Around the Conference Table: ACC College Football 2025 - Week 7

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.

Virginia Tech at 13 Georgia Tech (Georgia Tech wins 35-20)

Ben - Georgia Tech looks to be wrapping up a spot in the ACC Title Game and Playoffs? Looking forward to hearing Stanford Jonah I guess.

Callie Wake - The battle of the tech schools ends similarly to what I expected. Georgia Tech’s offense and defense would not be denied, and seemed to cruising to a 15 point lead in the first quarter and maintaining their lead to the end. Virginia Tech, despite losing their head coach, seemed to have a lot of fight in them. VTech seems to be the UCLA of the ACC.

Christopher H - Really hard to get anything going on offense when you aren’t very good at throwing the ball.

TD_24 - GT continues to hum its way towards an ACC title appearance and the schedule is quite favorable if they can get past Duke.

NC State at 16 Notre Dame (Notre Dame wins 36-7)

Ben - woof. Dave Doeren could only squeak out a TD?

Callie Wake - Entirely unsurprising. Honestly I think Notre Dame should be higher ranked than Georgia Tech.

Christopher H - NCSU just completely fell apart in the second half after hanging around in the first. It’s like when an FCS team is keeping it competitive with an FBS team, but there’s always a moment where the dam breaks and the underdog loses all hope, and the other team begins to pour it on.

TD_24 - NC State has really stalled over the last few weeks and its not really this game, but the output against Virginia Tech ultimately made this game feel DOA.

Pitt at 25 Florida State (Pitt wins 34-31)

Ben - Hail 2 Pitt baby. Love to see FSU, the pinnacle of the ACC according to Lawyers have 1 ACC win in the last 2 seasons. Who was that against again?

Callie Wake - Pitt shocks the ACC with a massive upset over Florida State. The return of Pitt’s star WR Reid really helped them topple the Seminoles, as he pulled in 155 yards and 2 TD’s. Even after picking up two picks and going up 21-14 at the half, the FSU defense couldn’t stop Pitt’s offense when it counted most. Although it seemed like FSU was back after a truly terrible 2024 season, it’s clear the rebuild is still ongoing.

Christopher H - Pitt has been on a hot streak since benching QB Eli Holstein for Mason Heintschel. Desmond Reid continues to impress, while FSU, well...

TD_24 - I am confused at what happened to the Florida State team that beat Alabama. They beat the Tide down but now just keep getting outphysicaled themselves, a crazy 180.

Pitt benching Eli Holstein actually worked for them?

Stanford at SMU (SMU wins 34-10)

Ben - lmaoooooooooo every clip I saw of this game made Stanford look hapless.

Callie Wake - HAHAHAHAHAHAHA OH THANK GOD WE’RE RETURNING TO THE MEAN!!!! Furd really had no shot at beating SMU, hopefully that $50 million gets withdrawn after such a sad performance.

Christopher H - This game was a bit more competitive than the final score indicated: Stanford had 353 total yards to 369 for SMU, but Stanford had a 73 yard drive result in a turnover on downs at the 1 (-1 yard on the 4th down, followed by a 98 yard TD drive by SMU), and a 90 yard drive end in a pick-6 TD for SMU. Stanford actually scored a TD on that pick-6 drive, but it was negated by an unnecessary hands to the face penalty away from the ball. I don’t like thinking about how Stanford probably could have kept this competitive with SMU had they played a cleaner game.

TD_24 - You wouldn’t know it but Stanford had a chance to cut it to one score on a goal to go and.....threw a pick six.

SMU weirdly still feels vulnerable but I don’t know how to pinpoint it.

Wake Forest at Oregon State (Wake Forest wins 39-14)

Ben - Its getting REAL bad in Corvallis.

Callie Wake - God this is getting pathetic Oregon State… please win something.

Christopher H - Oregon State what is u doin bb

TD_24 - If you told me last year that Jake Dicket would’ve costed Trent Bray his job I wouldn’t have believed you but its crazy that’s how it played out.

So about that Cal win against now 0-7 OSU.....

Clemson at Boston College (Clemson wins 41-10)

Ben - Clemson playing with a vengeance. Can they win out and sneak back in?

Callie Wake - Entirely expected. Clemson may not be as dominate as in years past, it was never in doubt against Boston College.

Christopher H - Not a lot to say here; Boston College was dominated on the offensive and defensive lines, and it only got worse from there.

TD_24 - So about that Cal win against now 1-5 Boston College (who beat fordham).......

Any other thoughts?

Callie Wake - The ACC is truly anyone’s conference to claim.

#6 UC Davis routed #14 Northern Arizona 45-24 in a thrilling Big Sky matchup. UCD’s defense stunned NAU’s offense, forcing 3 fumble turnovers and picking up at least 5 sacks on QB Ty Pennington (I stopped counting after 5, blame the Gunrock IPA for that). Davis Freshman QB Cade Pinnick had his freshman moments, but showed an incredible amount of poise and talent. Went to the game with my dad and we had a great time!

Ben - Zoo was great. Perfect weather. Bears were very active. My kid rode the zipline 100 times. Great Saturday.

TD_24 - Time to lock back in on Cal, they’ve got just about everything they want in front of them. The onus is on them to take it.