ACC 2018 Power Rankings--USA Today

GTFLETCH

GTFLETCH

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11. Georgia Tech
The Yellow Jackets have now sandwiched a nine-win finish with two losing seasons. Is the bloom off the rose for Paul Johnson? Uh, yeah. But Tech always has the potential to pop in any odd year, with this coming season no exception. There’s enough talent surrounding quarterback TaQuon Marshall to be successful on offense, though Marshall needs to complete more than just a tick over a third of his attempts. The shift in defensive style under new coordinator Nate Woody is a plus, though it may take a little time for the unit to get on the same page. Here’s Tech in 2018: as few as four wins and as many as eight. This is the toughest team in the ACC to peg

Link
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...gs-clemson-miami-florida-state-fsu/731457002/
 
Jacketman1

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Coloradojacket said:
And the logic on this ranking is.....They rank Va Tech, UNC, Pitt, and Wake ahead of us. Teams we have basically owned the last couple of years. 6-6 FSU.....really.
Click to expand...
I'm with you on UNC, Pitt, and Wake. But if I'm being honest, FSU and VT are more talented than us. Better? Maybe, but that's why the games are played. However, if you're a sports writer, are you really going to rank us that highly? Coming off of a season where we weren't even bowl eligible? I wouldn't rank us too highly at the moment. GT does seem to prefer low expectation to high expectations, though.
 

Heisman's Ghost

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GTFLETCH said:
11. Georgia Tech
The Yellow Jackets have now sandwiched a nine-win finish with two losing seasons. Is the bloom off the rose for Paul Johnson? Uh, yeah. But Tech always has the potential to pop in any odd year, with this coming season no exception. There’s enough talent surrounding quarterback TaQuon Marshall to be successful on offense, though Marshall needs to complete more than just a tick over a third of his attempts. The shift in defensive style under new coordinator Nate Woody is a plus, though it may take a little time for the unit to get on the same page. Here’s Tech in 2018: as few as four wins and as many as eight. This is the toughest team in the ACC to peg

Link
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...gs-clemson-miami-florida-state-fsu/731457002/
Click to expand...

"This is the toughest team in the ACC to peg" That pretty much sums it up. However, I take issue with them saying we could possibly win only 4 wins that is a bit harsh. USA Today does not have a good track record in anything much less football so consider the source. I would not put our ceiling at 8 wins either. If everything bounces our way, we could win as many as 9 or 10. Could lose a bunch too, I will give them that.
 

Always Ready

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GTFLETCH said:
11. Georgia Tech
The Yellow Jackets have now sandwiched a nine-win finish with two losing seasons. Is the bloom off the rose for Paul Johnson? Uh, yeah. But Tech always has the potential to pop in any odd year, with this coming season no exception. There’s enough talent surrounding quarterback TaQuon Marshall to be successful on offense, though Marshall needs to complete more than just a tick over a third of his attempts. The shift in defensive style under new coordinator Nate Woody is a plus, though it may take a little time for the unit to get on the same page. Here’s Tech in 2018: as few as four wins and as many as eight. This is the toughest team in the ACC to peg

Link
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...gs-clemson-miami-florida-state-fsu/731457002/
Click to expand...
 

smathis30

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Honestly Seem pretty fair to me tbh.

I went ahead and updated my rankings with taking into account how many starters are returning and how teams on average do with that many starters returning and got the following projections. I wills say that at the beginning of the season, with preseason rankings, SOS has a way larger effect than anticipated, so teams with strong schedules and lots of returning pieces are a lot higher than expected. Tiers are rather interchangeable.



Tier 1. Contenders
1. [213 points, 1 overall] Clemson (Duh)

Tier 2. Coastal Contender, and someone has to get second in the Atlantic right?
2. [196,9]Wake Forest. Suprised here, but the gap between 2-4 is tiny. Returns basically everyone from an 8 win team
3. [195,11]Louisville. Surprised here agian, and I expect them to be lower. But they basically keep everyone but Lamar Jackson, who was their everything. Their weakpoint last year was sloppy line play on both sides, and another year of experience should tone that down.
4. [191, 17]Miami . Best defense in the coastal the past 3 years returns a ton of fire power. Say what you want about the rain slowing GT down last year, but rain goes both ways and Miami scored 6 points in 5 red zone trips. Sunny Weather changes that too.

