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CLEMSON CAPS PERFECT REGULAR SEASON IN STYLE

Clemson’s blowout win over South Carolina allowed them to go wire to wire atop our ACC power rankings. Can the Tigers finish off their perfect season?

South Carolina tried to make things interesting for a while, but ultimately they were swallowed up by the avalanche that is the Clemson Tigers. Dabo Swinney’s team began the season as our No. 1 team and nothing they did during their regular season campaign did anything to change our minds. Now it’s up to Dabo Swinney and company to further their perfection in the ACC Championship Game and beyond.

Even though no ACC team came into the week with a real shot of catching the Tigers, plenty of programs had a lot at stake in Week 13. Pittsburgh wanted to build some momentum on the way to Charlotte but got embarrassed at Miami.

On a more positive note, two programs took big steps towards bowl eligibility with big wins this weekend. Virginia Tech staged a miraculous comeback to knock off Virginia. The Hokies still need to defeat Marshall to make the postseason, but a loss to the Cavaliers would have effectively ended Justin Fuente’s season.

Wake Forest posted the most surprising result of the weekend by thrashing Duke in Durham. The Deacons’ 59-7 drubbing of the Blue Devils represented the worst loss of David Cutcliffe’s tenure in terms of point differential. More important for Dave Clawson and company, it made Wake Forest bowl eligible for the third straight season. This is only the second time in school history that’s happened.

Without further delay, let’s proceed to our last ACC power rankings of the regular season. Predictably, the team that checks in at No. 15 is one of the two conference programs without a head coach at the moment.

15: LOUISVILLE CARDINALS

Last week: Loss vs. Kentucky, 56-10
Last rank: 15

The Cardinals came into their season finale with high hopes of pulling off a big home upset against Kentucky. In the end, the Wildcats simply had too much talent to let that happen.

Louisville’s defense just couldn’t do anything to stop Kentucky on the ground. Three Wildcats rushed for over 79 yards in the romp. That allowed Kentucky to rush for 343 yards in a pretty easy win. Louisville can now turn its full attention to finding a coach capable of reviving this program.

14: NORTH CAROLINA TAR HEELS

Last week: Loss vs. NC State, 34-28
Last rank: 14

A deflating overtime loss at home to NC State proved to be the final nail in Larry Fedora’s coffin. There have been rumors about his job security all season long, but a big win over the Wolfpack might have been enough to keep him safe. Ultimately, the Tar Heels made the move to ax Fedora within hours of the home defeat.

Fedora’s final loss followed the same script as many of its predecessors. Carolina moved the ball well against the Wolfpack defense, but their defense couldn’t get a big stop when they needed it most. Those defensive issues will be someone else’s problem in 2019.

13: FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES

Last week: Loss vs. Florida, 41-14
Last rank: 12

Willie Taggart’s program found a new low to hit on Saturday. Losing decisively to Florida wasn’t altogether unexpected, but it does prevent Florida State from going to a bowl game for the first time since 1981. Perhaps Taggart and his staff can use their free time to find some talent to infuse into the program.

One of Taggart’s top priorities should be to find a quarterback who can properly execute his offense. Deondre Francois’ struggles were on full display against the Gators. 14 for 29 for 154 yards and two touchdowns aren’t good enough to beat a team of Florida’s caliber. The signal-caller position has plagued the Seminoles all season long.

12: WAKE FOREST DEMON DEACONS

Last week: Win at Duke, 59-7
Last rank: 13

Wake Forest at Duke isn’t a game that generated a ton of attention on the national radar, but the final score sent shock waves throughout the ACC. No one expected Dave Clawson’s team to travel to Durham and dominate the Blue Devils.

The Deacons certainly used the ability to achieve bowl eligibility with a win to their advantage. They came out red-hot and laser focused. Cade Carney, in particular, was a man on a mission. He rushed for 223 yards on 31 carries to bludgeon Duke into submission. Special credit also goes to Jamie Newman for bouncing back after a horrendous day against Pittsburgh to throw for 177 yards and four touchdowns in his team’s blowout win.

11: VIRGINIA CAVALIERS

Last week: Loss at Virginia Tech, 34-31
Last rank: 10

Virginia had a golden opportunity to finish off their regular season with a big win at Virginia Tech on Friday night. Then the Cavaliers let everything slip away in a crushing overtime loss to the Hokies. This one will sting the fans in Charlottesville for quite some time.

You can’t blame Bryce Perkins for the loss though. As usual, he carried the Virginia offense. He may have fumbled the game away on the last play, but he threw for 259 yards and ran for 112 more to give his team a chance at winning on the road. Bronco Mendenhall’s offensive mission should be to find Perkins some help.

10: VIRGINIA TECH HOKIES

Last week: Win vs. UVA, 34-31
Last rank: 11

Virginia Tech looked as if their bowl hopes were going to disappear during most of their game against Virginia on Friday night. Then, a late-game comeback gave the team’s postseason hopes a second chance. The Hokies need one more win against Marshall to get to six wins, but they’ll have momentum on their side.

Credit Justin Fuente for sticking with the run. There weren’t a ton of explosive plays, but they managed to grind out 254 yards on 45 carries. That was just enough to keep the Cavaliers from celebrating at Lane Stadium.

9: GEORGIA TECH YELLOW JACKETS

Last week: Loss at UGA, 45-21
Last rank: 9

If Georgia Tech was going to have any chance to leave Athens with an upset win they knew they’d need to dominate the ground game. Instead, they got dominated by the Bulldogs in that department. Paul Johnson’s team isn’t going to win very many games when they lose the ground battle 285 to just 128.

