A.C.C. Week One Winners and Losers

The first week of football is officially over, and the A.C.C. saw some big performances all around the conference. Josh Jackson led the Hokies over bitter rival, West Virginia, and Virginia Tech retained the Black Diamond Trophy. Let’s look around the rest of the league and dissect what happened.

WINNERS: Kelly Bryant and the Clemson Tigers

Bryant was impressive against a weak Kent State, but we will see a much bigger challenge next weekend as Auburn travels to Death Valley. Auburn is 1-0, but they played a tune up game as well, so it will be interesting to see how the team performs against equal talent.

LOSERS: Deondre Francois and the Florida State Seminoles

It was painful to watch Francois go down with another injury. F.S.U. was hanging with Alabama, and losing Francois took all the wind out of the Seminoles’ sails. F.S.U. gets a break with U.L.M. coming to town, but they need to find a QB solution quickly as the Miami Hurricanes blow into town the next week.

WINNERS: Josh Jackson and the Virginia Tech Hokies

The Hokies snapped the “curse” at FedEx Field, and Jackson showed serious promise. The Hokies will host Delaware at home this weekend to tweak any problems. Big bad Clemson will hear Enter Sandman on 9/30. Jackson looked impressive in his debut, but seemed to zero in on favorite target, Cam Phillips. He needs to make friends with some different receivers this week.

LOSERS: The middle of the pack A.C.C. teams

North Carolina losing to Cal was disappointing. Pittsburgh squeaking by Youngstown St. was surprising. Louisville escaping against Purdue was disturbing, and N.C. State losing to South Carolina was infuriating. This offseason, the A.C.C. was staking a claim as the belle of the ball. It’s hard to be regarded as the best conference if it’s completely top heavy. You need depth.

WINNERS: Miami Hurricanes

Yes,I know Bethune-Cookman aren’t the ‘85 Bears, but Miami has so much speed it demands respect. When Mark Richt got the job, my first reaction was, “Give him 3 years and he will be playing for a title.” He seems to have the ‘Canes firmly on that path.