Around the Conference Table: ACC College Football 2025 - Week 12
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.
Clemson at 20 Louisville (Clemson wins 20-19)
Ben - Oh no Louisville. Brohm should have signed that extension sooner knowing what Miller Moss was apt to do.
Callie - Think fast Cardinals! Two upsets in a row! On the one hand, hooray for all coast chaos. On the other hand, there goes the ACC’s shot at getting 2 teams into the CFP. Although weirdly enough, that’s it for Clemson’s conference games. They have an FCS team and South Carolina left on their schedule. Sc is fine, it’s their rivalry game, but still really weird that they have 2 out of conference games—one of which is an FCS school—to wrap up the season. It’s very SEC of them.
@RexVolcano - Louisville’s season imploding after a loss to Cal caused an existential crisis…we’ve seen this before. This result makes it slightly less likely that the “Stanford Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football William Christopher (Dabo) Swinney” prophecy comes to pass, which I think is still a good thing.
TD_24 - So about that Cal win in the Ville.....
9 Notre Dame at 22 Pitt (Pitt loses 15-37)
Ben - There’s a great clip of this game if you haven’t seen it of Jeremiah Love dragging a defender like he’s a draft horse for like 5 yards by his shirt.
Also one of the most incredible football sequences I’ve ever seen of a Pick 6, but Pitt went for 2 and then ND picked that off and ran it back for 2 points.
Callie - Yeah Pitt never had a chance in this one guys. Notre Dame’s defense was dominate the whole way, Pitt just couldn’t do anything right offensively to gain an advantage. Pitt’s #111 ranked rushing offense’s inability to establish a run game completely hamstrung their offensive capabilities, as they only picked up 70 total rushing yards (35 of which came from RB Juelz Goff). Heintschel looked miserable behind his offensive line as he threw 16/33 for 126 and 1 int while getting sacked 4 times. By comparison, Notre Dame’s offensive blew Pitt’s defense out of the water on almost every play, putting up a healthy 387 total yards and 4 TD’s against the Panthers.
This one was extra fun though because Pitt scored off a pick six in the third quarter. They decided to go for two, and threw up an easy two points to Notre Dame’s defense. Back to back scoring interceptions makes my sicko heart thump in my chest.
@RexVolcano - This result was kind of sealed the instant Pat Narduzzi went on the record with “I don’t care if we lose to Notre Dame by 100”, an instant entry in the “Why would you ever say that??” Hall of Fame.
TD_24 - Was a little surprsied Pitt wasn’t as competitive as they ended up being but Notre Dame is an absolute mission, they are playing great football.
NC State at 15 Miami (Miami wins 41-7)
Ben - Miami trying to grift their way back into the playoff but hilariously won’t make it because they won’t play in the ACC Title AutoBid game.
Callie - I turned this off pretty quick. NC State just couldn’t finish an offensive drive to save their lives.
@RexVolcano - Miami remains good enough to get into the playoff, but they have one key fatal Achilles’ heel: they are not in one of the two conferences currently being propped up by the shadow media cabal. A SEC team with this resume would be ranked no lower than 7th.
TD_24 - If NC State doesn’t move on Dave Doeren, then what are they doing?
16 Georgia Tech at Boston College (Georgia Tech wins 36-34)
Ben - BC came so close! Didn’t watch this game though.
Callie - Yes hahaha yes, all coast chaos!
BC played an absolutely sensational game against the ACC title contender Georgia Tech. We’ve seen flashes of greatness for BC in games before, and this time we saw it in the second & third quarter; where the Eagles dropped 28 points on GTech, while the hornets only picked up 10. Such a fun game to watch, and really surprising to see Georgia Tech play down to the *checks notes* worst team in the ACC. King played up to his usual standard (26/34, 371 yards & 1 TD), but their offense couldn’t really get it together until the 4th quarter. Through the first 3 quarters, GT either punted, fumbled, or missed a field goal on 4 of their 7 offensive drives. However, the Boston College defense didn’t have enough gas or depth to close things out, and their offense sputtered at the worst moments. Georgia Tech roared to life in the 4th, overcoming an 8 point deficit thanks to a couple BC punts, and scored the game winning 23 yard field goal.
