Around the Conference Table: ACC College Football Week 5

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New Season, New Conference, New Table. Let’s take a look around the ACC.

15 Louisville at 16 Notre Dame (Notre Dame wins 31-24)

Nick Kranz - Louisville outgained Notre Dame by 115 yards and had 8 more first downs, but blew this game with unforced errors, like snapping a punt over the punter's head, dropping an easy catch into the arms of a DB, and erasing a late 4th down conversion by not getting the ball snapped in time that led to the game ending turnover on downs. Brutal way to lose a big game.

TD_24 - One of the underrated games of the week, ND saves their season and Louisville has to get right immediately with SMU coming into town.

Christopher H - I've always liked QB Tyler Shough as a player, even if he's had injury woes, although their defense couldn't hang with ND.

Rob Hwang - So are is ND the lead for the ACC Championship now?

Stanford at 17 Clemson (Stanford loses 14-40)

Nick Kranz - I like (dislike?) a lot of what Troy Taylor is doing with Stanford but there is a HARD ceiling on what this team can achieve until they find a QB who can pass the ball, cause I'm pretty sure they don't have a guy like that on the roster.

TD_24 - This score wasn't as lopsided as it looks, Stanford played well but Ashton Daniels repeatedly shot himself in the foot.

Christopher H - Stanford kept this game way closer than it should have been for way longer than it should have been, and I find Stanford's ability to punch above their weight class concerning for our late season matchup. And that was despite Stanford constantly shooting themselves in the foot (turnover on downs deep in their own territory, 2 INTs, more turnovers on downs, etc). Clemson's receivers were seriously impressive, and they gashed an awful Stanford secondary that were helpless to do little more than PI on every play.

Rob Hwang - As expected.

Western Kentucky at Boston College (Boston College wins 21-20)

Nick Kranz - Lose a bad non-conference game? NAH, THE ACC HAD IT ALL THE WAY.

TD_24 - Thomas Castellanos being out certainly could have been a death blow for BC but they escape.

Christopher H - I thought BC was in trouble without Castellanos, but they mounted a big comeback in this one to squeak out another win. It's what good teams do.

Rob Hwang - No Castellanos, but still win. Big time for BC.

Virginia Tech at 7 Miami (Miami wins 38-34)

Nick Kranz - All Virginia Tech needed to do to beat Miami was to get two momentum shifting red zone interceptions from Cam Ward, hit two 50+ yard field goals, then complete a Hail Mary on the last play! Shame they didn't actually complete that last play to actually win the game, but it helped Cal get Gameday so hooray!

Bk97 - That hail mary was overturned as karmic justice for VT's awful clock management on that final drive.

TD_24 - Miami escaping here gave Cal life.

Piotr T Le - Miami showed that they are gettable. But is it something they will internalize or will Cal take advantage of this?

Christopher H - Virginia Tech was robbed. When the play happened live I thought it was an incompletion, but it was somehow ruled a touchdown on the field, and then somehow after an excruciatingly long review, refs eventually found evidence to overturn the call. Two wrongs don't make a right here, and this is probably meant for a deeper discussion of the role or replay in refereeing, but I've never seen a call overturned with so little evidence before. VT looked like the better team for most of the game, but some terrible decisions (fake FG, clock management, etc) put Miami in position for the late heroics to score on their final drive.

Rob Hwang - ACC fans seem to think Miami is ripe for an upset and is a part of the ACC storylines to lose after a game like that.

Northern Illinois at NC State (NC State wins 24-17)

Nick Kranz - Lose a bad non-conference game? NAH, THE ACC HAD IT ALL THE WAY

Bk97 - NIU has a surprisingly good defense. But still...171 yards?

TD_24 - A typical grind it out game. The NC State offense looks broke but that defense was scrappy and accounted for 14 of those 24 points.

Christopher H - NC State beat the team that beat Notre Dame (who just beat Louisville).

Rob Hwang - Yay wolfpack?

Holy Cross at Syracuse (Syracuse wins 42-14)

TD_24 - Syracuse at UNLV is must see TV this week.

Christopher H - Holy Cross was unable to cover Syracuse's receivers, resulting in another big day for QB Kyle McCord. Syracuse's lack of a run game and bad defense weren't a factor, other than the busted coverages (one on a trick play) that resulted in 14 points for Holy Cross.

Louisiana at Wake Forest (Louisiana wins 41-38)

Nick Kranz - Lose a bad non-conference game? OH NOOOOOOOOO

Bk97 - We already have our annual loss to a woeful team, so I don't need to worry about Wake Forest anymore, right? ...right?

TD_24 - Wake might actually be bad. But I shudder at a Friday night in Winston Salem.

Christopher H - Wake Forest's defense was awful, and the offense struggled to get anything going until Louisiana lost half their defensive starters to targeting.

Rob Hwang - WF is officially a trap game.

UNC at Duke (Duke wins 21-20)

Nick Kranz - Kinda disappointed we don't play either of these teams this year, any way we can make a trade to get SMU off the schedule?

TD_24 - Duke may have not played anyone, but they have grit. 5-0 and under Manny Diaz they look to be going places.

Piotr T Le - UNC wyd? Up by 20 only to blow it??

Christopher H - I thought UNC would win this one handily, and felt vindicated for about a half. Another embarrassing collapse for UNC as Duke scored 21 unanswered points to win this one.

Rob Hwang - Is Mack Brown quiet quitting?

Florida State at SMU (SMU wins 42-16)

Nick Kranz - THEY ARE WHO WE THOUGHT THEY WERE AND WE LET THEM OFF THE HOOK . . . and also SMU's slow start looks like a thing of the past as BYU looks increasingly strong. Bummer.

Bk97 - It's entirely plausible that FSU starts the year 1-9. The next five games look rough: vs. Clemson, at Duke, at Miami, vs UNC, at ND

TD_24 - Well this looks even worse by the second.

Piotr T Le - Sigh... we had a chance last week, but alas. SMU did what we should've done.

Christopher H - SMU gets to enjoy all the gloating with their win over a team who argued in legal filings that they weakened the conference with their presence. I'm jealous.

Any other thoughts?

Nick Kranz - If you're asking me to project it out, I think that 3-7 Washington will host 2-7 UCLA on November 27 in the lamest "Big-10" game of all time. Good job turncoats.

TD_24 - Oh FSU what could have been.....