Which Coach Will Have a Worse Week: Dabo Swinney or Randy Shannon?

There have been poor coaching efforts this year in the ACC and some embarrassing losses. For the most part those had been relegated to non-conference games though.

Losses by Virginia Tech to James Madison and Georgia Tech to Kansas, while ugly, don't keep one from winning the ACC.

When you lose to previously winless in-conference teams like Boston College and Virginia, as Clemson and Miami did on Saturday, well, that's when things can get really rough for the head coach.

Let's review just a little. Clemson lost three consecutive games in a row earlier in the year to Auburn, Miami and North Carolina, but they had played themselves back into the ACC Atlantic race.

The Tigers were coming off an inspired 27-13 win over Georgia Tech, and were 2-2 in the ACC. With Florida State losing to NC State Thursday night, the Tigers virtually controlled their own destiny to winning the ACC Atlantic. Technically Maryland still had to lose one more ACC game, but I would have taken my chances that would have happened.

Their 16-10 defeat at the hands of Boston College was an utter failure. Clemson virtually eliminated itself from the ACC race and fell to 4-4 on the season.

Coach Dabo Swinney was already felt some heat after the three-game losing streak, but that heat will go up a notch this week.

QB Kyle Parker is playing more and like he should have stuck with baseball, and the Tigers had a meltdown eerily reminiscent of a Tommy Bowden  coached team.

The Tigers display the same tendency as they did under Bowden,
that being inconsistent play, which includes the annual "what the heck happened?" loss.

What about Randy Shannon, Miami?

This was their year. The U was supposed to be back. They had the top 20 ranking, the high profile games, and a talented team.

Well, three losses out of eight games into the season, including a blowout home loss to Florida State and then Saturday's 24-19 loss to Virginia will make an ACC Coastal title almost impossible. They'll need a lot of help.

Virginia's best win to date was over Eastern Michigan, but they were more physical than Miami most of the day, and even knocked Miami QB Jacory Harris out of the game.

Shannon really couldn't afford a loss here and Miami will likely again fail to meet expectations.

In the head-to-head worse week battle, I'm going to give the edge to Shannon. Swinney will have a lot of explaining to do, but he still has last year's ACC Championship Game appearance to hang his hat on.

Shannon has won nothing, zilch, nada, and barring a miracle of events happening won't again this year. Miami fans have seen progress with Shannon, but maybe 8-9 wins and no championships is as far as he take them.

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