Welcome back to Season 3 of Cal in the ACC. Let’s take a look at what our neighbors on the East Coast are doing.
UNC - TCU (UNC wins 15-10)
Nick Kranz - How many teams will UNC be able to drag into a hideous slog? And how hilarious is it that one of those slogs was somehow against Sonny Dykes, who appears to have finally found a QB that he cannot immediately make serviceable.
Ben - A great game where no matter who loses, we all win.
Christopher Helling - This game was a defensive struggle, but honestly, neither team looked very good. UNC looks to have a solid defensive line, but this was TCU’s game to win and they found a way to choke it away.
NC State - Virginia (Virginia wins 34-8)
Ben - Bet Virginia is glad this game wasn’t in Brazil in front of 17 fans.
Christopher Helling - NCSU is a victim to the transfer portal, and had most of their talent from last year picked away by bigger programs. They retained QB CJ Bailey and not much else. This was complete domination on UVA’s part, particularly by their extremely experienced O-line (all 5- to 7-year players), as UVA was able to run the ball down NCSU’s throat (QB Beau Pribula had over 100 yards rushing) with something like 5 yards/carry. NCSU’s offense looked bad, with no playmakers and QB CJ Bailey not doing much on his own either. The NCSU run game went nowhere, WRs were covered and Bailey had no one to throw to, and his scrambles were to little effect.
Hawai’i - Stanford (Stanford wins 37-27)
Nick Kranz - It is telling of my expectations that I was mildly impressed that Stanford barely beat a team that is clearly rebuilding after heavy portal losses and just got shut down by UNLV.
Ben - Boooooooo.
Christopher Helling - Hawaii QB Micah Alejado did not look good all game, 13/24 in the first half for 78 pass yards. Hawaii receivers struggled to get separation, and they lost last year’s top receivers to the transfer portal in Jackson Harris (LSU) and Brandon White (Kansas St), and Pofele Ashlock is out with an ACL injury. Eventually it looked like Stanford’s secondary started getting tired with man coverage in the 4th quarter, and Hawaii scored 3 straight TDs in the 4th quarter to take the lead 27-23 Hawaii. Hawaii’s first 9 drives were 37 plays for 82 yards and 1 TD, those next 3 drives were 30 plays for 233 yards and 3 TDs. Hawaii had no run game, perhaps related to RB Cam Barfield being injured very early in the game, but there was no “run” in the “run and shoot” offense with 22 rushes for 46 yards. Stanford’s linebackers looked good for the majority of the game, with a few costly mistakes that resulted in those Hawaii TDs (e.g. LB Matt Rose missed tackle on the RB checkdown led to a 29-yard TD). But overall, Stanford’s front-7 looked good, generating pressure, linebackers making tackles, and the secondary covering well for most of the game, although their depth may be a bit thin. Hawaii, on the other hand, looked like a worse team than last year.
New Mexico State - Florida State (FSU wins 34-17)
Ben - Bummer.
Christopher Helling - FSU dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, able to run the ball at-will (217 rush yards on 39 carries, 5.6 yards/carry) while NMSU couldn’t get anywhere running the ball (47 yards on 23 carries, 2.0 yards/carry). FSU has some really good skill position players at WR/RB, but their defensive performance was concerning. Terrible schematically, a lot more defensive pressure by NMSU pass rushers than expected, busted coverages, giving up a TD on a cover-0 blitz, leaving gigantic cushions for NMSU receivers on 3rd and 4th downs (NMSU was 10/17 on 3rd down and could have done better if not for some drops, despite averaging 3rd and very long each time). NMSU was competitive the whole game and missed some of their own opportunities (dropped a wide-open TD pass on a trick play, had some QB/WR miscommunications on potential big plays, etc) yet hung within 1-2 possessions of FSU, which should raise some alarm bells. FSU has a murderer’s row schedule coming up and will be lucky to get more than 1 win in their non-FCS games.
Akron - Wake Forest (Wake Forest wins 38-16)
Christopher Helling - Wake Forest controlled this game the whole way, and was up 38-3 in the 4th quarter when they put their backups in (then allowing 2 garbage time TDs with a missed PAT). Akron didn’t have much offense other than the QB keeper from QB Cibastian Broughton, and only really attempted safe screen passes for the redshirt freshman. The Akron defense was also bad, with the secondary giving up multiple 70+ yard plays and the defense line unable to slow the run. This was more of an Akron bad game than Wake Forest good, although perhaps a good confidence boosting game for QB Gio Lopez to throw for 350 yards after playing for atrocious UNC offenses where his biggest game was 216 passing yards (he had 313 passing yards in the first half alone). His accuracy was still a bit concerning given the clean pockets he had all day.
Colorado - Georgia Tech (Georgia Tech loses 13-14)
Nick Kranz - Consider the life of Alberto Mendoza - to be the understudy to the hero at Indiana (who just so happens to be your brother) only to transfer away to become the replacement for Georgia Tech’s irreplaceable, departing hero. Get that man a good therapist.
Ben - An absolute thriller, and I only had to watch 1 minute.
Christopher Helling - This was an incredibly sloppy game on both sides, and fittingly ended on the blocked FG. I don’t think a Mendoza brother is going to be able to fill the void left by Haynes King.
