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ACC football Week 5 power rankings: Is Clemson back? Is Pitt fun? Is Duke good?

27 September 2024Last Update :
ACC football Week 5 power rankings: Is Clemson back? Is Pitt fun? Is Duke good?

Welcome to The Athletic’s ACC power rankings. Each week, Grace Raynor and Manny Navarro take turns drafting teams based on how they performed the previous week (and all season). Manny has the first pick this week. Grace will pick first next week.

1. Miami (previous ranking: 1): Heisman favorite Cam Ward and the seventh-ranked Hurricanes outscored USF 36-0 over the final two-plus quarters to improve to 4-0 for the second year in a row. You might remember that at this point last year, Miami hosted Georgia Tech as a 19.5-point favorite and its season completely unraveled. This year, Virginia Tech comes to town, and the Canes, oddly enough, were 19.5-point favorites earlier this week. The line has since moved to 17.5 … but the similarities are still a little weird. — Navarro

2. Clemson (3): Well, well, well. I wrote after Week 1 that Clemson had lost its way after a one-sided loss to Georgia. But the Tigers have since proved me wrong, finding their offensive identity again in recent weeks by putting up 66 points against App State and 59 points against NC State. This suddenly looks like a Playoff team again. — Raynor

3. Louisville (2): The Cardinals scored in all three phases — offense, defense and special teams — for the first time since 2013 to get past Georgia Tech, 31-19, and now head to South Bend for a critical road test. The key to beating Notre Dame? Slowing down the Irish’s rushing attack. Notre Dame is 1-3 in the Marcus Freeman era when it runs for fewer than 100 yards (including last year’s season-low 44-yard output at Louisville). Last week, the Cards limited Georgia Tech to 98 rushing yards on 37 attempts. — Navarro

4. Boston College (7): Who had Boston College beating Florida State and Michigan State on their bingo cards? The Eagles are in great shape in coach Bill O’Brien’s inaugural year and have been the darlings of the ACC. Despite Michigan State outgaining Boston College and averaging more yards per play, the Eagles delivered in crunch time with a game-winning drive and game-clinching interception. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t be bowling come December. — Raynor

5. SMU (10): We had to move the Mustangs up for a couple of reasons. One, they pounded TCU 66-42 thanks in part to three non-offensive touchdowns. Two, the 18-15 loss to BYU in Dallas on Sept. 6 looks a lot more impressive after those same Cougars roughed up Kansas State last week. If SMU (a 5.5-point favorite) beats Florida State convincingly in its ACC opener, Rhett Lashlee’s team probably deserves to be ranked. – Navarro

6. Pittsburgh (8): The Panthers look like a completely different team and are 4-0 after finishing 2023 with a 3-9 record. Up-and-coming offensive coordinator Kade Bell has resurrected the offense, which currently ranks second in the ACC behind only Miami after Pitt finished with the worst offense in the league in 2023. This is also a team that has proven it can win close games, beating Cincinnati by one point and West Virginia by four. The Panthers are off this week after 73 points against Youngtown State last Saturday. — Raynor

7. Duke (13): Duke hosts rival North Carolina with a chance to be 5-0 for the first time since 1997. Manny Diaz hasn’t defeated his former boss, Mack Brown, head-to-head as a head coach, but his quarterback, Maalik Murphy, is playing well enough to lead Duke to its first win in the battle for the Victory Bell since Daniel Jones was at Duke in 2018. — Navarro

8. California (5): Cal was riding high after starting the season 3-0 but dropped a few spots this week after its loss to Florida State. Who would have thought heading into this season that falling to the Seminoles would be considered a “bad loss?” Quarterback Fernando Mendoza threw for 303 yards, but the Bears failed to score a touchdown and went just 2-for-5 in the red zone. They also had 10 penalties. Getting back on track during this idle week will be crucial, because it doesn’t get easier from here. Next on the schedule: Miami. — Raynor

9. Virginia (14): Tony Elliott’s team rebounded nicely from its home loss to Maryland a couple of weeks ago by rolling up 525 yards, including 384 on the ground, in a dominant win at Coastal Carolina. The Cavaliers are idle this weekend and then host Boston College and Louisville on back-to-back weekends before taking a road trip to Clemson. Can Virginia get to six wins and a bowl game by season’s end? That’ll be tough. Every opponent left on the schedule — outside of 2-2 Virginia Tech — has a winning record. — Navarro

