After a most impressive showing in the 2016-2017 bowl season (9-3 record and a National Champion to bout) the ACC had claimed the top spot among conferences in the bowl season, affirmed by an ESPN article titled "All hail the ACC, the new king of bowl season". Accordingly, the conference garnered high expectations coming into the 2017-2018 bowl season. While some may say the conference fell short of those expectations (4-6 record with marquee schools such as Clemson, Miami, and Virginia Tech suffering losses), as your eternally optimistic ACC sports fan, I am here to say there were still some impressive performances.
As a graduate of North Carolina State University, it would be easy for me to say the Wolfpack’s offensive onslaught in a 52-31 domination of the Arizona State Sun Devils takes the crown. Especially since it came without the help of the defensive player of the year and likely top 10 NFL draft pick, Bradley Chubb. But, that would ignore a signature win that is bound to build some serious momentum for a program on the rise.
In one of the most wildly entertaining games you will ever see, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons defeated the Texas A&M Aggies 55-52, solidifying an 8 win season. The game included a blocked punt, a tipped punt, a missed field goal, a punt return for touchdown, two fumbles, a blocked field goal, and a collection of catches Randy Moss would be proud of. And that was all in the first half! Okay… That’s a pretty sloppy 30 minutes of football, maybe “most impressive” is a bit of a misnomer. Nevertheless, the shootout continued in the second half until Matt Colburn stared down Aggie Linebacker #42 Otaro Alaka as he beat him to the outside on his way to the end-zone for a 1 yard touchdown run. The Demon Deacon defense then capped off the victory with a 4th and 15 stop with 28 seconds left in the game. Fine… I’ll go with “Most Gutsy” bowl victory in the ACC, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest made a statement against a traditionally competitive SEC program!
Regardless of the schools’ results, our team here at Capitol Financial Solutions had some competitive fun as we put our ACC football knowledge to the test making bowl predictions for every ACC team, below are the results:
Devin Butler 10-1
Trevor Lawson 10-1
David Booker 9-2
Will Smith 8-3
Corbin Oliver 8-3
Andrew Rose 7-4
Kent Thompson 5-6
Scott Sorrell 4-7
Shout out to Trevor and Devin for tying in first place as “most knowledgeable” (or luckiest) ACC football fans on the team. It is also important to note that the advisor in last place, our beloved Scott Sorrell, is a graduate of UNC Chapel Hill… I’ll let you all come to your own conclusions as to why that may have been the case.
Be sure to come back for my next blog as I transition to basketball season here on Tobacco Road!