Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
Mike Farrell Sports
2024 ACC Preview: Favorites, Top Player, and More
By Luke Brumm,
14 hours ago
By Luke Brumm
With the season quickly approaching, we will be looking at each conference and previewing them. We will go over the favorites, second tier teams, sleepers, best players, and best games. This should look to give you some things to look for as we head into the season. Let's start it off with the ACC .
Apr 9, 2022; Tallahasse, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles symbol Osceola performs during the FSU spring game at Doak Campbell Stadium.
The favorites to win the conference to most people are Florida State, Clemson, and Miami. The Seminoles went undefeated during the 2023 regular season and won the ACC. Clemson had dominated the conference for multiple years before the Noles got it done, and will look to return to their spot on top. Miami hasn't won the ACC once since joining in 2004. They bring in Heisman hopeful quarterback Cameron Ward (more on him later) and have been stacking good recruiting classes for years now. If Mario Cristobal can get it together once the game is actually kicked off, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Hurricanes get their first ACC championship this year.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney raises the ACC championship trophy with Tigers defensive end K.J. Henry (5) after Clemson's win against North Carolina in the ACC Championship Game at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., on Dec. 3, 2002.
Right below them is Louisville and NC State. The Cardinals surprised a lot of people by going 7-1 in conference and winning ten games last season. They struggled towards the end by losing their final three games to rival Kentucky, FSU in the ACC Championship, and USC in the Holiday Bowl. However, they did also have good wins vs Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, NC State, and Miami.
NC State is a team that has quietly had a really good decade so far for their standards. They haven't had a season with less than eight wins since 2019. They improved from 8-5 to 9-3 a season ago and it feels like this could be their year to take that next step. Kevin Concepcion is a beast at wide receiver and Coastal Carolina transfer QB Grayson McCall will bring some veteran playmaking to this offense and I think the defense will be good enough as well. Look out for both of these teams in the ACC.
The Louisville defense celebrated after sacking FSU punter Alex Mastromanno (29) as the Louisville Cardinals faced off against the Florida State Seminoles at Bank of America Field in Charlotte, NC. FSU defeated Louisville 16-6 to win the 2023 ACC Championship. Dec. 2, 2023.
My two sleepers this year are the two Tech schools with the two Brents in charge. Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech have both slowly been improving under their new head coaches. Brent Pry at Virginia Tech and Brent Key at Georgia Tech have been doing stellar jobs. After a bad 3-8 season in his first year, Pry got the Hokies to 7-6 last season. I'm looking for QB Kyron Drones to have a great season and that offense should follow in his lead.
Georgia Tech is another program who has seemed to start turning around under new leadership. Texas A&M transfer QB Haynes King is also set for a good year. I like the combo in the backfield of King at quarterback and Jamal Haynes at running back. After Geoff Collins started off 1-3 in 2022, the Yellow Jackets fired him and Key came in and led them in to a 4-4 finish. He was given the full time job and led them to a 7-6 record last year. They both will certainly look to improve on that and compete for the conference in 2024.
Dec 22, 2023; Tampa, FL, USA; Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets quarterback Haynes King (10) talks with head coach Brent Key during the second half of the Gasparilla Bowl against the UCF Knights at Raymond James Stadium.
SMU is coming from the American Conference and their route to the Power 4 was unique to say the least. They essentially won't make full revenue from the conference for nine years and will fund themselves through boosters . Cal and Stanford are coming from the Pac-12 which makes no sense. Two PACIFIC coast teams playing in the ATLANTIC Coast Conference . I don't blame them as they were just grasping at any conference that would take them. SMU seems to be the best team out of the three, with Cal coming second, and Stanford in third.
Dec 16, 2023; Shreveport, LA, USA; California Golden Bears running back Jaydn Ott (1) runs the ball as Texas Tech Red Raiders linebacker Ben Roberts (13) makes the tackle during the second half at Independence Stadium.
Manny Diaz will replace Elko at Duke after serving as the Penn State defensive coordinator. Syracuse made a good hire in taking Fran Brown from Georgia's staff, and finally Boston College got Bill O'Brien to take over for Jeff Hafley, who left to be a coordinator in the NFL . I do like all these hires and think they can help improve off the last coaches at each school.
Manny Diaz, center, was introduced as Duke's football coach on Dec. 9, 2023 on campus inside the Pascal Field House.
Believe it or not, Mack Brown is still coaching at North Carolina and he will look to have success in the post Drake Maye era. They start the season with a trip to Minnesota and then play two group of five teams with an FCS team sandwiched in between. Their hardest opponents seem to be Florida State, NC State, and Georgia Tech.
Wake Forest has a hard schedule with trips to UNC, Miami, NC State, and they host Ole Miss and Clemson. Pitt had a rough season in 2023 and will look to bounce back starting with the Backyard Brawl in Week Three. Finally, Virginia went 3-9 last season and I think it will a lot for them to drastically improve in 2024.
Oct 29, 2022; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown runs on to the field before the game at Kenan Memorial Stadium.
Cameron Ward is coming over from Washington State and is one of the more exciting players in the country. He will have more talent around him than ever before and I am super excited to see him this season. Last season with the Cougars, he threw for 3,735 yards and 25 touchdowns. He also ran for eight touchdowns and only had sevn total interceptions. Don't be surprised to see Ward in New York for the Heisman ceremony at the end of the season.
Sep 9, 2023; Pullman, Washington, USA; Washington State Cougars quarterback Cameron Ward (1) is chased out of the pocket by Wisconsin Badgers linebacker Maema Njongmeta (55) in the first half at Gesa Field at Martin Stadium.
Not only is this game a huge rivalry, it is also a matchup of arguably the two best teams in the conference. I just mentioned Cam Ward, who came from Washington State, but I didn't mention Florida State's new QB. He came from Oregon State and his name is DJ Uiagalelei . Which quarterback plays better could determine who comes out on top in this one. I lean Miami at home as of right now, but we have over two months before this game starts, so a lot can change.
Florida State Seminoles quarterback Jordan Travis (13) dives forward towards the end zone. The Florida State Seminoles defeated the Miami Hurricanes 27-20 on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Local Tallahassee, FL
Most Popular
Comments / 0