that doesn’t lend itself to ball control close-out drives and you get this comeback from out of nowhere for Stanford.

Syracuse at SMU (SMU wins 31-18)

Ben - Poor poor Syracuse man.

Jesse Miller-Gordon - Syracuse is cool as hell so I feel bad, but shout out to the Mustangs for taking care of business. The Big Orange lost their second extremely capable QB in two seasons embarrassing Clemson last week and it showed. That’s life, but it’s a bit of a bummer.

Nick Kranz - Another pretty sleepy performance from SMU, who needed a few early turnovers to get going before pulling away against a Syracuse team that just isn’t going to be a threat with their starting QB injured. If Cal were playing up to expectations I would say that the Mustangs are gettable. If.

Christopher H - SMU was up 31-3 in the 4th quarter, but Syracuse had a couple scores late to make the score a bit more respectable. Syracuse QB Rickie Collins had some nice runs, but threw a couple INTs forcing throws into double coverage. I respect the gunslinging when trying to make a comeback though.

TD_24 - SMU looked way more in tune with itself in this game. Need to see two more weeks of it to get a consistent gauge on the Mustangs recovery.

Any other thoughts?

Piotr T Le - At least I have Liverpool too... wait no... Niners looking good despite fielding a hospital squad on offense right now. So yay? Otherwise do not ask me about Cal, if I speak I will be in trouble and I do not want to be in trouble.

Ben - Thank goodness for the bye week this weekend.

Jesse Miller-Gordon - I know we enjoy Calimony, but that Penn State loss was fucking awesome.

Nick Kranz - Look, we’re all mourning the loss of 0-12 UCLA, but you have to admit that 1-11 UCLA with a seismically significant win over Penn State is in fact very, very funny.

Christopher H - Miami is the team to beat in the ACC, and I think only FSU really had the talent to challenge them. Everyone else is at least a few tiers below. Georgia Tech or Virginia might make an appearance in the ACC championship game with an overperforming season, but I don’t think either of those two teams would stand a chance at the national level (i.e. playoffs). That was the season I hoped for Cal; running through a weak ACC given the favorable schedule, but I think we all know a thing or two about how “hope for Cal” turns out.

TD_24 - If Cal duplicates its 4-2 record, I think people would take 8-4 regardless of the schedule. What the administration does with that in terms of the future would be a fascinating watch.