ACC Football's Worst Day Ever? Top Four Teams Fail Miserably
The ACC takes a lot of heat for its football programs. When Miami and Virginia Tech were added in 2004, the Atlantic Coast Conference was supposed to become a football power, but years of poor bowl showings and mediocre conference championship matchups have thwarted those plans.
Saturday's offerings did not help in relieving the ACC of its "basketball conference" label. The top four teams all went down, embarrassingly at that—some more embarrassing than others.
You know it's a bad day when you're thankful that at least the Duke-Wake Forest game was exciting. Here's how Miami, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and Florida State all went down on this, the ACC's darkest day.
No. 12 Miami Falls to Ohio State
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This one isn't that bad, with a final score of 36-24. It was a competitive game, and Ohio State was favored in Columbus.
But when the top-ranked team in your conference is playing the best team in the Big Ten, a league that is continually labeled as overrated, you hope that they can make a statement. The Hurricanes failed to do that, turning the ball over four times and losing by two possessions.
However, playing the No. 2 team in the nation, Miami could have lost this game by 40 points and it still wouldn't have been the most pathetic loss on this list.
No. 17 Florida State Is Crushed by Oklahoma
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Like Miami, Florida State traveled a long distance to face a traditional power. But ACC fans had to have hoped for a better display than the 47-17 beatdown they were treated to.
Florida State was supposed to be on the rise, and Christian Ponder was being mentioned as a dark horse Heisman candidate. He threw two interceptions and no touchdowns as the Seminoles were overwhelmed by a team that beat Utah State by only one touchdown a week earlier.
Still, a loss to the No. 10 team in the nation wouldn’t look that bad by itself. If this was the only big defeat that the ACC endured on Saturday, there wouldn’t be anything historically humiliating for me to talk about.
No. 15 Georgia Tech Loses to Lowly Kansas
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This one was bad.
It was only a three-point loss, 28-25, but it was a three-point loss to Kansas, who scored only three points in a Week 1 loss to North Dakota State, an FCS team.
Forget the vaunted triple-option offense, which was in full force. This game came down to an extremely respected coach in Al Groh coordinating a defense that allowed 28 points from a team that looked anemic the week before against FCS competition.
This was embarrassing.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
No. 13 Virginia Tech Is Beaten By...James Madison?
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But it was nothing compared to this.
How do you let this happen? How does Virginia Tech, a perennial Top 10 team (maybe the only such team in the ACC), lose to the fourth President of the United States?
Oh, James Madison is an FCS powerhouse, you say? That isn’t much better. Virginia Tech is supposed to be the ACC’s most consistent team.
Sure, they may have been suffering from the hangover of a heartbreaking loss to Boise State on Monday, but this was still a team that was supposed to compete for the ACC championship.
The ACC was counting on them to stop the bleeding of a horrific weekend, and they made the wound much, much worse. This is a game that the ACC won’t soon live down.
Saturday may have been the worst day in ACC football history.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
