Could the toughest division in ACC Football be the Coastal?

The loss knocked the Hokies out of the AP Poll and down to 24th in the Coaches Poll. Clemson is currently third in the AP and second in the Coaches Poll. There was a surprise team in the ACC Coastal that earned a ranking for the first time in three years. Thanks to a 4-0 start Duke is 22nd in the AP and 23rd in the coaches poll.

Duke began the season with solid wins over Army and on the road against Northwestern and Baylor. Miami will host the Blue Devils on November 3 at Hard Rock Stadium. Duke is the only team in the Coastal Divison that is undefeated.  Clemson, NC State and Syracuse are also undefeated.

Virginia Tech had a lot of losses off of its defense from last season. They only had four starters returning on defense from 2017. Then came added a double dose of bad news over the last two days.

Virginia Tech dismissed defensive lineman Trevon Hill. Hill was leading the Hokies in tackles for loss and sacks and was sixth in tackles. That was followed up with an announcement on Monday that quarterback Josh Jackson is out indefinitely with a broken left fibula. It remains to be seen if the Hokies can recover.

Virginia Tech’s loss over the weekend to the Monarchs not only plummeted them out of the rankings it dropped them to 34th in ESPN’s Football Power Index. As expected Clemson tops the Atlantic teams by being ranked fifth. Miami is 16th in the FPI inexplicably three spots ahead of LSU. Duke is 25th.