Pitt and Wake Forest, the two teams in last year’s ACC Championship Game, held serve for us on Thursday, with Pitt beating West Virginia, and Wake blowing out VMI.
Most of the rest of the weekend schedule is squash matches.
Here’s how I’d book things to get the ACC in the best position for Week 2.
Friday
Virginia Tech at ODU
Temple at Duke
This is easy. We need wins in both, nothing less. Both Tech (Brent Pry) and Duke (Mike Elko) have first-year coaches who can’t afford a hiccup.
Saturday
NC State at East Carolina
North Carolina at Appalachian State
In-state matchups on the road. State is ranked, a sleeper in the ACC title race, and will win, and win convincingly.
UNC is a bit of a mystery with a new QB, and App State is going to be out for blood.
The best we can do here is have the Heels escape with a ref bump finish.
Richmond at Virginia
Bethune-Cookman at Miami
A pair of squashes here. The Richmond-UVA game will have a few more high spots.
Rutgers at Boston College
Maybe we can put this one on the pre-show. You need to have something in the ring as the fans are in the concourse getting merch and a hot dog.
Louisville-Syracuse
Now we’re splitting hairs. Louisville needs to go over here. We need Malik Cunningham to look good, too, so that a win over Louisville means something for Virginia in October.
Sunday
Florida State at LSU
Not sure what we’ve got here. Two marquee names, but they haven’t played like marquee teams in a while. A win for FSU would be nice, but as long as they don’t get blown out, a loss doesn’t necessarily hurt.
Monday
Clemson at Georgia Tech
I guess this qualifies as the main event on our weak card. We really need a big Clemson win here, with Georgia Tech getting no offense, Clemson playing all the hits, the rest.