Top Overrated And Underrated ACC College Football Teams

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Jim Quist @ACCTheQ –

College football is here. We’ve kicked off your week of football fandom with our ACC Football Media Guide to keep you informed about who, what, when and how with the schedule. Then there’s the return of Pigskin Picks with 7 of our prognosticators laying out their win/loss selections. And, we top it off with week one of the ACC Nation Power Poll where we rank 14 conference teams and Notre Dame. Who are the top overrated and underrated ACC college football teams this season? Two quick take away lessons from this list – Don’t rest on your laurels and believe in yourself. The first portion of this list will definitely fire up the fan base and the same can be said of the second.

Now that you’ve read the three aforementioned ACC Nation stories you know where our guys stand. To find something to stir the pot we headed over to CBS Sports where their experts also predict the playoffs. But, we’re most interested in their take on which teams in the ACC + 1 are over or underrated. Who are the teams getting thrown under the bus before the season has even begun?

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Top Overrated And Underrated

Each category has five teams from across the college football landscape. Who does at least one writer feel is overrated out of the ACC?

Clemson: I get that the college football world is in love with quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei, but he has a ton of work to do in order to lead the Tigers back to the Promised Land. The departure of Travis Etienne is a huge deal, as is the concern surrounding the wide receiving corps sans Amari Rodgers and Cornell Powell. Plus, the offensive line (while talented) isn’t exactly a threat to win the Joe Moore Award. The Tigers will win the ACC and make the playoff, but the ceiling for this team isn’t as high as it was last season, which makes a run in the CFP very unlikely. — Barrett Sallee

You may have noticed we slipped in the 14 + 1 in the second paragraph. We didn’t want to give things completely away. There’s an interesting theory to back up the writer’s claim that the Irish may be overrated.

Notre Dame: This seems like low-hanging fruit, and I don’t normally subscribe to the tired, somewhat-outdated idea that Notre Dame is perpetually overrated. But something caught my eye the other day: Six teams will play the Irish coming off of an open week in 2021. Five of those come consecutively: Wisconsin, Cincinnati, Virginia Tech, USC and North Carolina. (Virginia is the sixth team.) That’s half of a schedule that’s difficult enough on its own. I like what coach Brian Kelly has done here, but that’s a bad scheduling break for a top-10 team that needs to reload a bit. A regression from four straight 10-win seasons seems only logical. — Ben Kercheval

Long Trip Ahead? Tune In And Let Us Take Some Miles Off That Trip

This takes us to the underrated category and a team that many have felt is in for a break out season.

Boston College: Clemson is rightfully the favorite to win the ACC, but Boston College is closer to that second tier of teams. Quarterback Phil Jurkovec has an arm and some real dudes catching passes on the other end. Wideout Zay Flowers is an All-ACC stud. The defense, once brutally bad, was better in 2020, but it needs to be less reliant on turnovers. I like what coach Jeff Hafley has shown so far and this team could flirt with nine or even 10 wins. — Kercheval

Be sure to listen to special guest, A.J. Black of BC Bulletin on ACC Nation Podcast to hear what he thinks lays ahead for the Eagles.