The ACC was the busiest conference in college football in Week 0, and that included the Florida State Seminoles, who beat New Mexico State 34-17 at Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday night. However, even after getting to 1-0, the Seminoles’ path to a bowl game may have gotten a bit tougher this weekend.
So, let’s jump into the updated ACC power rankings and see who the biggest movers were with the season officially underway.
Tier 4
North Carolina looked surprisingly competent in its 15-10 Week 0 win over TCU in Ireland. The Horned Frogs repeatedly attempted to give the game away with a safety on a punt, a lost fumble, and 89 yards on 11 penalties. Eventually, the Tar Heels decided to say thank you and held on for the win.
UNC’s defensive line is a legitimate strength. Melkart Abou-Jaoude is a force off the edge, and Xavier Lewis could be one of the best defensive tackles in the league. Offensively, Billy Edwards Jr. is an adult, and with Bobby Petrino calling plays, that can get you pretty far. However, I’m hesitant to overreact too much to Ireland football and a horrible showing from the Horned Frogs, so the Heels stay in Tier 4.
Stanford also won and looked much more competent than it did a year ago. Davis Warren is an upgrade at quarterback. The Michigan transfer threw for 310 yards and a touchdown against the Rainbow Warriors, and with Micah Ford rushing for three touchdowns, that side of the ball looks improved. However, good enough to beat Hawaii and actually good are two different things, so it’s wait-and-see on the Cardinal.
Tier 3
Whatever optimism existed about this Florida State season largely dissipated on Saturday night. Ashton Daniels looked pedestrian, as he has his entire career, the offensive line transfers struggled to keep the Aggies out of the backfield, and Tony White’s defense didn’t appear to have improved, especially with a staggering lack of pass rush. So, why did the Seminoles stay at No. 10?
Well, it’s hard to downgrade a team that largely had many of the deficiencies that it was expected to have coming into the year. Yes, it was uglier against New Mexico State than expected, and Ja’Bril Rawls struggling at corner is alarming, but that can be written off as just being the first game of the season. The general trajectory of the program, however, stays the same.
There was a team that had a worse Week 0 than FSU: The NC State Wolfpack. Dave Doeren’s program spent big to keep quarterback CJ Bailey this offseason, but lost all his favorite weapons. So, Doeren needed Bailey to be one of, if not the best, quarterbacks in the ACC. He was anything but, going 12-for-23 for 84 yards and an interception against Virginia.
Tier 2
I was down on Virginia, last year’s ACC runner-up, after the Cavaliers lost their starting quarterback and much of their defense this offseason. However, even with star linebacker Kam Robinson out in Week 0, the UVA defense had NC State in a chokehold, which allowed its Beau Pribula-led offense to play from a positive game script.
Pribula has limitations as a dropback passer. However, Pribula only dropped back 14 times, nine of them with play-action, and he went 9-for-11 for 155 yards and two touchdowns. He was a weapon in the run game, which produced 258 yards and a 50 percent success rate. This service academy-style approach will work when UVA can dictate the terms, but it still has limitations when facing an evenly matched opponent or if it falls behind early.
On passing downs, UVA managed just a 31% success rate. That’s a red flag, but there was too much good from Tony Elliott’s team in a blowout win not to upgrade the Cavaliers into legitimate ACC runner-up contention. That upgrade will make things even tougher for FSU, which currently has top-five teams by these power rankings all on its schedule.
Tier 1
Miami is still on a tier unto itself.
Add us as a preferred source on Google