10. Stanford (17): We wrote last week that Stanford needed a splashy win before the Cardinal could move up from last place in the rankings, and boy, did they deliver. Stanford’s 26-24 win at Syracuse was a thriller, with kicker Emmet Kenney hitting the game-winning 39-yard field goal as time expired. Syracuse took a 24-23 lead with 3:13 to play, but Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels led the Cardinal down the field on a methodical final drive that set up Kenney’s heroics. The Carrier Dome isn’t always an easy place to play, so kudos to the Cardinal for picking up their first ACC win in program history. — Raynor

11. Syracuse (4): The Orange were rolling until they ran into Stanford last week and decided not to double cover Elic Ayomanor late. Quarterback Kyle McCord and the offense are playing really well. But the defense, which ranks 92nd nationally, has been far too leaky at times. The good news: Unbeaten UNLV, which hosts Syracuse in two weeks, just lost its starting QB to an NIL dispute. — Navarro

12. Georgia Tech (6): The Yellow Jackets started hot but have lost two of their last three games. Despite having one of the nation’s most experienced offensive lines, Georgia Tech ran for only 98 yards against Louisville on Saturday and went just 4-for-15 on third down. The Cardinals scored a touchdown on a Tech fumble in the end zone and also scored on a blocked kick. — Raynor

13. Virginia Tech (10): I’m sorry, but the image of Kyron Drones flipping a ball through the back of the end zone as he’s being sacked for a safety may never leave my mind. It’s one of the funniest plays I’ve ever seen. Drones simply hasn’t been good enough to this point to lift the Hokies to their potential. Maybe that changes with a statement performance Friday against his cousin Cam Ward and the Hurricanes. — Navarro

14. NC State (12): I had the Wolfpack as my sleeper team to compete for the ACC championship and maybe even sneak into the College Football Playoff. But woof. NC State didn’t exactly dominate Western Carolina and Louisiana Tech in its two wins, and the Wolfpack were totally outmatched by Tennessee and Clemson. Freshman CJ Bailey got the start against the Tigers with Grayson McCall injured, but neither quarterback has a ton of momentum at the moment. — Raynor

15. Florida State (15): It took seven sacks and a monumental defensive effort late, but the Seminoles figured out the Calgorithm and picked up their first victory last weekend against the Bears. Now, if Mike Norvell could just figure out how to get his offense going (126th nationally in both scoring and yards per game), FSU might have a shot of actually getting back to a bowl game. — Navarro

16. North Carolina (9): Oy vey! The Tar Heels are a mess following an embarrassing 70-50 loss to JMU, after which buzz swirled about coach Mack Brown potentially stepping down. Brown is still with the team this week, but the loss to JMU was the bleakest moment for UNC’s program since the Tar Heels were blasted by ECU 70-41 in 2014. This is the kind of demoralizing loss that can unravel a season, and UNC gets a better-than-expected Duke squad this week. It’s up to Brown and his staff to make sure the wheels don’t fall off. — Raynor

17. Wake Forest (16): The ACC has a 16-2 record against non-Power 4 conference teams thus far, which is an area the Demon Deacons usually thrive in. Dating back to 2018, Dave Clawson’s team is 21-5 against non-ACC opponents (including bowl games). Louisiana, though, is a good Sun Belt team and gave Tulane all it could handle last weekend. — Navarro

Bonus question

Which ACC school has the best home-field advantage?

Navarro: For me, it’s Clemson, Florida State or Virginia Tech. Those are the loudest places for sure. I also can’t help but giggle a little thinking about what former Miami coach Randy Shannon said once in response to a similar question. Shannon, now an assistant at Florida State, said the walk from the visiting locker room to the field at Duke was problematic because of its long distance. I thought he was kidding. Then Miami lost at Duke.

Raynor: It has to be either Clemson or NC State. The way the Tigers enter the stadium and run down the hill always gets fans going for the whole afternoon (Dabo Swinney has some wheels). NC State is one of those schools that no matter how much the Wolfpack are struggling, the fans are loyal and rowdy. The Pack also have the best tailgating scene in the league, in my opinion.

(Photo of Phil Mafah: Isaiah Vazquez / Getty Images)

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