Amazing we’ve reached the midpoint of the college football season already. Who’s leading the ACC COY race?
Let’s take a look.
1) Pat Narduzzi – Pittsburgh
Here is your front-runner Pat Narduzzi of Pittsburgh. The Panthers were the pre-season picked to finish 13th in the ACC, and stand 6-0 and ranked in the top 25. The offense is one of the country’s best, and the defense is starting to catch up. Pittsburgh obviously couldn’t have started better.
2) Mario Cristobal – Miami
Mario Cristobal has Miami the highest-ranked ACC team in the top 25, and off to a 6-0 start. Cam Ward is on the short list of Heisman candidates. Not much separates Cristobal and Narduzzi, except I think Pitt is a better team now than at the start of the year and I’m not sure I can say that about Miami.
3) Fran Brown – Syracuse
It took no time for Fran Brown to turn things around at Syracuse. The ACC’s pre-season 12th place team has exceeded expectations more than anyone in the ACC outside of Pittsburgh, as they’ve gotten off to a 5-1 start. QB Kyle McCord has been a tremendous transfer pickup out of Ohio State. There s a bit of a surprising loss to Stanford, but that’s the only blemish in an otherwise great start to the season.
4) Rhett Lashlee – SMU
Rhett Lashlee has SMU in the top 25, off to a 5-1 start, and currently undefeated in the ACC. Early in the year was a shaky performance against Nevada, but Lashlee made the personal move of the year inserting QB Kevin Jennings into the starting lineup over Preston Stone.
5) Manny Diaz – Duke
A lot of us thought Duke was about to slip back this year, but new head coach Manny Diaz made sure that hasn’t happened. The Blue Devils raced out to a 5-0 start including a win over arch rival UNC. They also won at Northwestern. Had they beat Georgia Tech in their most recent game, I’d have Diaz in the top 3, but still, the Duke start has him among ACC COY candidates.
6) Dabo Swinney – Clemson
Dabo Swinney has the highest of expectations at Clemson, and out of the gate, the Tigers laid an egg in a 34-3 loss to Georgia. Since then Clemson is 5-0 with double-digit wins over everyone of their opponents. Some think the Tigers are actually the ACC’s best team. We’ll see about that, but Swinney deserves a look because along with SMU, they are the most improved teams in the ACC since game 1.