Miami - Stanford (Stanford loses 6-45)
Nick Kranz - Do you suppose if you’re Stanford’s coaching staff, that it’s fun to gameplan for Miami so that you can choose your path of defeat? Mario Cristobal, like Gozer, asked Stanford to choose the form of the destructor, and Stanford just couldn’t help but have Malachi Toney pop into their heads.
Ben - Disappointed the meteor didn’t hit that would take out the stadium but save all the Cal fans.
Christopher Helling - Miami absolutely dominated Stanford top to bottom, and looked like a playoff-caliber team. WR Malachi Toney set a Miami single-game receiving record with 234 receiving yards. Toney was uncoverable, and Stanford kept changing secondary coverages, and Toney embarrassed them all, getting wide open with his route running. QB Darian Mensah barely broke a sweat, great protection, throwing to wide open receivers or short completions, going something like 27/30 with 401 passing yards and 5 TDs, career highs for Mensah. Stanford’s strategy was apparently to stop the run and dare Miami to beat them through the air, and well... they did. Badly.
Clemson - LSU (Clemson loses 10-51)
Nick Kranz - Stanford, Oklahoma State, now Clemson . . . it has been fascinating watching schools that cannot or will not adapt to modern college football slowly (then very quickly) fall into disrepair.
Ben - Excuse me.
Christopher Helling - I was not prepared for how thoroughly LSU was about to dismantle Clemson. The game opened with an interception that led to a FG for Clemson for a 3-0 lead, and... that was about it (until a garbage time TD brought the score from 51-3 LSU to 51-10 LSU with a few minutes left in the game). Clemson tried both quarterbacks, Christopher Vizzina and freshman Tait Reynolds, but neither of them could get much going with the run game going absolutely nowhere (Clemson had -4 rushing yards in the first half and 1 first down, while LSU had 213 rushing yards and 21 first downs in the first half alone). The LSU defensive line dominated and embarrassed Clemson’s offensive line, getting quick pressure even rushing 3 and dropping 8, so these QBs were doomed from the start. LSU had a beat on Clemson multiple times, running really clever offensive plays that resulted in busted coverages for LSU TDs. Even worse, Clemson played with very little effort, with defensive players making “business decisions” against the 6’0” 207 lbs. rushing of QB Sam Leavitt. LSU is likely a playoff team, and Clemson is almost assuredly in for another rough year.
New Hampshire - Syracuse (Syracuse wins 66-3)
Ben - Excuse me?
Christopher Helling - Standard outmatched FCS opponent buy game; Syracuse dominated all facets. QB Steve Angeli mainly picked apart the UNH defense with short throws and spreading the ball out, but the biggest surprise was true freshman RB Shavante Anderson Jr with a big game and some nice runs. UNH clearly has tackling issues, and a lot of Syracuse plays went for a lot more yards than they should have, while the UNH offensive line couldn’t stop the Syracuse pass rush. One red flag was how many holding penalties Syracuse had against an outmatched opponent, racking up 12 penalties for 125 yards.
Miami (OH) - Pitt (Pitt wins 59-14)
Ben - Pitt end of year is going to be a sneaky good game on rivalry week.
Christopher Helling - This was nearly a one-TD game at halftime before some mental mistakes by Miami turned it into 17 points at half, and a demoralized Miami team fell apart in the second half. QB Mason Heintschel had 7 passing TDs to 7 different receivers. Miami (OH) tried the Stanford strategy and dared Pitt to beat them through the air and they did; QB Mason Heintschel picked them apart finding open receivers everywhere, but he also had a great game with some really nice throws. This game probably should have been closer but Pitt played very well in their opener.
Boston College - Cincinnati (Boston College loses 15-34)
Christopher Helling - BC looked somewhat decent in the first half, but the Cincinnati run game eventually wore them down. I feel like BC is a team that is decently coached but lacks the talent to compete.
Tulane - Duke (Duke wins 17-3)
Nick Kranz - An early sign that Manny Diaz just might find ways to win games this season even though his offensive roster was gutted in the transfer portal.
Christopher Helling - Duke QB Walker Eget was not particularly good throwing the ball, missing open downfield receivers and some bad throws on shorter throws into the endzone which should have been TDs. RB Nate Sheppard was pretty much unstoppable running the ball, running for 139 yards on 19 carries (plus 3 receptions for 19 yards) in the first half, when QB Walker Eget had 88 passing yards. Tulane was clearly a run-heavy offense with a run-first type of QB, but the Duke defensive line won the point of attack to stop the run game. Tulane’s offense did not look great and never really tested the Duke secondary, and a better QB would probably have capitalized on those opportunities. Duke’s complete lack of passing offense is a concern going forward.
VMI - Virginia Tech (Virginia Tech wins 73-3)
Christopher Helling - I though Syracuse’s FCS opponent looked overmatched until I saw this one right after. This looked like two teams in different athletic divisions, and it’s too early to make any conclusions about VT and new head coach James Franklin.
Any other thoughts on the teams?
Christopher Helling - It’s one thing to have football almost every day, but the rain delays and FSU’s power outage were killing me. Though to be fair, a stadium power outage for SMU-FSU is about as Texas-Florida as it gets.