I view next season similarly to Pastners first season. On paper, it has the potential to be pretty rough, based off graduation and transfers. If we want a surprisingly good season, we will need a few players to have breakout seasons, a la Okogie, Lammers, and Tadric being a great 6th man.
Since the major conference realignment, the coastal has averaged 5 teams being within 1 game of .500 in conference play, with the worst ever being 4, and the most ever being 6 teams being 1 game within .500. The key to winning the coastal has always been to win 6 conference games. Since realignment in 2013, the ACC has also coincidently had a title contender every single year. Tech also has the luck of playing Clemson right now every year, so winning the coastal requires Tech to be damn near perfect in conference play, especially in division play. So without even looking st the roster let’s look at the schedule first.
Citadel: so help me God if we don’t know how to play against the triple option
USF: last years horse race went to the home team. I think it will again
Temple: really wish this game could have been literally any other year but the year we stole their coach and play at their place. If Temple got the choice of winning only 1 game this season, I think this might be the one.
uga: essentially an 8th home game for them. Winning in Athens is nice, but dear god winning it Atlanta is so much better
Clemson: Trevor Lawrence. Seeing their defense should be interesting with all its transition, but We all know and “love” Venables.
Miami: 5-0 in 1 score games in 2017 and 1-4 in them last year. Average those two seasons together and you get two 9-4 seasons which is a much better representation of where they really are at. With roster transition and the absolute boatload of transfers, it should be an interesting season. Mark Richt was the first Miami coach without sanctions since the scandal, so we can expect a different Miami than what PJ faced.
VT: after averaging 11 wins a season for the 2000s, they have only had more than 8 wins once since 2011. This isn’t the same VT. We get them at home.
Pitt: division champs, return about everybody, get them at home. 50/50 ish
Duke: I’m hoping cutcliffes complaints about cut blocks were the key to their success. Getting them on the road aint fun
UVA: I ducking hate Charlottesville
UNC: if they get 8 people injured for the third year in a row, I thunk they have been punished enough. Mack can obviously still recruit, but can he still coach? Expect them to be a lot better (had they recovered an on side kick, last years game could have been uglier) than what they have been the last two years.
In short, the best way to look at the coastal is to guess the two teams not stuck in the middle. One team will likely be 6-2, one team 1-7. Every one else will be between 3-5 and 5-3. I’m hoping those two teams are UVA/Pitt and the top and VT at the bottom.