In this week's installment of ACC football, Georgia Tech took care of B.C., 19-16, Wake survived Ole Miss, 30-28, Virginia beat Richmond 16-0, State took out W&M, 34-24, Virginia Tech beat Furman 24-7, Clemson whipped up on the Citadel, 45-17, and FSU crushed Western Carolina, 69-0.
Those were the wins. In the loss department, Maryland went down at home to Middle Tennessee State and Miami got thrashed by the Gators, 26-3.
Maryland's loss is pretty bad. MTSU is a weak Sun Belt team with few seniors. Maryland's O-line is hugely bigger than MTSU's defense, outweighing them by an average of 58 pounds. Didn't matter.
There was already a sense that Ralph Friedgen was on the hot seat to an extent. This loss - with 31 seniors! - turns that heat up.
Debbie Yow now has to hear from supporters about both football and basketball, and while she's a tremendous A.D., she's never come across as a particularly patient person.
Losing to Florida isn't a happy thing for Miami, but they follow that game with Texas A&M, UNC, and Florida State. If they lose all three - and that's conceivable - things will get ugly fast.
Yes, Virginia Tech beat Furman, but the Paladins held them to three first-half points. Huh?
The jury is out on FSU for now, but if they have another lousy season, people will be ready to crucify Bowden, Saint Bobby or no. The old man's lost it! Ship him out!
It's ugly but they won't tolerate it. Beating up on the Catamounts proves little, although it's a lot better than what happened to the Terps.
So far, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech seem to be the class of the conference.
Since Wake, small, private, and academically demanding, was expected to get hammered by expansion, it's pretty remarkable that they've risen to the top.
But perhaps the ACC is doing what it did from the beginning: planned as a football conference, basketball rather quickly became it's claim to fame, and has remained so ever since. Maybe, just maybe, what we joked about when expansion was first brought up is true: the ACC will elevate the basketball programs of Miami, Virginia Tech, and B.C., and bring the football down to the traditional mediocrity of the conference.