Tier 3. Division Contenders
5. [186, 27]Virginia Tech. Although their secondary takes a beating in graduation and NFL careers, they return almost everyone on an offense that should continue to improve. Keeping a majority of their front 7 will keep the VT Defense being the VT defense we know and hate
6. [185, 29]Florida State. Sloppy beginning of the season, but losing your starting QB game 1 is a game changer. Coach quitting mentally half way through also hurts. They were really good on paper, and a few tough breaks away from an 8 win season (like GT) last year.

Tier 4. Looking at Bowls. As you look at the overall projected ranking, you can see that almost all of this tier is interchangable
7. [179,35]. Syracuse. Dino Barbers finally has enough upper classman that he recruited to make things click.
8. [179, 36] Boston College. Lose a bit on both sides of the ball, but we saw what happened in the second half of the season when the offense clicked
9. [178, 37] NC State Lose a lot of NFL level talent on defense, but they return most of their offense.
10. [178, 38] Georgia Tech. Return a lot of big peices on O, but losing the entirety of the secondary will still show through a new scheme.
11. [179, 39] Duke. Snuck their way into a 7 win season last year. Pretty managable OOC will make them look good again.

Tier 5. ~~ReBuildInG~~
12. [168,47] Pitt. Still got a ways to go, but looking at sharing the 3 way title to being the armpit of the coastal
13. [166, 48] UVA-still program building
14. [158, 60] UNC- Feodra gets fired?
 

BigDaddyBuzz

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RyanS12 said:
I cracks me up how people se to forget how a 2nd half of Teds D vs UT, a fluke tipped pass vs UM and not being able to stop UVA with 3 minuets left we were to being 8-3!
I honestly think if those scenarios happen again this year the new staff on D will put us in a position to make the right plays.
Click to expand...
This is the truth!
 

Deleted member 2897

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GTFLETCH said:
11. Georgia Tech
The Yellow Jackets have now sandwiched a nine-win finish with two losing seasons. Is the bloom off the rose for Paul Johnson? Uh, yeah. But Tech always has the potential to pop in any odd year, with this coming season no exception. There’s enough talent surrounding quarterback TaQuon Marshall to be successful on offense, though Marshall needs to complete more than just a tick over a third of his attempts. The shift in defensive style under new coordinator Nate Woody is a plus, though it may take a little time for the unit to get on the same page. Here’s Tech in 2018: as few as four wins and as many as eight. This is the toughest team in the ACC to peg

Link
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...gs-clemson-miami-florida-state-fsu/731457002/
Click to expand...

We finished 5th in the ACC last year and return a high number of starters, a high number of 2 year returning starters, a high number of 3 year returning starters, and yes even a high number of 4 year returning starters. We've had what - 1 losing record in the ACC in the last decade plus? I'm not saying we should be ranked at the top, but to put us at the bottom where we NEVER finish is just downright lazy and silly.

I've said it a lot and I'll say it again - Georgia Tech is the most disrespected, underrated, overlooked team around. And that statement is proven again by trash like this.
 

Skeptic

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GTFLETCH said:
11. Georgia Tech
The Yellow Jackets have now sandwiched a nine-win finish with two losing seasons. Is the bloom off the rose for Paul Johnson? Uh, yeah. But Tech always has the potential to pop in any odd year, with this coming season no exception. There’s enough talent surrounding quarterback TaQuon Marshall to be successful on offense, though Marshall needs to complete more than just a tick over a third of his attempts. The shift in defensive style under new coordinator Nate Woody is a plus, though it may take a little time for the unit to get on the same page. Here’s Tech in 2018: as few as four wins and as many as eight. This is the toughest team in the ACC to peg

Link
https://www.usatoday.com/story/spor...gs-clemson-miami-florida-state-fsu/731457002/
Click to expand...
'As few as" four wins is a long way from predicting only four wins. One could probably pick any schedule in the country and come up with that line. That being said, if Tech wins just four games in 2018, the new AD will be looking for a new HC. I still think we can win nine, including a bowl game, and shouldn't consider it an aberration if we do.
 

