ACC Football Week 1 Takeaways: Is it already lights out for the conference?

Week 1 of the college football season was a busy one for the ACC. Starting Thursday, the league had teams in action for five consecutive days. That meant plenty of ACC teams playing in nationally televised games, including some against marquee opponents. There was a lot to learn from this first full weekend of games - at least we think there was - so let’s take a look at the biggest highlights and takeaways.

Clemson crushed in Tiger clash

All eyes were on Dabo Swinney’s team on Saturday night, even after a lengthy weather delay. However, Clemson failed to rise to the occasion in a road game against LSU. Swinney’s team was utterly dismantled in a 51-10 loss. To be fair, getting blown out by LSU on the road isn’t the worst thing that ever happened. But there are no silver linings for Clemson, who did the ACC no favors by getting blown out on national TV.

Cards got close

While Clemson was endlessly disappointing against an SEC team, Louisville nearly pulled off an upset over one. The Cardinals played an entertaining game with Ole Miss, scoring 14 points in the final five minutes to tie the game at 38, only to give up a last-second field goal and lose 41-38. It wasn’t the result Louisville wanted, but the Cards showed they could play at a high level and might be more of a contender than we thought.

Keep the lights on

It was a little embarrassing that Florida State couldn’t keep the lights on at its stadium ahead of Monday’s game. The good news is the Seminoles were at least competitive, despite ultimately losing on a late field goal. The bigger takeaway might have been SMU’s performance. The Mustangs racked up 585 yards of total offense, but hurt themselves with four turnovers. Clearly, the SMU offense is capable of reaching a championship level, but the Mustangs will have to avoid self-inflicted wounds going forward. They should consider themselves lucky it didn’t cost them against Florida State.

Losing in the middle

Two teams that were in the middle of the pack in our preseason ACC power rankings both suffered losses in non-conference games against other power-conference teams. On Thursday, Georgia Tech lost 14-13 as home favorites to Colorado. On Saturday, Cal suffered a lopsided defeat to UCLA, going down 45-24 at home. Neither was necessarily a bad loss, but winning either game would have been useful for the ACC’s reputation.

Miami good, Stanford bad

In a game between probably the ACC’s best team and probably the ACC’s worst team, the Hurricanes flexed some muscle. Darian Mensah threw for 401 yards and five touchdowns in Miami’s 45-6 win over Stanford. The game just reaffirmed that Miami is the class of the league, while the Cardinal might be the league’s worst team, although Boston College could have something to say about that after a 34-15 loss to Cincinnati.

Taking care of business

It wasn’t all bad news for the ACC. Several teams we expected to win did so in blowout fashion. Aside from Syracuse crushing New Hampshire 66-3, Pitt beat Miami (Ohio) 59-14, and Virginia Tech crushed VMI 73-3. Wake Forest also held serve at home against Akron, knocking off the Zips 38-16.

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