Around the Conference Table: ACC College Football Week 2

Presented by Saucy Asian

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

Duke @ Northwestern (Duke wins 26-20 2/OT)

mpete91 - this was hardly a matchup that required a 2 OT

Christopher H - Duke wide receiver Jordan Moore with another statement game.

TD_24 - Duke needs more offensive juice if they want to be in talks for a bowl game this season

Rob Hwang - DDMF

Florida A&M @ 12 Miami (Miami wins 56-9)

mpete91 - good good let Miami get comfortable

Christopher H - Nothing to see here.

TD_24 - Yawn. Miami is good though

Piotr T Le - Miami beat up on a HBCU and a reeling Florida with a coach who is pre-fired. They won't play anyone worth talking about till VTech and then Cal. But they look good, let's see if the look sticks.

Rob Hwang - Needing Cristobal to keep playing smart football until he comes to Berkeley for the stupid decision making to creep in.

14 Tennessee @ 24 NC State (NC State loses 10-51)

mpete91 - ruh roh NC State?

Christopher H - I'm kind of enjoying the new SEC pecking order. Tennessee and Vanderbilt are good now?

TD_24 - While this was of course a bad game for NC State but I think this says a lot more about Tennessee who look pretty scary right now

Bk97 - NC State had a chance to make a statement win and they suffered their worst loss since losing to a 14-1 Clemson team in 2019. I guess only one ACC team was willing to rep the conference proudly against the SEC...

Piotr T Le - Utter vaporization. Tennessee is very good, but I don't think they are 41 point good right? McCall looks uncomfortable in the pocket. We'll have to see how they develop over the course of the season.

Rob Hwang - Can’t tell if Tenn is THAT GOOD (which I think they are) or if NC State is a fraudulent top 25 team. I think its safe to say Grayson McCall has to be significantly better over the next few weeks for NC State to start to feel better, because he has not been great.

BYU @ SMU (SMU loses 15-18)

mpete91 - I think SMU will end the year better than they start here. BYU is a good team, but man, at home on a Friday night? Y I K E S

Christopher H - Another rough offensive outing for SMU, as they look to transition to a new QB. Kevin Jennings is only a sophomore, but he's dangerously athletic.

TD_24 - SMU looks so much more beatable right now but they still have time to figure it out

Bk97 - SMU had a BRUTAL series of red zone trips. In 5 trips they scored a whopping 6 points thanks to 3 turnovers (downs, interception, fumble) and 2 field goals.

Piotr T Le - SMU better figure out how to offense cause as their schedule only gets tougher answers will be harder to test out and figure out. But I am not penciling in any win against them. We're still in the 1st quarter of the season, let's talk deeply about them when we're in the 3rd quarter.

Rob Hwang - The amount of Elon jokes has probably been overdone but still hilarious. [ed: This was accidentally leftover from last week, but I’ll let it stand]

Jacksonville State @ 22 Louisville (Louisville wins 49-14)

mpete91 - not much we learned here...

Christopher H - Louisville is respected by the national media, but they've still yet to be tested. I think they're still coasting on the reputation of their bowl win over USC (sans Caleb Williams and a whole load of transfer portal players), but Cal fans know that name brand is more shine than substance.

TD_24 - Wake me up when Louisville plays someone serious

Piotr T Le - Louisville is yet to play a team that has a pulse.

Rob Hwang - Good to see some ACC teams rise to the challenge of their FCS opponent

23 Georgia Tech @ Syracuse (Georgia Tech loses 28-31)

mpete91 - oh good, a conference that beats itself up. Syracuse looking like a threat? or does Tech have the curse of the number in front of your name as well.

Christopher H - Syracuse QB Kyle McCord may be for real.

TD_24 - The Carrier Dome is where dreams go to die. Kyle McCord looks very good through two games but the Orange need to continually put things together.

Bk97 - With nearly 800 yards and 8 TDs, Syracuse QB Kyle McCord is making a serious claim as the best QB in the conference (Cam Ward might object, but he has a pretty easy schedule until he faces Cal). November 16th just became much more interesting.

Piotr T Le - Syracuse looks much better than pre-season expectations were. Let's see if travels.

Rob Hwang - Excuse me. I’d like to talk to your manager. I was told Syracuse was strictly a Basketball school.

App State @ 25 Clemson (Clemson wins 66-20)

mpete91 - lol realizing Clemson was ranked lower than Tech.

Christopher H - I think Clemson is being punished for that Georgia blowout, but #25 seems disrespectful. I think they'll be climbing back to the top soon.

TD_24 - I guess Clemson didn't want to suffer the same fate as other teams at home vs App State.

Rob Hwang - Good to see Clemson back on track.

Pittsburgh @ Cincinnati (Pittsburgh wins 28-27)

mpete91 - can't wait to beat Pittsburgh in the Burgh and then steal the H to spell it correctly (Pittsburg).

Christopher H - Pitt has some good receivers, but this one seemed like a Cincinnati collapse.

TD_24 - What a comeback by Pitt. That's a win that builds character and can set their season on the right path.

Piotr T Le - Pitt looks beatable. Cincy is lead by a guy no one but some donors wanted and Nadruzzi nearly lost.

Duquesne @ Boston College (BC wins 56-0)

mpete91 - lol

Christopher H - These ACC-FCS matchups make me realize why people disrespect Cal for slow starts against perennial FCS playoff-caliber teams like UC Davis and Sacramento State.

TD_24 - Keep on truckin BC

Charlotte @ UNC (UNC wins 38-20)

mpete91 - man there are too many ACC Teams

Christopher H - Charlotte is not a team that will finish high in the AAC standings.

TD_24 - Honestly a fair output from UNC after a big win over Minnesota so we'll have to look back soon

Marshall @ VTech (VTech wins 31-14)

Christopher H - The transfer portal is crazy. Marshall's QB is Stone Earle, who transferred to North Texas from Abilene Christian, faced Cal in 2023 before losing the starting job to Cal's now backup, Chandler Rogers. All that to say that this was a rough game for Marshall, who had no offense and could not at all stop the VT run game.

TD_24 - VT technically did what they had to do but they are not putting much faith into their fans

Cal Poly @ Stanford (Stanford wins 41-7)

mpete91 - congrats to the 6 students that saw this game in the stadium.

Christopher H - Likely the last time Stanford will defeat a "Cal" this season, so I hope they enjoyed it.TD_24Cal Poly had this game tied for the record.

Piotr T Le - Furd did what they needed to do. Let's see if they keep improving.

Virginia @ Wake Forest (Virginia wins 31-30)

mpete91 - ruh roh

Christopher H - WF QB Hank Bachmeier is looking much better than I remember from his Boise State days.

TD_24 - I should have really watched this game

Any other thoughts?

Christopher H - It's so much more fun to consume regular college football media after your team does well. I hope this continues.

TD_24 - Florida State is 17th in the ACC

Bk97 - I still can't keep track of all these teams. It will be nice when conference play is in full swing and we have a much-more-manageable 6-8 games per week.