Streaking the Lawn’s 2018 ACC Preseason POWER RANKINGS

WE’RE BACK, BABY. That’s right, the best Power Rankings a rag tag group of bloggers typing away on their keyboards from their parent’s basements can put together IS BACK.

It’s been a long and trying offseason for all of us. College basketball ended after the ACC Tournament and canceled the NCAA Tournament. College baseball never happened. Tennis didn’t play this year either. What a weird spring.

BUT FOOTBALL SEASON IS HERE. Let’s get on with how we see the ACC stacking up entering the first weekend of the season:

1. Clemson Tigers (0-0)
This week: Furman
Clemson is coming off a loss, don’t forget it. Can the Tigers right the ship? Remains to be seen. What can be seen is they returned a bunch of guys on defense that could have gone to the NFL and made millions. They chose to stay in Clemson, SC. Why? Maybe Dabo and Co.’s pockets are just as deep as the NFL’s. I’m not saying, but I am just saying. They also have BoJack Horseman for an incoming freshman QB.

Anderson Independent Mail-USA TO

2. Miami Hurricanes (0-0)
This week: vs. LSU (at Jerry World)
The Hurricanes enter the season ranked #8 in the AP poll and look poised to be good again. Mark Richt seemingly always had great teams at UGA, but always came up just short. Can he and the Turnover Chain run through the Coastal and take out Clemson in Charlotte?

3. Florida State Seminoles (0-0)
This week: vs. Virginia Tech
The Noles finally did enough to run off Jimbo Fisher and replaced him with a shiny, younger coach in Willie Taggart, who will be coaching his third team in three years. Taggart is from Florida and guided USF to a 10 win season in 2016. Starting off the season with a conference game is rough, but at least the Noles get to play at home.

4. N.C. State Wolfpack (0-0)
This week: vs. JMU
Could NC State be good? Yes. Could NC State be bad? Yes. Does anyone, including the local Raleigh media, have any idea? Noooooooooooooooope. Also, holy hell, did anyone else realize this will be Dave Doeren’s SIXTH SEASON coaching the Wolfpack? Could have sworn he was in his third or fourth season.

5. Virginia Tech Hokies (0-0)
This week: at Florida State
The Hokies enter 2018 with a LARGE amount of question marks on the defensive side of the ball. Not to mention (the famous) Josh Jackson returning for his sophomore year after a meh freshman season and some off the field issues.

6. Louisville Cardinals (0-1)
This week: vs. Alabama (at Orlando)
So the post-Lamar Jackson era is going to start off 0-1. That’s fine. S&P+ projects the Cardinals at 29th in the country, good for 5th in the Conference. Bobby Petrino could have a rough year on his hand, given the success they’ve seen the past few years, but maybe they’ll hit a wall and he’ll leave on a Sunday after a loss.

7. Boston College Eagles (0-0)
This week: vs. UMASS
BC is an absolute enigma to me. Much like their basketball team, I have no idea which team will show up. They absolutely throttled FSU (and UVa) last year, but squeaked by Northern Illinois and lost to Wake Forest at the beginning of 2017. We do know AJ Dillon is going to have some pressure put on him after racking up 1,589 yards and 14 TDs last season as a true freshman.

8. Wake Forest Demon Deacons (0-0)
This week: at Tulane
Good for Wake for opening up the season on the road against a non-P5 opponent. UVa basketball fans respect the hustle. WR Greg Dortch returns for Wake and should be the go to guy on the offensive side of the ball after being named to the Preseason All-ACC team.

9. Pittsburgh Panthers (0-0)
This week: vs. Albany
I have no idea if Albany is any good. I doubt they have the talent the Panthers have, but Pitt also took Youngstown State to overtime to start 2017, so who knows. Pitt has a brutal schedule yet again this season with Penn State, Notre Dame, and UCF to go along with Albany. Coach Pat Narduzzi is going to have an uphill battle to get Pitt back to 6 wins and a bowl game for the first time since 2016.

10. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (0-0)
This week: vs. Alcorn State
Will the 11th season be GT’s final season with Paul Johnson? It seems the engineers have been trying to run off the triple option for five or six years now. Cross over games with Louisville and Clemson, mixed with a trip to USF and Georgia at the end of the season could make a tough season to get to another bowl game.

11. Duke Blue Devils (0-0)
This week: vs. Army
I personally watched the Army-Duke game last year and was one of the most fun games I’ve ever seen. Army had what seemed to be a 25 minute drive in the fourth quarter and Duke could not do anything about it. Northwestern and Baylor aren’t impossible out of conference opponents, but playing them on the road will be hard. Dave Cutcliffe is going to have to reach into his wizadry bag.

12. Virginia Cavaliers (0-0)
This week: vs. Richmond
The quest for six starts with the Spiders.

13. North Carolina Tar Heels (0-0)
This week: at California
The Tar Heels sure do know how to have a quiet offseason. From sneakergate, to Larry Fedora showing himself to be a crazy person and science dissenter, to the recent fall of Silent Sam. A 3-9 season last year has put Fedora on the hotseat this year and all those suspensions aren’t going to help matters.

14. Syracuse Orange (0-0)
This week: at Western Michigan
ROW THA....ah man, nevermind. Some might think this should be a layup for Cuse, but S&P+ projects the Orange to be at No. 71 and Western Michigan at No. 87. Dino Babers is going to need three wins against OOC opponents not named Notre Dame, because the ACC Atlantic schedule is not kind to Cuse.