Deleted member 2897

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Skeptic said:
'As few as" four wins is a long way from predicting only four wins. One could probably pick any schedule in the country and come up with that line. That being said, if Tech wins just four games in 2018, the new AD will be looking for a new HC. I still think we can win nine, including a bowl game, and shouldn't consider it an aberration if we do.
Click to expand...

I agree. We were 1 healthy/marginally effective kicker away from being 8-3 last year. And you'd have to say the canceled UCF game was at worst a toss up. We only had a couple games all year we were not ahead by double digits in (Clemson and Georgie) - both went to the CFP.
 

TheTechGuy

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smathis30 said:
Honestly Seem pretty fair to me tbh.

I went ahead and updated my rankings with taking into account how many starters are returning and how teams on average do with that many starters returning and got the following projections. I wills say that at the beginning of the season, with preseason rankings, SOS has a way larger effect than anticipated, so teams with strong schedules and lots of returning pieces are a lot higher than expected. Tiers are rather interchangeable.



Tier 1. Contenders
1. [213 points, 1 overall] Clemson (Duh)

Tier 2. Coastal Contender, and someone has to get second in the Atlantic right?
2. [196,9]Wake Forest. Suprised here, but the gap between 2-4 is tiny. Returns basically everyone from an 8 win team
3. [195,11]Louisville. Surprised here agian, and I expect them to be lower. But they basically keep everyone but Lamar Jackson, who was their everything. Their weakpoint last year was sloppy line play on both sides, and another year of experience should tone that down.
4. [191, 17]Miami . Best defense in the coastal the past 3 years returns a ton of fire power. Say what you want about the rain slowing GT down last year, but rain goes both ways and Miami scored 6 points in 5 red zone trips. Sunny Weather changes that too.

Tier 3. Division Contenders
5. [186, 27]Virginia Tech. Although their secondary takes a beating in graduation and NFL careers, they return almost everyone on an offense that should continue to improve. Keeping a majority of their front 7 will keep the VT Defense being the VT defense we know and hate
6. [185, 29]Florida State. Sloppy beginning of the season, but losing your starting QB game 1 is a game changer. Coach quitting mentally half way through also hurts. They were really good on paper, and a few tough breaks away from an 8 win season (like GT) last year.

Tier 4. Looking at Bowls. As you look at the overall projected ranking, you can see that almost all of this tier is interchangable
7. [179,35]. Syracuse. Dino Barbers finally has enough upper classman that he recruited to make things click.
8. [179, 36] Boston College. Lose a bit on both sides of the ball, but we saw what happened in the second half of the season when the offense clicked
9. [178, 37] NC State Lose a lot of NFL level talent on defense, but they return most of their offense.
10. [178, 38] Georgia Tech. Return a lot of big peices on O, but losing the entirety of the secondary will still show through a new scheme.
11. [179, 39] Duke. Snuck their way into a 7 win season last year. Pretty managable OOC will make them look good again.

Tier 5. ~~ReBuildInG~~
12. [168,47] Pitt. Still got a ways to go, but looking at sharing the 3 way title to being the armpit of the coastal
13. [166, 48] UVA-still program building
14. [158, 60] UNC- Feodra gets fired?
Click to expand...
Agree with most of this, but:

1. Virginia Tech only returns 5 on D, and they lost Settle and Motuapaka from the front 7. That would seem to hurt them.

2. Louisville returns 6 starters on offense and 3 on defense. That doesn't align with "...they basically keep everyone but Lamar Jackson..."

3. FSU only returns 4 starters on D.

Link: http://everythingcfb.com/2018-returning-starters-129-fbs-teams/
 
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