Something strange surrounding Triangle football this fall: optimism
There are some commodities that are always in plentiful abundance during football season in the Triangle, year in, year out. Snazzy alternate uniforms. Future NFL quarterbacks. Mid-level bowl swag. Losses to Clemson.
For a welcome and pleasant change, this year there’s a new one: Optimism.
Certainly hope always springs eternal in the fall, even when you’re talking about three teams that have combined for — the math is always tricky — zero ACC championships in the past 31 years.
The difference this season is there’s some legitimacy to it. There are good reasons to expect better from all three teams, and in the case of North Carolina and N.C. State, reason to expect something special. Maybe even history.
North Carolina, with Heisman candidate Sam Howell at quarterback and coming off an Orange Bowl season, has designs on a December trip to Charlotte and perhaps beyond. All the unfinished business Mack Brown left behind 24 years ago is on now the verge of being concluded. The Tar Heels didn’t handle expectations well last season, crashing and burning at Florida State, but there’s a different vibe this time around, more like hosting the party instead of crashing it.
N.C. State, with 20 returning starters, may never have a better chance to challenge Clemson, and won’t have to wait long to do it. The Wolfpack went 8-4 without any fall camp to speak of thanks to COVID, and soldiered on after losing emerging quarterback Devin Leary in midseason. If N.C. State is going to take a great leap forward under Dave Doeren — who has been there two seasons longer than any coach since Earle Edwards — now is the time.
As for Duke, things can’t possibly be worse than last year, can they? The Blue Devils were minus-19 in turnovers in a disastrous season that in almost every way was the inverse of everything Duke has been since David Cutcliffe got the foundation built. Historically, turnover margin tends to bounce back in the other direction; if there’s an equal and opposite reaction, Duke may win the national title. At the least, Duke fought too hard to become relevant in football to wither this quickly.
Of course, it’s always the hope that kills you. But it’s nice to have this kind of hope and lofty expectations in August. It’s nice to be in a position to even worry a little bit over when the ACC title game is (December 4, time TBA) and when the CFP semifinals are (New Year’s Eve), when thinking about that winter getaway, just in case.
What a change it is to have those thoughts about football instead of basketball. Even though football is the giant engine at the heart of college athletics, more and more every year even in the ACC, there’s obviously no comparison between what the Triangle has accomplished on the football field and the basketball court. Or, for that matter, pretty much every other sport. ACC championships come and go in basketball and soccer and field hockey and swimming and baseball, and yet the football trophy hasn’t only been seen on milk cartons in the 919 area code since 1989.
The disparity is even starker in the ACC’s modern, post-expansion era. Since Duke made the Triangle’s first appearance in the ACC football title game in 2013, the Blue Devils and Tar Heels and Wolfpack have combined for one other losing appearance — and 57 ACC titles in other sports.
The financial ramifications of the Triangle’s struggles in rowing and indoor track and field are best saved for another day, but there’s no question falling behind in football is catastrophic in the modern world of college sports. No amount of Final Four appearances or dominance in almost every other sport can make up for that. Clemson’s rise to national prominence was the final piece (of many) that fell into place to make the ACC Network possible.
That was supposed to secure the future of the ACC, but the world of college sports is moving too fast. For the ACC to thrive and survive at a time when CFP expansion is on the table and the SEC is trying to corner the market, Clemson can’t stand alone in football.
The good news for the Triangle is the rest of the ACC, save Clemson, isn’t that far ahead. This might even be the fall when that gap narrows, when Duke is once again a factor in the Coastal Division, when N.C. State gets over the top in the Atlantic Division, when North Carolina claims a spot among the national elite.
It’s nice to think so in August, anyway.
And if everything does fall apart, a very promising basketball season — another star-studded Duke freshman class hoping to send Mike Krzyzewski out with a title, Hubert Davis reloading ahead of his first season at North Carolina, N.C. State looking to build off an NIT appearance — is only three months away.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 5:30 AM.
