Cal Sports Report

ACC Football Review: Embarrassment at North Carolina, Fun at Pitt

The helmet microphone makes an impact. Cade Klubnik rises like a Phoenix. Florida State gets its first win -- somehow

Jake Curtis

Florida State and coach Mike Norvell got the Seminoles' first win of the season
Florida State and coach Mike Norvell got the Seminoles' first win of the season / Melina Myers-Imagn Images
In this story:

The impact of a helmet microphone, an embarrassing loss, a historic start, a quarterback’s resurrected image and an inexplicable TD void were part of the weekend’s ACC football action.

Utter embarrassment


Let’s count the ways James Madison’s 70-50 victory over North Carolina was embarrassing to the Tar Heels:

---North Carolina was a 12.5-point favorite


---The 70 points tied the most points UNC had ever allowed in a football game, matching the 70-41 loss to East Carolina in 2014.


---North Carolina reportedly paid James Madison $500,000 to come play the game in Chapel Hill.


---UNC coach Mack Brown afterward: “Embarrassing day. Shocking day. You shouldn’t be at North Carolina and lose to a Group of Five team. Period. . . . People that want to blame me, they should. I’m at fault 100 percent.”


---James Madison scored 53 points in the first half, the most points ever scored in a half against the Tar Heels and more points than the UNC basketball team allowed in any first half last season.


---Official attendance was 50,500, but most fans left at halftime, and the stadium was almost empty by the time the game ended. Here is the halftime exodus:


The lighter side of a 70-point game


Meanwhile, Pittsburgh was luxuriating in its 73-17 victory over Youngstown State for several reasons:


---It was the most points scored by Pitt in three years.


---Pitt is 4-0 for the first time in 24 years and completed its nonconference schedule undefeated for the first time in program history.


---Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein became the first Panthers quarterback to throw at least three touchdown passes in each of the first four games of a season since Rod Rutherford did it in 2003 (with the help of Larry Fitzgerald as his prime receiver).

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Impact of the helmet microphone


Trailing by point and facing a fourth-and-9 play from the Syracuse 45-yard line with 37 seconds left, Stanford coach Troy Taylor sent his team out for the decisive play following a timeout. But when the teams lined up Taylor saw that Syracuse had single coverage on Cardinal receiver Elic Ayomanor. Taylor still had time before the audio to quarterback Ashton Daniels’ helmet microphone was shut off, so he told Daniels, “Hey, you got to go to Elic.” It resulted in a 27-yard completion to Ayomanor, which led to a game-winning field goal on the final play of the Cardinal's 26-24 victory.

A more memorable Ayomanor catch came earlier in the game and resulted in Stanford’s first touchdown.

Now what do you have to say about me?


Pessimists said Clemson was doomed with Cade Klubnik as its quarterback after he passed for just 142 yards, threw an interception and was sacked twice in the season-opening 34-3 loss to Georgia.

In the two games since then, he has completed 80% of his passes (40-for-50) for 587 yards, eight touchdowns and no interceptions. And in Saturday’s 59-35 victory over North Carolina State he added 70 rushing yards, including a 55-yard touchdown run.

He played only 2 ½ quarters against the Wolfpack, leaving with the Tigers holding a 52-14 lead. He led Clemson to touchdowns on seven of the nine possessions in which he was in the game.

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How do you gain 410 yards and not score a touchdown?

---Cal outgained Florida State by 126 yards (410-284), and Cal outgained FSU 222-76 in the second half.

---Cal had 23 first downs to 17 for FSU, and the Bears had a 14-5 advantage in first downs in the second half.

---Cal averaged 5.5 yards per play; Florida State averaged 4.2 yards, and both teams committed one turnover.

Yet Cal lost its first ACC game 14-9, failing to score a single touchdown.

How could that happen? Red zone inefficiency.

Cal got inside the Florida State 15-yard line on five different occasions, and came away with just six points on those five possessions combined. Missed field goals of 36 and 38 yards played a part.

You could claim that it was the ability of Florida State's defense to stiffen when it mattered most.

It added up to Florida State’s first win of the season and Cal’s first loss.

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Final notes

---Virginia, which finished 13th of 14 ACC teams in rushing last year, rushed for 384 yards in Saturday’s 43-24 road win over Coastal Carolina. It was the Cavaliers’ highest rushing total in 26 years.

---TCU head coach Sonny Dykes, who was SMU’s head coach three years ago, was ejected in the third quarter of the Horned Frogs’ 66-42 loss to local rival SMU because he received two unsportsmanlike behavior penalties for arguing with officials.

---Miami rolled past South Florida 50-15, but it was hardly an elegant game. The Hurricanes were penalized 11 times for 113 yards, and USF was flagged 11 times for 73 yards .

---The final score in Louisville’s 31-19 victory over Georgia Tech sounds like an example of Louisville’s offensive power. It wasn’t. One touchdown came on a fumble return, and another came on a blocked field-goal attempt that was returned to the end zone. The other two TDs came on a 37-yard pass and a 57-yard pass. So it was really just four plays, two of which were by the Cardinals’ defense.

Never was a turning point in a game more obvious than this Louisville fumble return for a touchdown to tie the score 7-7.

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ACC Player of the Year Standings

--1. Quarterback Cam Ward, Miami – Nation-leading 14 TD passes for No. 7-ranked team.

--2. Quarterback Eli Holstein, Pittsburgh – 12 TD passes, tied for fourth nationally, for a 4-0 team.

--3. Quarterback Tyler Shough, Louisville – 8 TD passes, 0 interceptions, for No. 15-ranked squad.

--4. Xavier Restrepo, Miami – 20 receptions, 5 TDs, 18.1 yards per reception

--5. Running back Omarion, North Carolina – 138.8 yards per game, and he was a bright spot for the Tar Heels in their embarrassing loss.

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Top Five ACC Teams

(We rank based on which teams have had the best results, not which teams we believe are the best teams)

--1. Miami (4-0) – Hurricanes have done nothing to move them down.

--2. Pittsburgh (4-0) – Picked to finish 13th in the ACC, the Panthers have yet to play a conference game.

--3. Louisville (3-0) – Cardinals finally got a worthwhile win, beating Georgia Tech.

--4. Duke (4-0) – Still not sure the Blue Devils are any good, but they are undefeated.

--5. Clemson (2-1) – If we were ranking based on who we thought were the best teams, we’d have the Tigers at No. 2. But we can’t ignore that ugly loss to Georgia.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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