Tag Archives: Nevada

Ranking the Best ACC Football Matchups of 2013: #40-31

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North Carolina and Wake Forest Played a Thriller in 2012; And Will Face Off Again This Fall

North Carolina and Wake Forest Played a Thriller in 2012; And Will Face Off in a Rematch This Fall

The 2013 ACC football schedule has officially been released, meaning we finally have some clarity as to whom the conference’s 14 teams will face-off with from week-to-week next season. So with that in mind, we thought it would be an entertaining undertaking to rank all 112 ACC football games for 2013 because, well… it’s the offseason.

Today, we take a quick glance at numbers 40 through 31; which are (once again) almost entirely made up of in-conference matchups. For the non-conference games that are featured, however, there are varying levels of intrigue — either for the novelty of the two teams playing each other, or even the hope that the two schools could (should) become rivals in a very liberal sense).

#40: Maryland Terrapins at NC State Wolfpack (Saturday, November 30)

#39: NC State Wolfpack at Duke Blue Devils (Saturday, November 9)

#38: Nevada Wolf Pack at Florida State Seminoles (Saturday, September 14)

#37: Syracuse Orange at Northwestern Wildcats (Saturday, September 7)

#36: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at BYU Cougars (Saturday, October 12)

#35: Virginia Cavaliers at Miami Hurricanes (Saturday, October 26)

#34: Clemson Tigers at NC State Wolfpack (Thursday, September 19)

#33: Pittsburgh Panthers at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (Saturday, November 2)

#32: Miami Hurricanes at North Carolina Tar Heels (Thursday, October 17)

#31: Duke Blue Devils at Wake Forest Demon Deacons (Saturday, November 23)

Some additional notes on today’s list:

  • The 10 games appear on 10 different dates
  • Breakdown of non-conference opponent leagues: Big Ten (1), Independent (1), MWC (1)
  • Breakdown of non-conference opponent home states: Illinois (1), Nevada (1), Utah (1)
  • Public vs. private universities: one public, two private

Previously: #112-101, #100-91, #90-81, #80-71, #70-61, #60-51, #50-41

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Atlantic Coast Convos 2012 Top 25: Week Two

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After an Impressive Opening Win Over Michigan, Alabama is Quickly Repositioning Themselves for the Number-One Spot

Now that we’re in-season, we’ll be updating these rankings on a weekly basis. As always, we think these are correct. Simultaneously, you’re probably of the opinion you know better. Feel free to share that with us below (respectfully, of course).

Atlantic Coast Convos 2012 Top 25 (Week Two)

1. USC Trojans (1-0) (LW: 1) (First-place votes: 3)

2. Alabama Crimson Tide (1-0) (LW: 4) (1)

3. Oregon Ducks (1-0) (LW: 3)

4. LSU Tigers (1-0) (LW: 2)

5. Florida State Seminoles (1-0) (LW: 6)

6. Oklahoma Sooners (1-0) (LW: 5)

7. West Virginia Mountaineers (1-0) (LW: 10)

8. Georgia Bulldogs (1-0) (LW: 7)

9. South Carolina Gamecocks (1-0) (LW: 9)

10. Arkansas Razorbacks (1-0) (LW: 12)

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ACC Preseason Top 25 Players of 2012: #9, Andre Ellington

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Clemson’s Andre Ellington is #9 on Our Countdown of the ACC’s Top 25 Players for 2012

As part of our 2012 season preview, we’re counting down the top 25 players in the ACC for this season, from 25 to one. Obviously these lists are always completely subjective, so feel free to weigh in with your own thoughts in the comments.

No. 9, Andre Ellington, RB/Clemson

Given the speed of the Clemson offensive attack last year, you’d think they wouldn’t have much time to run the ball. But agile starting running back Andre Ellington actually plays a vital role by setting up the pass, which is how he gets all the way up to number-nine on our countdown.

From his time as C.J. Spiller’s understudy in 2009, through his breakout junior season last year, Ellington is a back that has shown growth both on-the-field and off, increasing his maturity and statistics each season. Once a player who failed to display leadership and appeared to lack that mental toughness, you can see in the way he manages injuries and his in-game touches, those days are now over. Today, the probable first-round pick, who runs a 4.44 40-yard dash time, is most concerned about helping his team win, even if that means working on his pass-catching most of all. According to reports, Ellington and star QB Tajh Boyd made that a focus this offseason, and it’s likely to pay some big dividends, having such a potential dual-threat out of the backfield.

