If you look at the schedule and we get what we could reasonably expect, a loss to Miami kills our ACC chances almost certainly. Miami has one upcoming game which seems to be anywhere near a unknown outcome, Fla State. Realistically the only other team which should give them concern is Virginia Tech, I think we all know how that should turn out for Miami. NC is sitting there but again East Carolina wore them out.
Even If we can pull out a win it looks tough. we would almost have to run the ACC table. We would both have one loss and even then like, I said if Miami survives Fla St. We would have to survive Clemson and playing Virginia in Virginia.
I see Miami finishing 7-1 possibly 8-0 in the ACC. Worse case for them is 6-2 ( losses to us and Fla St ).
I see Tech at 8-4 or 7-5 on the year now ( losses to BYU, UGA, Clempsun, Miami, and Va Tech) If we beat Clempsun that's 6-2 in conference, lose to Clempsun - 5-3 in the conference. Best case for us would be beating Clemson and Miami as well as overcoming the Cavalier Curse while holding up against Cuse and Pitt. 7-1 in conference play, while Miami falls against State and us.
The bottom line is that the Va Tech game killed us as we can all agree we should have won. If and butts I know, but if we had won we would have had a real shot at the conference with a Miami win, since we lost, we are in bad shape, in my view, even with a Miami win.
Party pooper ? I don't know, we could still end up with a better overall record than last year. Would you be happy with 8-4 or 7-5 ? with a bowl win ( 9-4 or 8-5 ) With a new QB ?
It would be hard to take the losses I see coming but it would still be better than last year and a helluva good outlook for the future.