ACC Football: Who Are The Coastal Division Favorites in 2016?

While Clemson and Florida State are going to be fighting for the ACC Atlantic Division crown, the Coastal Division is wide open and anyone’s game.

Across the country, much of the attention in the ACC this season is being paid to an October 29th meeting between the Clemson Tigers and Florida State Seminoles that may be the biggest game play din the history of the conference. It will almost certainly, barring something shocking taking place earlier in the season, be for the Atlantic Division title.

Over on the other side of the conference, the Coastal Division is wide open and has as many as five of the seven teams in it who can end up heading to Charlotte in the first week of December to play for the ACC crown.

Last year, it was North Carolina who became the first team not named Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech or Duke to bring home the divisional championship. While the Tar Heels aren’t going to fall to the bottom of the division, they will likely take a step back. When it’s all said and done, if FSU football ends up making it to the Queen City, they could likely end up facing a familiar team from the 2016 season.

Favorite – Miami Hurricanes

Look, it pained me write that as a graduate of FSU as much as it pained all the alumni and fans to read it. But the truth of the matter is that Mark Richt doesn’t have a bad team and could take advantage of this being a year where there isn’t a clear cut favorite in the Coastal.

Where Miami benefits is having Brad Kaaya under center for what will more than likely be his final college season before going pro. He may be the best pocket quarterback in college football right now (and has had two good games against the ‘Noles since heading to Miami). With a quality coach like Richt leading the way, the thought is that he can only get better.

Quite frankly, it’s time for the Hurricanes to finally put up after a decade of talk that the ACC was going to be the “All Canes Conference” and they were going to win title after title. In 12 seasons, Miami has no football titles in the conference and has finished second in the Coastal just three times. There is no denying it: Miami will eventually be a good team again.

Possibilities – North Carolina, Virginia, Virginia Tech

Last year’s division champs aren’t the favorite this year, but it would be insane to sleep on them and say the Tar Heels have no shot. Much of their performance will rest on the play of their all everything offensive weapon, Ryan Switzer. If he can have a monster year and carry the team, North Carolina could make it back to back runs.

Both schools from the Commonwealth welcome new coaches, as Bronco Mendenhall takes over the Cavaliers and Justin Fuente is the man taking over the Hokies. Each has a monster game early in the year that could set the tone and both play Miami at home. Their regular season finale meeting could end up being for a trip to Charlotte.

Needing Help – Duke

Three seasons ago, the Blue Devils were actually in the hunt to pull off the upset of Florida State in the ACC Championship Game against…for about a quarter. Now, Duke is no longer the Cinderella team and people are going to be watching for them. With road games against Northwestern, Notre Dame, Louisville and Miami, Duke is going to need to win out to have the overall record tiebreaker if they want a shot.

Not a Chance – Georgia Tech and Pittsburgh

Now, this isn’t saying that either the Yellow Jackets or Panthers can’t have a role in who wins the title by pulling off upsets (just ask the Seminoles about that from 2015). But, quite frankly, these two teams are a step below the rest of the division even in a year as wide open as this one. It would take a miracle the likes of each team above them suffering major injuries and shocking upsets to see either school playing for the conference crown.