Continue reading →

ACC 2012 Schedule Outlook: Pittsburgh Panthers

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First-Year Coach Paul Chryst and His Program Are Still Struggling To Fill Out Their Schedule

With all of the realignment and rescheduling nonsense going on around the country, we wanted to give a breakdown of each of the ACC‘s schedules — how the teams stack up, and some thoughts on overall difficulty. If these change at all, we’ll also be sure to update them on a rolling basis. All information is up-to-date as of publishing, based on the latest from FBSchedules.com.

Today’s breakdown: Pittsburgh Panthers

So if you haven’t heard, the Big East is having some scheduling problems — something that affects Pittsburgh pretty directly for the time being. With just ten games currently on the books, and their league still trying aggressively for an eight member (Temple), things are looking pretty bleak. To make matters worse, not only are there just three non-Big East schools with scheduling holes left to fill (Missouri, Boise State and Nevada), but Pittsburgh already has an FCS match on the schedule as well. Even if they could get a second FCS team on there, game 12 would still be vacant, with very few options. So while this situation’s constantly evolving, we’ll take a look at what Pitt definitely has scheduled for the time being. Continue reading →

Hypothetical College Football Playoff (Week 12)

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Les Miles and LSU Are Projected To Win Our Hypothetical Playoff, Too

Each week, we’ll discuss what a 16-team college football playoff would look like. Using the BCS standings, we’ll hand out five at-large berths, to go along with the 11 conference champions, who all receive automatic bids (decided by head-to-head tiebreakers if no conference title game here). There are no limits on how many teams from one league can qualify, and conferences may very well end up facing each other in the first round. Teams are seeded in order of BCS ranking, and reseeded after each round.

First Round (winners in italics)

#1 LSU Tigers (SEC champ) v. NR Nevada Wolfpack (WAC champ)

#2 Oklahoma State Cowboys (Big 12 champ) v. NR Northern Illinois Huskies (MAC champ)

#3 Alabama Crimson Tide (at-large) v. NR Arkansas State Red Wolves (Sun Belt champ) 

#4 Oregon Ducks (Pac-12 champ) v, NR West Virginia Mountaineers (Big East champ)

#5 Oklahoma Sooners (at-large) v. #19 TCU Horned Frogs (MWC champ)

#6 Arkansas Razorbacks (at-large) v. #15 Michigan State Spartans (Big Ten champ)

#7 Clemson Tigers (ACC champ) v. #10 Houston Cougars (C-USA champ)

#8 Virginia Tech Hokies (at-large) v. #9 Stanford Cardinal (at-large)

Quarterfinals

#1 LSU Tigers v. #9 Stanford Cardinal

#2 Oklahoma State Cowboys v. #7 Clemson Tigers

#3 Alabama Crimson Tide v. #6 Arkansas Razorbacks

#4 Oregon Ducks v. #5 Oklahoma Sooners

Semifinals

#1 LSU Tigers v. #4 Oregon Ducks

#2 Oklahoma State Cowboys v. #3 Alabama Crimson Tide

National Championship (Rose Bowl)

#1 LSU Tigers over #2 Oklahoma State Cowboys

Recent changes to the BCS standings yielded a whole lot of chalk this week, as only one lower seed (Stanford) advanced in the entire tournament (and even that was just one round). In real life and in this hypothetical playoff, LSU and Oklahoma State seem to be on a crash course for a title game where they’ll pit dominant defense versus dominant offense. Also of note in these playoffs, Boise State is not present due to losing their head-to-head with TCU Saturday, and thus failing to win the conference title. Due to there being five at-large teams ahead of them, they ended up the odd-man out.

Hypothetical College Football Playoff (Week 11)

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Once Again, LSU is Victorious in Our Hypothetical Playoff

Each week, we’ll discuss what a 16-team college football playoff would look like. Using the BCS standings, we’ll hand out five at-large berths, to go along with the 11 conference champions, who all receive automatic bids. There are no limits on how many teams from one league can qualify, and conferences may very well end up facing each other in the first round. Teams are seeded in order of BCS ranking, and reseeded after each round.