If BC gets rid of Brian Kelly they will be throwing away the biggest opportunity their team has had in years. They are a couple key players away from assembling a monster season. I see the vision. But they’ll have to do it without Turbo Richards because as soon as the portal opens Cal should drop a boatload of money on him, good lord can that boy run (141 yards on 11 carries!!) and break tackles.
@RexVolcano - This was almost SO FUNNY, but it’s probably in the ACC’s best interests that GT won and the conference race didn’t complete Pac-12 itself (yet)
TD_24 - This Georgia Tech defense makes me queasy at times. Then again, Haynes King is a gladiator.
A helluva effort from BC but just not sure what you do with them.
19 Virginia at Duke (Virginia wins 34-17)
Ben - Man I thought Duke would beat them given how we watched both teams play on the road. Fascinating.CallieVirginia back on track. I turned this game off pretty quickly, just wasn’t that interesting. Virginia put belt to ass against Duke for 3 quarters, then cruised to victory down the stretch.
@RexVolcano - Virginia continues to have the type of season that would have been perfectly reasonable and realistic to expect out of…hang on *holds earpiece to my ear while I receive a transmission*
I’m sorry, but because it’s Big Game week, I have no further comment at this time. We can continue this discussion later.
TD_24 - Duke has fallen off a cliff since they beat up Cal. Fans are a little worked up over some of the staff and decision making, which to me is curious after such a good start.
North Carolina at Wake Forest (Wake Forest wins 28-12)
Ben - oh bill baby what is you doing.
Callie - Hahaha never change Bill!
@RexVolcano - 28-12 is a hilarious scoreline, and instead of pining for Wake Forest’s 7-3 record (we are not going to acknowledge how sad that sentence sounds) I would like to take a moment to appreciate Bill Belichick’s contribution to making the ACC much funnier this year. Bill doing another postgame “I’m so disgusted I’m not even going to look at you” handshake after scoring 12 points on Wake Forest was delightful
TD_24 - If Wake wins out I think Jake Dickert is a lock for ACC Coach of the Year. 9-3 with the Deacs would be a crazy year one though Tony Elliott at UVA has a very compelling argument himself.
Virginia Tech at Florida State (Florida State wins 34-14)
Ben - good thing James Franklin is here to save the day.CallieYou know what, good for Florida State. Genuinely. (and if my boss is reading this, I please do keep in mind my praise of FSU for my up coming annual performance review). No but seriously, FSU should’ve won against Furd but LSJC got Castellanos with the dirtiest hit of the season. So seeing them spark to life against a mid-way decent—albeit head coachless—VT was very cathartic to watch. After a slow start for both sides, the Seminoles began the beatings in the second quarter and never let up. Castellanos and top receiver Duce Robinson lit up the Hokies’ secondary for 189 yards and 1 TD, with Robinson picking up his third consecutive 100+ yard game. Don’t be fooled by the glowing review however, it was anything but pretty to watch. Frankly, this game was the epitome of “stoppable force vs moveable object”. Both teams played pretty poorly, but FSU wanted the W more.
Fun fact, despite being bottom 3 ACC team, FSU played an extremely clean and disciplined game. They picked up only 5 yards of penalties off a false start in the 2nd quarter.
@RexVolcano - Kind of a sad matchup - Virginia Tech has already forgotten this game because they’re so excited about the James Franklin era, and FSU’s fanbase is too busy lighting prayer candles for coaches they aren’t going to hire next year to pay attention right now. Both of these programs already decided to sim through the rest of the 2025 season several weeks ago.
TD_24 - So James Franklin at Cal next year you say?
Any other thoughts?
Callie - So what’s the weird math that needs to happen for Cal to make it to the ACC championship game?
In other news: #9 UC Davis lost to #3 Montana State, dropping us to #15. Suddenly our FCS playoff prediction dropped from a likely 4th-8th seed with a first round bye to a 13th-16th seed. Life comes at you fast when you’re in the Big Sky and you have to deal with season derailers like Montana, Montana State, or Eastern Washington every year. I sure hope we join the MWC soon…
@RexVolcano - I saw that TCU fans are unhappy with our old friend Sonny Dykes, who is unhappy with TCU fans, and I just want to offer my thoughts and prayers to everyone involved. Between that situation and what’s going on at UCLA, there’s a lot of “oh wow, that’s too bad. I’m really sorry for you” in the air right now.
TD_24 - Time for a mini Pac 12 season the next two weeks with old foes getting the band back together!