Is ACC Primed For Bounce-Back Season?

Over the past couple of seasons, Clemson hasn't had a lot of help from its conference brethren. Because of that, they have taken a beating in the national media when it comes to strength of schedule discussions. While the ACC may never be known as a football juggernaut, the league will be better in 2020.

After the way 2019 played out, the ACC is in dire need of a bounce-back season. No other team in the country was put under a microscope more so than Clemson was last season, mostly due to the perceived weakness of the conference they play in.

In 2016, the argument could be made that the ACC was the best Power Five conference in the nation. The league was 10-4 against the SEC that season, including Clemson's 35-31 win over Alabama in the national title game. 

Since then, however, outside of Clemson, the conference as a whole, has been on a downward trend, which culminated in a terrible 2019 season that saw the league go just 6-14 in out of conference games played against P5 competition.

Dig a little deeper, and you see that of those six wins, Clemson was responsible for half with wins over Texas A&M, South Carolina, and Ohio State.  

If any conference needs a big year, it's the ACC. And there are some who think that is exactly what is in store for the league in 2020. 

CBS Sports recently projected win totals for every team in the ACC. They think that seven teams end the season with at least eight wins.   

While that may be a little on the optimistic side, it certainly isn't out of the realm of possibility. 

Louisville and North Carolina are the popular choices in the conference to take that next step after solid seasons in 2019, but there are some others that should be better as well.

One team the ACC needs to see improvement from is Florida State. After the disaster that was the Willie Taggart era, the Seminoles will now turn to Mike Norvell in the hopes he can turn the fledgling program around.

CBS Sports is predicting eight wins for Florida State, but much of that depends on how much of an impact Norvell has in year one.

Now this is an 8-4 that feels like it could creep up to 10-2 if Mike Norvell's got a locker room full of road warriors capable of going to get it done on the Smurf Turf to start the season. While the distance between the Seminoles and ACC title contention could be plainly obvious in defeats to Clemson and Florida, the rest of the schedule should see Florida State start to re-assert itself as a top tier team in the league, including a rivalry win against the Hurricanes.

Another team to keep an eye on is Virginia Tech. The Hokies have won at least eight games in three of the four seasons that Justin Fuente has been head coach. 

This is a big season for Fuente, and CBS Sports thinks the Hokies win 10 games. They return all but four starters from the team that went 8-5 in 2019, including quarterback Hendon Hooker. 

Winning can cure a lot of uneasiness around a football program, and what better response to the Justin Fuente-Baylor flirtations than to see the coach lead the Hokies to a 10-win regular season in 2020. There are 18 starters back for Virginia Tech including quarterback Hendon Hooker, who guided the team to ACC Coastal contention before falling one win short against rival Virginia. There's not a game on the schedule that the Hokies can't win, even that Penn State game in Blacksburg is certainly a possibility. But road games against North Carolina and Louisville set up for at least one loss in conference play. 

Over the past couple of seasons, it has been Clemson carrying the weight of an entire conference on its shoulders. So far, it hasn't hurt the Tigers, but it has required them to be perfect in each of the last two seasons. 

While the ACC isn't likely to ever be considered an elite college football conference, it should be better than what it has been of late. On paper, it looks like it will be next season.