We get a major shakeup in the power rankings as Syracuse, Duke, Miami, and Virginia earn major victories. Meanwhile, SMU and UNC suffer losses to the Big 12.
TIER: ACC Lower Class
17. Virginia Tech (Prev 17): The Hokies earned their first win of the season vs. Wofford.
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16. North Carolina (Prev 13): Two of Gio Lopez’s 14 pass attempts were intercepted and the Heels only scored 9 against UCF.
15. California (Prev 7): A Cal Bears team we thought would be bad fell back to earth. Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele threw two interceptions including one that was returned 96-yards for a TD as the San Diego State Aztecs blew out the Bears 34-0.
14. Wake Forest (Prev 16): The Demon Deacons were off this week.
13. Boston College (Prev 15): The Eagles were off this week after losing to Stanford. They host Cal next week.
12. Stanford (Prev 17): Stanford’s defense got torched by Virginia dropping the Cardinal to 1-3.
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11. Clemson (Prev 8): Clemson’s defense came out flat and allowed them to fall behind. Meanwhile, the offense made critical errors them preventing them from scoring. Cade Klubnik missed several open wide receivers including TJ Moore for a TD. Blake Miller had two false starts. TJ Parker wasn’t noticeable. Clemson’s stars — with the exception of Bryant Wesco — have completely flopped this season. There’s a lot to unpack here, but suffice it to say the stars regressed and not enough other players took a step forward. It’s sad because it seemed the idea of buying a team may be a better strategy than using the portal to supplement and team you develop. This is the worst Clemson team since 2010 and will likely go about 6-6.
TIER: ACC Middle Class
10. Pittsburgh (Prev 11): The Panthers were off this week. They are 2-1 and host Louisville next week.
9. Virginia (Prev 10): Chandler Morris threw for 380 and 4 TDs as Virginia outplayed Stanford from start to finish. They have a chance to make a national statement next week when they host Florida State.
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8. NC State (Prev 6): In a back-and-forth battle in Durham against Duke, NC State’s defense allowed a long TD run that iced the game and gave the Wolfpack their first loss of the year.
7. SMU (Prev 5): The Mustang defense couldn’t stop TCU’s passing assault. Josh Hoover threw for 379 and 5 passing TDs on them. This defense lost everyone, and it shows.
6. Syracuse (Prev 9): Syracuse come to Death Valley and played to win. They ran the ball down Clemson’s throat to take a 7-0 lead. Then they got an onside kick and passed the ball all over them to make it 10-0. Clemson racked up empty yards, always making key mistakes while Syracuse looked like the better coached team. They don’t jump up much in these rankings because they lost QB Steve Angeli to injury and Clemson isn’t a good team.
5. Duke (Prev 12): The Blue Devils are hard to figure out. They lost to Illinois and Tulane, who seemed like legitimate playoff teams until both were blown out this weekend by Indiana and Ole Miss, respectively. Now they turn around and beat NC State for their first quality win of the year so maybe they’re good after all?
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TIER: Playoff Contenders
4. Louisville (Prev 4): Louisville took care of business at home against Bowling Green. They were up 21-3 at halftime and won 40-17.
3. Georgia Tech (Prev 3): The Yellow Jackets’ wins over Colorado and Clemson don’t look as impressive now as they did initially, but all they can do is win and that’s what they did against Temple this weekend.
2. Florida State (Prev 2): A 66-10 win over Kent State will keep the good vibes going.
TIER: National Championship Contenders
1. Miami (Prev 1): The Hurricanes offense wasn’t dominant, but they leaned on their offensive and defensive lines to smother Florida in a 26-7 win. I’ve moved them into a tier of their own since they’ve played three quality opponents (ND, USF, UF) as compared to FSU’s one (Alabama). We’ll see if they run out of steam in November as they often do, but at this point, they should be ranked top 3 (they’re better than LSU) and considered legitimate National Championship contenders.