In many ways, the 45-21 final score was flattering for the Yellow Jackets. They were thoroughly outclassed by their in-state rivals. If Georgia felt like really running it up, they could’ve hung 60 on Georgia Tech’s tired defense. The final whistle was a welcome sound for Tech fans.

8: DUKE BLUE DEVILS

Last week: Loss vs. Wake Forest, 59-7
Last rank: 7

Duke didn’t really have anything to play for on Saturday other than pride. Evidently, reputation doesn’t mean that much to the team. They were thoroughly outclassed by a hungry Wake Forest team on their home turf.

Daniel Jones should try to hide this tape from NFL scouts. Wake’s secondary has given up big plays all season but he couldn’t find any. He finished the afternoon a dismal 17 for 36 for just 145 yards. David Cutcliffe owes his team a serious tongue lashing after their pitiful effort against their in-state rivals.

7: PITTSBURGH PANTHERS

Last week: Loss at Miami, 24-3
Last rank: 6

Pittsburgh punched their ticket for the ACC Championship last week at Wake Forest, but they would have wanted to head to Charlotte with momentum on their side. Instead, they’ll limp into their game against Clemson after being soundly defeated at Miami.

To put it kindly, the Panthers really struggled to move the ball against the Hurricanes defense. Kenny Pickett threw for 130 yards on 22 pass attempts and his running game only put up 69 yards on 38 carries. Pittsburgh will need to play infinitely better next week if they want to have any shot of shocking the world against Clemson.

6: BOSTON COLLEGE EAGLES

Last week: Loss vs. Syracuse, 42-21
Last rank: 5

Boston College fans have every right to feel like they missed out on several opportunities to make this a special season. This wasn’t really one of those games though. The Eagles were soundly defeated by Syracuse.

BC’s inability to run the football really cost them a chance to keep this game close. Its clear A.J. Dillon isn’t close to 100%. As such, the Eagles only managed 105 yards on 32 carries against the Syracuse defense. That put too much pressure on Anthony Brown to win the game and as such, Boston College fell to 7-5 on the year.

5: MIAMI HURRICANES

Last week: Win vs. Pittsburgh, 24-3
Last rank: 8

It’s been a weird year for Miami’s offense, but Mark Richt’s defense has played at a high level almost every week. That was definitely true against Pittsburgh on Saturday. The Hurricanes held the Panthers to just 200 yards of total offense.

That allowed Miami to win comfortably despite only throwing for 52 yards. Running back Travis Homer was the guy who carried Richt’s offense. He gashed Pittsburgh’s physical defense for 168 yards on just eight carries. Richt needs to work on his offense in the offseason, but his defense just needs to keep doing what it’s doing next year.

4: SYRACUSE ORANGE

Last week: Win at Boston College, 42-21
Last rank: 4

It’s very possible that Syracuse is actually the second best team in the ACC. They aren’t headed to Charlotte with a chance to knock off the Tigers, but they’re arguably the team Dabo Swinney would least like to play a second time.

Dino Babers and company deserve a ton of credit for heading to Boston College and knocking off the Eagles so handily. Eric Dungey really got the Orange going in this one. He’s been in and out of the lineup all season, but he carved up Boston College’s secondary for 362 yards and three touchdowns on Saturday. Orange fans have a lot of reason to feel optimistic about their program’s future.

3: NC STATE WOLFPACK

Last week: Win at UNC, 34-28
Last rank: 3

Dave Doeren should be very pleased they don’t award style points in the win/loss column. If they did, the Wolfpack would have gone scoreless on Saturday.

On the other hand, rivalry games can be tricky. NC State managed to escape Chapel Hill with a victory and that’s all that matters. Reggie Gallaspy was the star of the afternoon. He scored the game-winning touchdown in overtime to cap off a 27 carry, 129 rushing yards afternoon. Ryan Finley gets all the headlines, but don’t sleep on Gallaspy.

2: NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH

Last week: Win at Southern Cal, 24-17
Last rank: 2

Brian Kelly’s team entered Week 13 with a very simple mission. If they could go to Los Angeles and knock off Southern Cal they’d be virtually assured of a College Football Playoff berth. Mission accomplished for Ian Book and the Fighting Irish.

Some Notre Dame fans wanted to see a more decisive victory, but Ian Book and company did enough to survive and advance. The junior signal caller threw for 352 yards and two touchdowns in the narrow win. He and his teammates will need to play much better in the College Football Playoff, but getting there is a major accomplishment for the program.

1: CLEMSON TIGERS

Last week: Win vs. South Carolina, 56-35
Last rank: 1

South Carolina gave Dabo Swinney’s crew a fit for a half, but the Tigers dominated the Gamecocks with 14 unanswered points in the third quarter to blow the game open. It wasn’t a work of art for Clemson, but they did enough to finish off their regular season without a single blemish.

The secondary clearly needs work though. Giving up 510 passing yards and five touchdowns to Jake Bentley doesn’t bode well for Clemson’s chances in the College Football Playoff.

On the flip side, this may represent a coming out party for Trevor Lawrence. The rookie signal-caller went 27 for 36 for 393 yards and a touchdown against a pretty talented South Carolina defense. Of course, he’ll need to play even better in the coming weeks if he wants to bring another national title to Tiger Town.