ACC Football: What We’ve Learned, Week 1

NC State 40, Louisiana Tech 14

Dave Doeren is in and his team came up with a big win in Week 1. LA Tech was a nine-win team last year with Sonny Dykes, taking Texas A&M to the wire and beating both Virginia and Illinois on the road. Now, they’re taking a big step back and NC State may yet be taking a step forward from the comfortable mediocrity of the Tom O’Brien era. Most of the Pack’s offense came on the ground with Matt Dayes running in three touchdowns. Unfortunately, QB Brandon Mitchell broke his foot early in the contest and will miss over a month. In this game, we learned that NC State’s post-Glennon quarterback competition isn’t solved yet after all, despite the blowout win.

Penn State 23, Syracuse 17

Syracuse’s first game as a member of the ACC — was against Penn State. In New Jersey. Both teams lost their starting quarterbacks from last year, but unfortunately for the Orange, Penn State’s new guy was better. Drew Allen was 16/37 with two picks, while Jerome Smith was a bright spot with two rushing touchdowns. Here, we learned that with just 260 yards of total offense, a new quarterback, and a new coach, Syracuse might again struggle outside of conference play.

Virginia 19, BYU 16

If you didn’t think a game could get more boring than Syracuse-Penn State, here was this gem down in Charlottesville. The difference is that the Cavaliers won. BYU had Virginia beat in the big-plays department, but slow and steady won the race, so to speak. In what can kindly be described as a defensive battle, both teams combined to go 13-for-43 on third downs. We learned here that a team can be -1 in turnovers, have seven fewer first downs, and only net 223 yards of offense, and still win an FBS football game in 2013.

Duke 45, NC Central 0

Duke pitched its first shutout since 1989 on Saturday by laying waste to the NC Central Eagles. This is how an ACC team, even one considered to be in their division’s basement, should handle a middling MEAC team. It’s worth noting, however, that Duke beat this team 54-17 last year as well. In this one, we learned probably not much, except maybe that Duke’s football program is holding steady under Cutcliffe and not suffering any unnecessary embarrassments.

Alabama 35, Virginia Tech 10

The final score might not completely tell the tale of this one, as Virginia Tech held a national champion offense to 206 yards. 21 of Alabama’s points were directly attributable to defense or special teams as the Hokies gave up a pick-six, a punt return touchdown, and a kickoff return touchdown. Hokies QB Logan Thomas, on the other hand, was a hot mess, going 5-for-26 with 59 yards and the aforementioned pick-six. Here, we learned that Virginia Tech’s defense just might carry them this year, and in this conference, it could get them somewhere against lesser opponents than Alabama (which is to say, basically everyone).

Clemson 38, Georgia 35

Without question, the ACC’s biggest win of the week came against the Georgia Bulldogs. Clemson seems destined for the top five as they won a hard-fought victory over another elite team, despite giving up almost 550 yards of offense. Tajh Boyd was responsible for five touchdowns (three passing, two rushing). In this game, we learned that Clemson, despite all the talk of “pulling a Clemson,” is still a legitimately good football team and Dabo Swinney must be doing something right.

Florida State 41, Pittsburgh 13

Pittsburgh got an unhappy welcome to the ACC as Jameis Winston and the Florida State Seminoles dumptrucked them on Monday night. FSU’s quarterback was the talk of the town, going 25-for-27 with four touchdown passes (and a touchdown run) in his first ever collegiate game. Pitt punched Florida State in the mouth on their first drive, but got it back quite a bit worse later as they looked helpless to stop FSU. We learned here that we’re going to be hearing about Winston a lot this year.