...for a short-term engagement.
Earlier this year, we argued that, should ND be forced to join a conference, the ACC is their best option. And now Notre Dame has the opportunity to get a pretty good idea of what that would feel like, as the Irish get set to take on 3 consecutive ACC opponents: Wake Forest, Maryland, and Boston College.
For the unitiated, the ACC is divided into 2 divisions, the Atlantic and the Coastal Divisions. And all 3 of the Irish opponents over the next 3 weeks come from the Atlantic Division. And while Kelly reportedly joked with the Irish players about "winning the ACC" this month, it's actually impossible, as that division has been dominated by Clemson, who is 5-1 in the ACC this season, with their only loss coming to the Coastal Division Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech last week. Still, 3 wins in the ACC would position the Irish right in the middle of the pack of the Atlantic, and likely leave the Irish with at least one more intra-conference win than NC State, Duke, BC, or Maryland.
Yes, while this month may provide a taste of what an ACC experience would be for the Irish, it really should only provide an amuse-bouche. Wake Forest is clearly the best of the 3 Irish opponents, with 4 ACC wins and a 5-3 record overall, but even Wake accumulated 2 of their wins against conference dregs NC State and BC, along with a surprising, turn-over-filled game against an emaciated Florida State. That win over Gardner Webb helped too. Meanwhile, yeah, Maryland's 1 ACC win came against a Miami team freshly stung by the news of possibly the biggest NCAA infraction charges brought against any program in the BCS era and missing several key, suspended players. Other than that, the Terps have had far more success debuting alternative uniforms than winning games. And considering the horrors of those uniforms, that's really saying something. And finally BC... Oh, BC. Perhaps firing a coach for talking to other teams wasn't such a great idea. Perhaps figuring out how to hold onto the guy who other teams actually wanted to coach their programs would have been the better approach. BC has 2 wins. Versus UMass and Maryland.
Fun Facts:
- If you took all of the wins that the Irish's ACC foes have this season, you'd end up with 1 win per week of regular season football.
- Wake Forest is 106th in rushing offense. Which is funny, because their top 2 running backs average 4.4 and 4.2 yards per carry. They just get sacked that often, and for big losses. Thus far they're 92nd in sacks allowed, and 2.63 per game.
- BC's Luke Kuechly is doing all he can to win a game, any game (beyond UMass), by himself. Kuechly leads the nation in tackles so far this year, with 130 - 48 more than our Manti Te'o.
By SDI November 3, 2011 - 9:31 pm
After watching this BC FSU game I understand why Kuechly gets so many tackles. First, he’s good. Second, he almost never leaves the field. He gets 3 or 4 plays off occasionally, just long enough for the BC offense to turn the ball over or punt. The guy must be in phenomenal shape.
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By AlGoldenDomer November 4, 2011 - 9:00 am
Don’t discount Maryland. Their offense is high-powered. Clemson had their hands full to escape Maryland with a win. And Randy Edsall picked up a big win against the Irish not too long ago. Oh, and ND’s “home game” is just down the road from the UofM. Go figure.
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By Matt Q. (DMQ) November 4, 2011 - 9:37 am
That ND “home game” that is right down the road from UM is so “interesting” to MD fans and alumni, that they’ve had to resort to selling tickets via LivingSocial. $65 bucks got you 2 seats and a parking pass. And intimidating road trip, this is not. Eerily quiet? More likely.
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By starkruzr November 4, 2011 - 11:33 am
Are you going to Landover for this, btw? I’ll be there and plan on tailgating like a champion.
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By Matt Q. (DMQ) November 4, 2011 - 12:52 pm
No. It’s the one weekend I have no obligations between last weekend and 3 weeks into January. Need a quiet weekend when I can get it.
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By MarkG November 4, 2011 - 9:35 am
“Atlantic” and “Coastal.” The names of these two divisions seems kind of redundant. Isn’t the Atlantic on the coast? And isn’t the coast in question the coast of the Atlantic? Well, at least the division names are better than “Leaders” and “Legends.”
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By Matt Q. (DMQ) November 4, 2011 - 9:38 am
Indeed. Redundancy is always preferable to unintentional irony.
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By Mr. Wednesday November 4, 2011 - 10:43 am
You joke about BC running off Jags, but by the accounts I’ve seen on the BC side of things, he wasn’t recruiting. At all. He was going to have them on Ty-bation in no time.
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By E-Man November 4, 2011 - 12:32 pm
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By Matt Q. (DMQ) November 4, 2011 - 12:56 pm
Well, if we joined the B10, we’d just be redundant on our footpriint. IF we were to join the ACC, we’d still have massive media attention in the Midwest, and probably a game or 2 against major B10 teams per year. Plus lots of East Coast attention beyond our natural footprint. Think about it, no matter where we are, we’d get attention from Chicago, Indy, Cleveland, and Detroit media markets. If we’re in the B10, we wouldn’t get any spread. Nobody in NYC actually cares about Rutgers. Nobody in DC cares about MD football.
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By trey November 4, 2011 - 1:42 pm
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By Nate November 4, 2011 - 2:58 pm
The B1G will NEVER be attractive. Learn your history.
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By Nate November 4, 2011 - 3:01 pm
Nice new digs, guys. We should roll through the ACC portion of the schedule. Notice I say “should”, not will. Crazy things happen.
Oh, and are there any other big games this weekend? For some reason, ESPN etc. seem to be really quiet…I haven’t seen any coverage of any big games this weekend. I think Gameday is staying home, and they might have hockey on instead of other games tomorrow night.
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