Cal Sports Report

ACC Football Review: Stanford's Shocking Win Before 18,685 Fans

Clemson and SMU struggle, but both win to stay in contention for a berth in the ACC title game

Jake Curtis

Stanford place-kicker Emmet Kenney
Stanford place-kicker Emmet Kenney / Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images
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SMU and Louisville struggled to beat teams that were heavy underdogs on Saturday, but both kept alive their hopes of playing in the ACC championship game and earning a spot in the College Football Playoff.

However, the spotlight this week shines on Stanford, which pulled off the biggest ACC upset of the season. (We’re discounting Florida State’s early-season losses now that the Seminoles have shown they are not close to the 10th-ranked team they were in preseason.)

The Cardinal Surprises the Cardinals

Louisville had moved up to No. 19 in the CFP rankings following its dominating 33-21 win at Clemson, which almost never loses at home.  Louisville’s only three defeats were one-score losses to teams currently ranked in the top 15.  There was a feeling that Louisville might be the best team in the ACC now for its road game against Stanford.

Meanwhile, Stanford had lost six games in a row by an average margin of 26 points and was coming off a 31-point loss to North Carolina State, which has lost four of its other five ACC games.

And, oh yeah, Stanford was 0-4 at home against FBS opponents.

So it made sense that Louisville was a 21-point favorite in Saturday’s game at Stanford. Some betting sites had the point spread at 21.5 points.

Things seemed to be in order when Louisville took a 35-21 lead with less than 9:44 left in the fourth quarter.

Then things got weird and a guy named Emmet Mosley V happened.  Mosley, a true freshman, had not had more than 48 receiving yards in a game this season and had just one touchdown catch the entire season.  But he exceeded both in the final nine minutes against Louisville. He had five catches for 58 yards and two touchdowns in those final nine minutes, and he finished with 13 catches for 168 yards and three touchdowns.

His final TD catch came with 45 seconds left and tied the game 35-35.

Louisville then got to the Stanford 45-yard line, and, facing a fourth-and-10 with 10 seconds left, opted to try a pass to the goal-line.  It went incomplete and Stanford took over at the 45 with four seconds left.

A completion Mosley netted just 1 yard with one second left, so we’ve got overtime, right?  Wait a second, Louisville’s Tayon Holloway was called for a personal foul on the play, and those 15 yards pushed the ball to the Louisville 39-yard line.  Stanford called timeout and Emmet Kenney was going to attempt a 57-yard field goal.  But Louisville was offsides on the play, moving the ball five yards closer, and Kenney nailed a career-long 52-yard field goal for the walk-off 38-35 victory.

“A lot of silly things happened throughout the game that cost us,” Louisville coach Jeff Brohm said.

The only disappointment from the Stanford perspective was that only 18,685 people were at Stanford Stadium to see it.

Both of Stanford’s ACC wins have come on field goals on the final play of the game.  The Cardinal had defeated Syracuse on the road back on September 20 when Kenney made a 39-yard field goal on the final play of the game for a 26-24 victory.

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Still Three Teams for Two Spots

Clemson and SMU were less than dominant but both remained in the hunt, along with idle Miami, for a berth in the ACC title game.

SMU was a 19-point favorite against Boston College, but the Eagles held a one-point lead in the third quarter and SMU led by just three points when Boston College took over at its 20-yard line with 3:59 remaining.  That’s when the Eagles produced an eight-play, 2-yard drive that led to SMU’s final touchdown with eight seconds left.

The Mustangs are the only ACC team unbeaten in conference play and wins in their final two games against Virginia and Cal, neither of whom has a winning record, will put SMU in the ACC title game.

Meanwhile, Clemson needed some late-game heroics from Cade Klubnik to pull out a win over Pittsburgh, which was a 12.5-point underdog and was without starting quarterback Eli Holstein.

The Tigers trailed by three points when it took over at its 25-yard line with 1:36 remaining.  Klubnik then completed passes of 18 and 7 yards on the first two plays of the drive, then ran 50 yards for a touchdown on the third play that put Clemson ahead 24-20 with 1:16 left. That was the final score.

The Tigers (8-2, 7-1 ACC) are finished with conference play and must hope Miami (9-1, 5-1 ACC) loses one of its final two games against Wake Forest and Syracuse to get into the conference championship game.  If Clemson and Miami finish tied for second with one conference loss apiece, Miami would get the second title-game berth because it beat Louisville, which beat Clemson.

If SMU loses a game and there is a three-way tie for first, it gets complicated, because Miami, Clemson and SMU will not have faced each other.   Then it comes down results against common opponents or even the teams’ rankings by the Team Rating Score metric provided by SportSource Analytics.

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ACC Player of the Year Standings

--1. Quarterback Cam Ward, Miami – He had the week off but still leads the nation with 32 TD passes (five more than anyone else) and in touchdown-to-interception margin at plus-26 (six interceptions).

--2. Quarterback Cade Klubnik, Clemson – His play in the final two minutes against Pitt was impressive, and so is his touchdown-to-interception margin of plus-22 (26 TDs, 4 interceptions).

--3. Running back Omarion Hampton, North Carolina – He rushed for 244 yards against Wake Forest this week, and he is second in the nation in rushing with 1,422 yards.  If the Tar Heels had a better record he’d be challenging for ACC player of the year.

--4. Quarterback Kevin Jennings, SMU – The Mustangs are unbeaten with Jennings as their starting quarterback. He has thrown 15 TD passes and has run for 315 yards.

--5. Wide receiver Xavier Restrepo, Miami – Restrepo’s numbers (934 receiving yards, 10 TDs) allow him to edge out SMU running back Brashard Smith (1,036 rushing yards) for the final spot.

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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. SMU (9-1, 6-0 ACC) – The Mustangs’ only loss was to BYU, but the Cougars’ loss to Kansas doesn’t help the Mustangs’ image.

--2. Miami (9-1, 5-1 ACC) – The Hurricanes beat Louisville, and Clemson lost to the Cardinal, so Miami has a razor-thin edge over Clemson.

--3. Clemson (8-2, 7-1 ACC) – The Tigers are done with regular-season ACC play and face The Citadel and South Carolina in their final two games.

--4. Louisville (6-4, 4-3 ACC) – Despite the embarrassing loss to Stanford, Louisville earns this spot based on its victory over Georgia Tech.

---5. Georgia Tech (6-4, 4-3 ACC) – Was the win over Miami a fluke or an indication that the Yellow Jackets are surging?

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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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