2025 College Football Preview: ACC

Photo by Melina Myers from Imagn Images

Last year was the first year of the 17 team ACC, which was an absurd sentence back then, and is still absurd now.

Still, the ACC gave us lots of memories last year.

SMU came so close to winning the title year one, the Calgorithm which took Twitter by storm, and Florida State going from wrongly left out of the playoff to one of the worst seasons imaginable.

I can’t wait to see what 2025 brings.

Tier 1: Title Contenders

Clemson Tigers

I stated last year that this was my last stand with Clemson.

I needed to see Cade Klubnik perform well, and needed to see proof of concept from coach Dabo Swinney that refusing to use the transfer portal at all was a good decision.

And it was!

And also wasn’t.

Clemson struggled against Georgia, South Carolina, and Texas in the playoff which are the games Clemson fans expect to be winning under Dabo.

Still, Clemson won the conference due in large part to the ACC not being good, and Dabo has now used the portal to improve the squad.

So Clemson should be better this year in the final season of Cade Klubnik’s college career.

They’re the clear cut favorite in the ACC.

Miami Hurricanes

Now, this is Miami.

So the odds are that this will go horribly wrong, and Miami will somehow miss the ACC title game and college football playoff just like previous years in Miami’s history.

Still, this roster, on paper, is really, really good, and Georgia transfer Carson Beck is now in town as the new QB replacing first overall draft pick Cam Ward.

And Mario Cristobal is a good football coach, as long as you prevent him from making late game decisions.

Again, this will likely crash and burn.

But the pieces are there for a title run.

It would just be better if those pieces were anywhere other than Miami.

SMU Mustangs

Rhett Lashlee’s Mustangs almost shocked the world and won the ACC in their first year of trying, falling just short after Clemson won on a time expiring long field goal.

But the SMU season turned when Lashlee went to quarterback Kevin Jennings, and Jennings had a great season (playoff game against Penn State not included).

The more reps Jennings gets in Dallas, the better he should be.

SMU can absolutely run it back again.

Tier 2: Dark Horses

Louisville Cardinals

Jeff Brohm almost did what Rhett Lashlee did in his first year of the ACC, almost getting Louisville to the top of the ACC before falling short in the ACC title game.

Last year, Louisville sort of stood pat from the year prior, but were overtaken by teams like Clemson, Miami, and SMU.

So the main question for year three of Brohm is if Louisville can take the next step and get back to Charlotte in December.

I think it’s possible, but the defense will have to improve if they want to do so.

Duke Blue Devils

Duke won 9 games last year.

Duke. In football.

And they did it with an offense that really couldn’t do a damn thing.

Now, there’s no guarantee that new transfer QB Darian Mensah will somehow fix those problems offensively, but if he does, and Manny Diaz continues to coach up the Blue Devils defense, then we might see Duke as ACC champions.

Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

Brent Key has built up Georgia Tech in the trenches, and that strategy led to upset wins over Miami and a devastatingly close multiple overtime loss on the road against arch rival Georgia.

If Hayes King can stay healthy, which is a big if in the offense GT likes to run, they can make a run at this.

North Carolina Tar Heels

Look, I don’t know.

Maybe Bill Belichick is just using this as a stepping stone to the NFL and he sees this as a waste of his time before the next round of NFL interviews.

Or maybe his culture from the NFL and brilliant defensive mind turns around UNC immediately.

It will very likely not turn around immediately, but who knows?

Weirder things have happened than a hall of fame football coach doing a good job coaching football.

Tier 3: Bowl Game Bound?

Florida State Seminoles

I don’t usually think about conference previews until late June or early July, and even then it’s not much research. Just general vibes.

Regardless, I had FSU in Tier 2 all summer.

After all, there was no way Florida State was going to be that bad again, and their recruiting is good enough to contend again.

But then, presumptive starting quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who was benched at Boston College last year, spent his limited media availability trash talking his former coaches and also Alabama, who Florida State plays week 1.

I don’t love Castellanos’ game, and I haven’t been a big fan of his mouth recently either.

So while I don’t think Florida State will be 2-10 again, I can’t see them competing for the ACC this year.

There’s too much noise, and too many transfer questions.

N.C. State Wolfpack

This Wolfpack team is young.

The offense is led by two sophomores, quarterback CJ Bailey & running back Hollywood Smothers, and Dave Doeren is a good coach.

So N.C. State should be good.

But they will need Bailey and Smothers to hit, and hit in a big way, to compete for the conference title.

This may be a dark horse next year.

Not this year.

Virginia Tech Hokies

Brent Pry needs this year to hit.

And he has a key piece to make sure it hits, with Kyron Drones at QB.

But with two new coordinators coming into Tech, this may be a slow build.

Will Virginia Tech be ok with another year of middling football with Pry?

I’m not so sure, and a 7-5 season might not save him.

Pittsburgh Panthers

Pitt started last season red hot, going 7-0 to start the season, including comeback wins over Cincinnati and West Virginia.

And then, the wheels fell completely off, as Pitt ended the season going 0-6 and losing in the Sports Bowl to Toledo in overtime.

So I have no clue what Pitt will be this year.

Will this be a Kenny Pickett type season, where Pitt ends up winning the ACC? Or will it be another middle of the road year?

Considering how they ended the season, and how much of an outlier the Pickett year was, my guess is another 6 or 7 win season.

California Golden Bears

Last September, Cal took the college football world by storm.

Fernando Mendoza and Jaydn Ott were amazing, the Cal fans on Twitter were iconic, and I got swept up in the #Calgorithm.

But then, Cal came back down to earth, and finished the year going 6-7, as well as 2-5 in one score games.

Now, those one score games might flip the other way, as they often do, but Mendoza and Ott are gone now (Indiana and Oklahoma, respectively).

So even if the one score games flip, I don’t think Cal has the talent that they had a year ago to turn it into a title fight.

Still, they could go bowling.

Syracuse Orange

Syracuse was really good last year! Fran Brown did an excellent job.

But their schedule was incredibly easy, and quarterback Kyle McCord is now gone.

Cuse should be good again, but they aren’t pushing for 10 wins again.

No way.

Virginia Cavaliers

Virginia has slowly but surely gotten a little bit better under Tony Elliott.

But despite that, they still haven’t gone bowling.

And with Elliott knowing this is a last gasp effort to save his job, he brought in lots of senior transfers to save his bacon.

But while the chemistry might not be there, the schedule is easy.

I could maybe see 6 wins here.

Boston College Eagles

The BC defense kept them in games last year, and now Bill O’Brien’s offensive mind has another year of Grayson James and Turbo Richard to improve the offense.

They should be bowling again.

Tier 4: Better Luck Next Year

Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Brand new head coach. Brand new coordinators. Lots and lots of transfers.

Jake Dickert did well at Washington State, amidst all the turmoil of former coach Nick Rolovich and his battle with the school administration during COVID, and also the rest of the PAC-12 abandoning Wazzu and Oregon State.

So he should likely do well at Wake.

But not in year one.

There is too much turnover here for a program like Wake Forest to fix things immediately.

Stanford Cardinal

Troy Taylor had an insanely tough job trying to win at Stanford, but even though Stanford wasn’t winning games, they were recruiting well.

Well, as well as a school like Stanford can considering their academic restrictions.

But then, in March, Taylor was fired by Stanford football GM Andrew Luck due to misconduct of female staffers while at Stanford.

In steps interim coach Frank Reich, which is a cool story, but Stanford isn’t going to be good this year.

Maybe Reich does well and can win the job past this season, but they aren’t winning 6 games.