ACC Football: What We Learned, Week 6

Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports

Life is full of learning experiences. On Saturday, we gathered many things about teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference from the Week 6 adventures.

Boston College 48, Army 27
Here, we learned that the Eagles, through five games, are probably closer to the middle of the ACC pack than to the bottom. More on this in a future feature, but look: it does not matter how much talent teams have or don’t have on paper. As Bill Parcells said, you are what your record says you are and given that, Boston College is no worse off than several of the teams in the mushy middle of the conference.

Florida State 63, Maryland 0
Not only did we learn that Boston College was going to give the more representative effort as opposed to Maryland, but that Maryland still can’t figure out the Seminoles. Seven straight wins over the Terps for FSU.

Ball State 48, Virginia 27
In this one, we learned that sometimes, when MACtion meets defense, MACtion wins. We also learned that it’s helpful in those cases to have an offense. Sadly, Virginia does not.

Virginia Tech 27, North Carolina 17
We now know that Virginia Tech is here to stay this season because of their defense and North Carolina is way, way down this year at just 1-4.

Wake Forest 28, NC State 13
Here, we learned that no conference win should be taken for granted (as in, don’t dismiss Boston College’s win over Wake as being “just against Wake”). It is also clear that the Wolfpack are no great shakes this year, which makes sense because to date, they have beaten precisely nobody (down Louisiana Tech and Central Michigan teams and FCS Richmond don’t count).

Clemson 49, Syracuse 14
It is crystal clear here that smack talk — any smack talk — must be backed up with performance. And if you’re the one doing it, you better be the top five team as opposed to the unranked one.

Miami 45, Georgia Tech 30
Here, we learned that the Miami-Virginia Tech game on November 9 may in fact decide the division champion.