Contenders or Pretenders: What We Learned, Week Three

(Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

With another addition of Upset Saturday in the books, we are ready to survey the college football landscape and determine which teams are ready for the big lights and which ones need to go back to the drawing board.

No upset was bigger than the Washington Huskies' victory over the USC Trojans.  Most of us knew that UW would be back quickly under new head coach Steve Sarkisian, but few expected such success so quickly.

Now, let's go around the nation examining the pretenders and the contenders in each conference, trying to see which teams might make a BCS game this season.

ACC

The ACC has received a lot of criticism lately, but the conference had a nice week three.  The ACC has three real contenders plus four teams knocking on the door.  Of course, the bottom of the conference is pretty bad.

Contenders

Miami (2-0):  The U has a big test coming up next week at VaTech, followed up by the Sooners coming to town, looking to get back into the BCS title race.  By the way, all the talk about Randy Shannon needing to be concerned for his job needs to stop now.

Florida State (2-1):  Great win in Provo.  Much easier to win when you only punt one time and have the ball twice as long as the other team.  Pass defense still has major issues.  Good thing that BYU gave up the ball five times.  FSU has a very weak, but undefeated, South Florida squad coming to face next week at home.  The Bulls will be neutered.

Virginia Tech (2-1):  The Hokies escaped with a close win over Nebraska.  Next week's battle against Miami will go a long way in determining who is the top dog in the ACC.

Pretenders

Duke (1-2), Virginia, (0-3), Maryland (1-2), Boston College (2-1), Wake Forest (2-1)

Up in the air

North Carolina (3-0), Clemson (2-1), Georgia Tech (2-1), North Carolina State (2-1)

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