ACC Coastal Madness Week 11: Pitt Had a Chance to Help Miami and Blewitt
By Harry Kroll
Each week, from now until it becomes trivial to do so, I’ll break down where Miami stands in the Coastal Division and how they can reach the ACC Championship Game in Charlotte. The post will include a breakdown of the relevant teams to Miami’s Coastal hopes and a rooting guide for Miami fans for the upcoming week.
Despite a banner day on the field for the Hurricanes, it wasn’t a great week for their chances in the ACC Coastal. Especially after what happened Saturday, the only three relevant teams in the picture for the Coastal championship are still Miami, Duke and GT. Let’s break it down team-by-team, with each team’s ACC record in parenthesis.
Miami (3-2)
Last week: Miami followed its best performance of Al Golden’s tenure with its new best performance of Al Golden’s Tenure. While the ‘Canes only won by four touchdowns (only won by four touchdowns!!), they led 44-6 before calling off the dogs with UNC’s only points coming on a fumble scoop and score.
Remaining ACC schedule: Florida State, at Virginia, Pittsburgh
Based on the team’s recent play, the ‘Canes look like a pretty safe bet to take care of Virginia and Pitt, but Florida State looms in a division race where one more loss could knock Miami out of the running. Miami fortunately gets a bye week and 14 days to prepare for the game that will define the ‘Canes season.
Duke (3-1)
Last week: In an incredibly disappointing finish for Hurricanes fans, Pitt had a 36-yard chipshot field goal to beat Duke on the final play that normally solid but unfortunately named kicker Chris Blewitt shanked badly. This set off a firestorm of terrible puns that I couldn’t help but piggyback onto with the title of this post. Sorry. Duke went on to win in double overtime and the Blue Devils’ victory is a devastating blow to Miami’s Coastal hopes.
Remaining ACC schedule: at Syracuse, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Wake Forest
This slate is about as far from a murderer’s row as you can get, especially with VT and North Carolina coming off embarrassing performances. It’s incredibly hard to see Duke losing more than one time in its final three home games; quite frankly, it’s pretty easy to see them winning all three of them. To state it plainly, if Duke wins at Syracuse this Saturday, Miami really cannot afford to lose the rest of the season, obviously including the FSU game. Did I mention how damaging that Chris Blewitt miss was? The one thing Miami has going for it here is the ‘Canes 22-10 win over Duke earlier this season, so if these two are tied atop the division at the end of all this, Miami will head to Charlotte.
Georgia Tech (4-2)
Last week: GT eviscerated an overmatched Virginia outfit 35-10 at Bobby Dodd Stadium.
Remaining ACC schedule: at NC State, Clemson
By virtue of Duke’s win against Pittsburgh, it’s pretty hard to construe a realistic scenario where Miami and GT finish tied atop the division with Duke in their wake. Therefore, we can stop worrying about GT’s head-to-head tiebreaker over Miami. If all three finish tied, Miami will win the tiebreaker by virtue of its record against Coastal opponents. (This remains true if any other teams are tied with Miami, GT and Duke in this scenario.) Especially with two very losable games coming up, Georgia Tech may very well finish 4-4 and drop out of this discussion anyway. Regardless, we should all be rooting for NC State on Saturday just in case things get really crazy as the Coastal tends to do.
This Weekend’s Rooting Guide
Teams Miami fans should be pulling for are bolded. All games of importance in the Coastal race are on Saturday this week. I included the Las Vegas lines, but note I wrote this up Sunday night and the lines will likely change to some degree before Saturday.
Duke (-3.5) at Syracuse, 12:30, ESPN3
Georgia Tech (-5) at NC State, 12:30, ESPN3