No. 4 Clemson's experience makes the Tigers the ACC favorite. Can anyone challenge them?

NBC Sports

3 days ago

No. 4 Clemson won so much over more than a decade that it felt like a step back when the Tigers didn't reach 10 wins two years ago in the first of back-to-back four-loss seasons.
Still, the Tigers are the reigning Atlantic Coast Conference champions and coming off a trip to the College Football Playoff. Experience from that run is part of why the Tigers are the runaway preseason pick to finish atop the ACC again.
'Experience, as they say, doesn't come at a discount,' coach Dabo Swinney said.
Clemson won at least 10 games from 2011-2022, including two national championships and eight ACC titles, before a nine-win year in 2023. The Tigers (10-4) beat SMU for last year's title.
'I think our mentality is, man, we're keeping our head down, just kind of keeping it low,' said quarterback Cade Klubnik, the preseason ACC player of the year.
Clemson returns four Associated Press All-ACC picks from last year, including first-team offensive lineman Blake Miller and two defensive linemen (Peter Woods and T.J. Parker) ranked in the top three among returners at their position nationally by Pro Football Focus.
Overall, Clemson held 11 of 27 spots on the preseason all-ACC team. No other team held more than three.
If not Clemson, then who?
The ACC has two other teams ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 with No. 10 Miami and No. 16 SMU.
The Hurricanes were the league's highest-ranked team much of last year, though they missed the ACC title game after losing at Syracuse. They brought in Georgia transfer quarterback Carson Beck as the successor to No. 1 overall NFL draft pick Cam Ward.
The Mustangs have back-to-back 11-win seasons under Rhett Lashlee, who led SMU to an 8-0 record in its first league season. SMU returns quarterback Kevin Jennings (28 total touchdowns last year), and AP all-ACC picks in offensive lineman Logan Parr, safety Isaiah Nwokobia and kicker Collin Rogers.
Seminoles' response
Florida State entered last season as the reigning ACC champion and preseason favorite, then went 2-10. Coach Mike Norvell's offseason included hiring two coordinators, notably former Auburn and UCF head coach Gus Malzahn for the offense.
'When you come to Florida State, you'd better embrace the highest of expectations, because it's what I have, it's what our program has,' Norvell said.
New faces
Three new coaches arrive in North Carolina's Bill Belichick, Wake Forest's Jake Dickert and Stanford's Frank Reich.
Belichick led the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl titles but this is his first college season, while the school is betting on the 73-year-old to elevate its football profile after moving on from Mack Brown.
Dickert left Washington State for Wake Forest after Dave Clawson unexpectedly stepped down after the season.
Reich, who joins Belichick and Boston College's Bill O'Brien as the ACC's national-high three former NFL head coaches, is an interim coach after the spring firing of Troy Taylor due to off-field concerns.
Irish factor
Sixth-ranked Notre Dame has six games against ACC teams as part of its annual scheduling partnership with the league, with the football independent being a member of all other ACC sports. Those don't count in the league standings but certainly have CFP implications for last year's national runner-up.
The biggest comes with an opening-game trip to Miami (Aug. 31), along with trips to Boston College (Nov. 1), Pittsburgh (Nov. 15) and Stanford (Nov. 29). The Irish's home games come against N.C. State (Oct. 11) and Syracuse (Nov. 22).
Heading west
Boston College, Duke, FSU, UNC, Pittsburgh and Virginia are this year's teams to touch all four U.S. continental time zones for a league road trip in Year 2 of westward expansion.
California hosts the Blue Devils (Oct. 4), Tar Heels (Oct. 17) and Cavaliers (Nov. 1). Stanford hosts the Eagles (Sept. 13), Seminoles (Oct. 18) and Panthers (Nov. 1).
That would leave Clemson and Georgia Tech as the only ACC teams yet to travel to California. Both go next year, the Tigers to Cal and the Yellow Jackets to Stanford.
Marquee matchups
The league gets immediate measuring-stick matchups.
Week 1 features LSU visiting Clemson, Alabama visiting Florida State, TCU visiting UNC and Georgia Tech visiting Colorado. There are also Atlanta games with Syracuse meeting Tennessee and Virginia Tech facing South Carolina.
Key conference games include Clemson visiting Georgia Tech (Sept. 13), hosting SMU (Oct. 18) and traveling to Louisville (Nov. 14). Miami hosts Louisville (Oct. 17) and visits SMU (Nov. 1), while SMU hosts Louisville (Nov. 22).
The ACC title game is Dec. 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina.