Monday, November 17, 2008

Week 13 ACC Preview

Week 13

Nov. 20
Miami at Georgia Tech, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN

Nov. 22
Clemson at Virginia, Noon on Raycom
NC State at North Carolina, Noon on Raycom
Boston College at Wake Forest, 3:30 p.m. on ABC/ESPN2
(ABC in ACC country, ESPN2 in Big Ten country)
Duke at Virginia Tech, 5:30 p.m. on ESPNU
Florida State at Maryland, 7:45 p.m. on ESPN

We have reached critical mass. This is the second week of the season we have a full slate of six conference games. Each game includes at least one team with aspirations for Tampa and three games with two teams that are not mathematically eliminated from their division race. If you were to put a gun to my head and make me make an ACCCG prediction (Brian), I'd say Miami vs. Boston College. Those are the two teams playing the best football and I don't think either will lose these last two weeks.

If you're a fan of chaos, you're rooting for the Jackets, Tar Heels, Hokies, Wahoos and Seminoles.

Miami (4-2) at Georgia Tech (4-3)

Miami controls its own destiny. Georgia Tech definitely does not. The Jackets aren't eliminated, but they might as well be. In order for Georgia Tech to go to Tampa, it would have to beat Miami, then hope for losses from VT, UNC AND UVa in the last two weeks. Is it possible? Yes. Is it also possible for the Jackets to beat Miami and still get eliminated on Saturday? Also yes.

There's a chance five of the Coastal teams could be tied in the loss column after Saturday's games. At that point, I think we should just have Coastal and Atlantic All-Star teams play each other in Tampa.

The Canes are dominating the line of scrimmage. I doubt the Jackets will be able to do much offensively.

Clemson (3-4) at Virginia (3-3)

The Tigers have a chance to play spoiler and keep the possibility of bowl eligibility alive. The 'Hoos certainly can't match the Clemson in the talent department, but absolutely kill the Tigers in intangibles. This game will be interesting to watch because all outcomes seem plausible. You could have a great game or either team could win by four touchdowns and at the end you would say you weren't surprised by it.

Boston College (3-3) at Wake Forest (4-3)

Elimination game!

Brian from BC Interruption had a great point. The Eagles are coming off two games they had to be emotionally up for against Notre Dame and Florida State. Will they come back down to earth against a stingy Wake defense? Honestly, it doesn't matter. If the Deacs score more than 10 points I'll be shocked.

Duke (1-5) at Virginia Tech (3-3)

Duke isn't at its healthiest and appears to have peaked against Vandy. But if the Devils can pull off two upsets, they go to a bowl.

It will be interesting to see how the Hokies come out. If Miami wins Thursday, eliminating the Hokies from the Coastal, will they come out flat and give one away?

Florida State (4-3) at Maryland (4-2)

Florida State should play angry. If they don't it's the coaches fault. Inconsistent Maryland is playing at home, were it's played well. The key, as always for the Terps, will be what kind of production they get from Da'Rel Scott.

The key for Florida State will be avoiding a complete meltdown and keeping its Atlantic dreams alive.

5 comments:

Winfield Featherston said...

eh before FSU played Tech (and Nesbitt wasn't hurt) FSU had a "dominating" defense as well. ;-)

ebj said...

VT being so young is affected by home and away. I'd expect max effort/result against doook. UVA might be a different story, their balanced O will be able to move the ball a lil bit, I think. If GiT beat da U on Thurs, this team will be jacked and able to smell the finish line.

Anonymous said...

I posted this in an early thread, but will post here also as I would like a reply. A lot of peeps are saying that if GT beats Miami and VT wins out VT will go onto the ACC Championship game. However, would Miami not have to lose both to GT and NC State? If they lose to GT, but beat NC State would they and VT both not have the same amount of conference losses and move ahead of VT due to the head2head tie breaker?

furrer4heisman said...

Anon

If all that happens, there's at least a three-way tie with Miami, GT and VT. The first tiebreaker in that case is record against eachother and all three would be at 1-1. The next tiebreaker is division record and VT's would be 4-1. The other two would have 3-2 conference records and VT would go to Tampa.

Anonymous said...

I hope that scenario for the hokies is correct. It looks like GT is on their way to beating Miami. However, Fowler, James, and Palmer did not even mention it and said that the picture was to complicated to figure out. They mentioned that Miami was still looking good along with GT and UNC with barely a mention of the Hokies, unless they are expecting VT to lose yet again which is very possible with Stinespring's anemic offense plays.