UVA falls to William & Mary
The Matador received heavy criticism for his early preseason bashing of the ACC. If we learned anything from week 1, The Matador wasn’t too far off the mark.
The two inexcusable beatings landed at the hands of Duke losing to Richmond 16-24 and lowly UVA being ousted by in-state rival William & Mary 14-26. Another game that set the conference back was Cal thumping Maryland 52-13.
The ACC did have some close games that came down to 4th quarter play. Alabama was able to outlast Virginia Tech 34-24 and Baylor held off Wake 24-21. If N.C. State had any offense they would have beaten South Carolina, but unfortunately the team failed to score a TD and lost 3-7.
With all the hype surrounding which is the best BCS conference, the ACC’s week 1 performance certainly dropped the conference down to the bottom of the rankings. Again, it’s not the fact that the ACC only won 4 games as a conference (Clemson over Middle Tennessee, Georgia Tech over Jacksonville State, BC over North Eastern and UNC over The Citadel) but it’s more of the fact of who the ACC lost to compared to who the ACC beat.
All BCS conferences schedule cupcake teams to improve their record. The drawback to scheduling cupcakes is you must win. If you don’t, it will carry a lasting negative effect on the program, the team, and the individual players.
As for damage control, for the sake of the conference, the ACC must play harder and win big in week 2 to overcome the heavy criticism in the college football world.
Week 2 games to keep an eye on:
UNC @ UConn
Stanford @ Wake Forrest
