Week 13 ACC Football Musings

 

 
 
I spent Saturday evening in Lane Stadium watching the Hokies completely dismantle Pittsburgh in the ACC Coastal Division semifinal. Almost everyone expected a tight game, especially with a pregame weather report calling for a 100% chance of rain.

The latter part proved to be true as the rain began mid-morning and continued late into the night. Tech took control early however and never really looked back. Pittsburgh was unable to get anything going offensively which wasn’t a shock. Their offense is almost entirely passing based and the conditions plus the defense just wasn’t conducive.

Bud Foster’s final home game as a Hokie assistant coach ended with a shutout and a defensive touchdown that swung the early momentum.

One last home shutout for Bud Foster as witnessed from really good seats (Photo by Justin Cates)

The Hokies moved the ball as much as they needed to and got some chunk plays against a really good defense.

Hendon Hooker continues to be quite the story. He’s been incredibly efficient with 1,134 yards, 10 touchdowns, no interceptions and six wins. His play has been pivotal to the turnaround for Tech.

Pitt has a very winnable game remaining against Boston College, but they desperately need to tighten things up. They’re the fifth most penalized team in the nation and it cost them several times Saturday.

Paris Ford got tagged for targeting which definitely hurts. He’s a great player, but despite what his coach thinks it appeared to be the correct call.

 

 

 

Odds & Ends

  • Miami is very much in the bad place now. Losing to Florida International is rough for anyone frankly, but all the worse when you’re the cross-town P5 school. It’s too soon to judge Manny Diaz as a head coach completely, but he’s under the gun Willie Taggart style now. What’s with these Florida schools?
  • Remember that Pitt penalty stat? Two ACC teams actually have committed more penalties this season. Syracuse has the fourth most penalties in the country with 95 and Florida State has been penalized more times (98) than any team outside of Cincinnati. Gross.
  • Pitt is still having a perfectly respectable season and has a good chance at nine wins. They still have to drop to the medium place after getting skunked.
  • Carolina has a game it should win against an NC State squad that has really lost the plot. Mack Brown threw some passive shade for this one by quoting Ol’ Roy on something Mack totally wouldn’t say…but just did by repeating this…

  • It feels like Louisville’s Scott Satterfield has ACC coach of the year locked up at this point. He has a team no one expected anything from this season sitting at 7-4. It’s hard to imagine his first season going any better despite odd losses to Florida State and Miami.
  • Wake is back in the good place after win No. 8 with No. 9 coming this week against Syracuse. This is an unusual place for the Demon Deacons and they just completed a season sweep of Duke, Carolina, and State.
  • Completely unrelated, but why can no one drive on I-81? The one downfall of any great college football road trip is the return leg of travel. Weary bodies and minds quickly lose patience (and several hours) sitting still on the highway after accidents. Not only does reckless driving inconvenience everyone, but it makes me get overly tired and nearly fall asleep in a Wendy’s.
  • Speaking of the Wendy’s, one last random bit. I was wearing a Virginia Tech hat with the old school T over V logo as I sleepwalked through purchasing a chicken sandwich. There was a young boy, probably about nine, wearing a Virginia hat and his teenage sister pointed at me and said, “Look! He’s got your hat. You should talk to him!” The boy was exasperated and explained how wrong his sister was. I enjoyed the interaction immensely especially because in his lifetime he’s never seen his football team beat mine.

ENJOY YOUR RIVALRY WEEK NO MATTER WHO YOU ROOT FOR!

 

The Good Place

                                          

                                   

 

The Medium Place

 

 

 

The Bad Place

           

Follow me on Twitter @BestCates and follow @InsideTheACC for more Atlantic Coast Conference coverage.

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