First Round (winners in italics)

#1 LSU Tigers (SEC champ) v. NR Nevada Wolfpack (WAC champ)

#2 Oklahoma State Cowboys (Big 12 champ) v. NR Northern Illinois Huskies (MAC champ)

#3 Alabama Crimson Tide (at-large) v. NR Arkansas State Red Wolves (Sun Belt champ) 

#4 Stanford Cardinal (Pac-12 champ) v, #23 Cincinnati Bearcats (Big East champ)

#5 Boise State Broncos (MWC champ) v. #12 Penn State Nittany Lions (Big Ten champ)

#6 Oklahoma Sooners (at-large) v. #11 Houston Cougars (C-USA champ)

#7 Oregon Ducks (at-large) v. #10 Virginia Tech Hokies (at-large)

#8 Arkansas Razorbacks (at-large) v. #9 Clemson Tigers (ACC champ)

Quarterfinals

#1 LSU Tigers v. #11 Houston Cougars

#2 Oklahoma State Cowboys v. #8 Arkansas Razorbacks

#3 Alabama Crimson Tide v. #7 Oregon Ducks

#4 Stanford Cardinal v. #5 Boise State Broncos

Semifinals

#1 LSU Tigers v. #7 Oregon Ducks

#2 Oklahoma State Cowboys v. #4 Stanford Cardinal

National Championship (Rose Bowl)

#1 LSU Tigers over #2 Oklahoma State Cowboys

Things change a bit from last week, as Stanford unfortunately gets matched up with Oklahoma State in the national seminfinals. Both teams have shown struggles with strong passing attacks, but the Cardinal won’t be able to open up the playbook like Kansas State did against the Cowboys last Saturday. Like last week’s projections, LSU lucks into two straight cakewalks, this time via a Houston upset of Oklahoma (conceivable, really). If the Tigers defense replicated their performance against Alabama, it’d be hard to see OSU leave Pasadena with a victory.

Hypothetical College Football Playoff (Week 10)

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If College Football Had a Playoff, Would Stanford be Playing for the Title?

Each week, we’ll discuss what a 16-team college football playoff would look like. Using the BCS standings, we’ll hand out five at-large berths, to go along with the 11 conference champions, who all receive automatic bids. There are no limits on how many teams from one league can qualify, and conferences may very well end up facing each other in the first round. Teams are seeded in order of BCS ranking, and reseeded after each round.

First Round (winners in italics)

#1 LSU Tigers (SEC champ) v. NR Nevada Wolfpack (WAC champ)

#2 Alabama Crimson Tide (at-large) v. NR Northern Illinois Huskies (MAC champ)

#3 Oklahoma State Cowboys (Big 12 champ) v. NR Arkansas State Red Wolves (Sun Belt champ)

#4 Stanford Cardinal (Pac-12 champ) v, #24 West Virginia Mountaineers (Big East champ)

#5 Boise State Broncos (MWC champ) v. #13 Houston Cougars (C-USA champ)

#6 Oklahoma Sooners (at-large) v. #11 Clemson Tigers (ACC champ)

#7 Arkansas Razorbacks (at-large) v. #10 Nebraska Cornhuskers (Big Ten champ)

#8 Oregon Ducks (at-large) v. #9 South Carolina Gamecocks (at-large)

Quarterfinals

#1 LSU Tigers v. #11 Clemson Tigers

#2 Alabama Crimson Tide v. #10 Nebraska Cornhuskers

#3 Oklahoma State Cowboys v. #8 Oregon Ducks

#4 Stanford Cardinal v. #5 Boise State Broncos

Semifinals

#1 LSU Tigers v. #8 Oregon Ducks

#2 Alabama Crimson Tide v. #4 Stanford Cardinal

National Championship

#1 LSU Tigers over #4 Stanford Cardinal

Funny enough, I predicted this title game back in August (in the current bowl system), but with both teams still undefeated, it’s absolutely possible. While LSU was virtually untested in this theoretical playoff due to some lucky upsets, Stanford faced off against a gauntlet of high-powered foes, culminating with the Tigers. With the huge #1 v. #2 game this Saturday between the Tigers and Crimson Tide, these rankings will definitely be shaken up for next week. But right now, it’s hard not to see LSU take home their third title of the BCS era.