Around the ACC: Week 6 (Football)

Story posted October 8, 2020 in CommRadio, Sports by Kathryn Tague

Week 6 will have the first big match up within the ACC to see who will be in contest for the title. No. 1 Clemson, the usual front runner, will be tested by No. 8 Miami on Saturday night.

Clemson is coming off of a 41-23 win against Virginia where Trevor Lawrence tossed three touchdown passes for a total of 329 yards. Virginia was not able to come back from the 24-3 Clemson lead at the end of the first half.

Miami is coming off of a bye week ready to travel to Death Valley. College GameDay will also be following the Hurricanes for the third time this season.

All eyes will be on Heisman Trophy candidates at quarterback: Lawrence and Miami’s dynamic D’Eriq King. But both defenses are expected to come out aggressive with Clemson as a 14 point favorite.

Another big match up in the ACC will take place on Saturday at noon with No. 19 Virginia Tech facing No. 8 North Carolina. Last weekend, the Tarheels held on for a win against Boston College with a final score of 26-22 after Boston College outscored them in the second half.

Both teams have had coronavirus related cancellations and sit undefeated at 2-0. These two teams met last year for a historical game that ended in a 43-41 Hokies win after six overtimes – the longest game in ACC history.

Speaking of historical nights, Virginia Tech running back Khalil Herbert recorded a total of 358 all-purpose yards last week against Duke. The Tarheels’ defense is strong against the run, so it will be interesting to see how Herbert performs with the majority of North Carolina’s focus on him.

The Huskies have had more than 20 players over the past two games in quarantine, mostly defensively, but also including expected starting quarterback Hendon Hooker. Braxton Burmeister took his place for the first two games.

Following a three week break that included coronavirus issues and a bye week, Notre Dame will host Florida State who beat Jacksonville State last week but is 0-2 within the ACC. The Fighting Irish are the clear favorite after starting off the season strong with wins over both Duke and South Florida.

Both 2-1 within the ACC, Pitt is set to play at Boston College. Both teams are eager to improve their record after close losses against their opponents last week.

Even though Pitt’s offense played well last week with a solid performance by quarterback Kenny Picket, its defense looked unusually weak. Based on Boston College’s underwhelming rushing performance last week, Pitt should be able to defend the run game. But the Eagles need to try to pressure Pickett who threw for a career-high 411 yards in last weekend’s loss to NC State.

Louisville will kick off the weekend on Friday night against Georgia Tech along with NC State at Virginia and Duke at Syracuse the following day.

 

Kathryn Tague is a freshman majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, please email kgt5061@psu.edu.

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