Paul Finebaum: Week one heightens concerns about the ACC

Week one of the 2021 college football season was a tough one for the ACC. Coming out of Saturday’s slate of games, the conference had suffered five losses. Florida State and Louisville hadn’t played by the end of Saturday and are set to begin their seasons on Sunday and Monday nights. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum is worried about the ACC after a lackluster opening weekend for the top teams in the conference.

ACC teams are a combined 7-5 through Saturday

Virginia, Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, and NC State came out of week one with a victory. Virginia Tech’s win came against North Carolina, who was ranked in the top ten heading into the game. For North Carolina, the loss is a big one. The offense struggled mightily and Heisman hopeful quarterback Sam Howell could not get anything going with his new crop of weapons.

Georgia Tech suffered a 22-21 loss to Northern Illinois on Saturday. Duke dropped its game against Charlotte 31-28, which was the first win over a FBS team in Charlotte’s football history. With Florida State set to face Notre Dame and Louisville playing against Ole Miss, it is very likely that the conference has a mediocre .500 record heading into week two.

Paul Finebaum is worried about the state of the ACC

Clemson, Miami, and North Carolina were expecting to compete as the three best teams in the conference. Clemson was completely shut down against Georgia and did not score an offensive touchdown. Some expected Miami to compete with Alabama, but the Crimson Tide steamrolled the Hurricanes from the start.

For the first time since 1989, a conference has seen multiple preseason AP Top 10 teams lose their season opener.

“As you go through that league, Virginia Tech has the only really quality win I would say. And that was against North Carolina,” Finebaum said Sunday on SportsCenter. “Some of the losses were just inexplicable. Duke losing to Charlotte Friday night. What about Georgia Tech losing to Northern Illinois? I’m not laughing at the other schools because both programs are good. But if you’re in the ACC and you’re trying to prop that league up, which ultimately means a lot for a school like Clemson, you have really an impossible task right now.

“Dabo (Swinney) can run his mouth all he wants about, ‘We play in a quality league.’ But anybody watching over the weekend would beg to disagree.”