ACC Football Week 5 Recap: VT-Miami Controversy, Duke Rallies Past UNC

Matt Newton | Sep 30, 2024

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Week 5 of the college football season is in the books and it was an exciting one in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning with the controversial ending to Friday night's Virginia Tech-Miami game and continuing with some interesting results on Saturday. Let's recap what happened in week 5 around the ACC:

ACC teams on bye in week 5: Cal, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh, Virginia

Virginia Tech 34, Miami 38
For the sake of officials around the country, we should hope that this goes down as the most controversial ending to a college football game this season. This game was wild from start to finish, but especially the finish, as Miami erased a 10-point fourth quarter deficit thanks to a crazy drive that featured a ground ball snap, a fourth down pass to a receiver laying on his back, and Cam Ward shedding multiple tacklers before shoveling the ball to tight end Riley Williams, who ran for 26 yards to set-up a short touchdown pass on the next play. That gave the Hurricanes a four-point lead, but the Hokies had plenty of time to answer with 1:57 on the clock and two timeouts. Due to some ineffective playcalling and horrendous clock management, though, Virginia Tech only managed to get the ball to the Miami 30-yard line before having to attempt a Hail Mary. And that's the play you should go back and watch if you somehow haven't seen it yet.

Kyron Drones threw a jump ball to the back of the end zone and five players went up for it. The ball was tangled up the limbs of multiple players as they came crashing to the ground but it appeared that Virginia Tech's Da'Quan Felton had managed to wrestle possession as he hit the ground. A Miami defender stripped the ball from Felton after he hit the ground and it bounced away. Both teams celebrated as if they had just won the game and the lights at Hard Rock Stadium starting strobing to celebrate a Miami victory, only to have to officials convene and rule that it was a touchdown on the field. After a near 10-minute review that showed... not very much, if we're being honest, the refs somehow saw enough to overturn the call, taking Virginia Tech's Hail Mary touchdown off the board and giving Miami the 38-34 win.

The ACC released a statement explaining the overturn, which said that a Miami player who was out of bounds touched the ball while it was still loose, making it an incomplete pass. That's a reasonable explanation for why it should have been called an incomplete pass on the field, but once it was called a touchdown on the field, I'm not sure there was nearly enough evidence from the replay to overturn that call.

The outcome is that Virginia Tech falls to 2-3 on a heartbreaker, while Miami survives and keeps its unblemished 5-0 record intact.

Next up for Virginia Tech: at Stanford
Next up for Miami: at Cal

Western Kentucky 20, Boston College 21
With starting quarterback Thomas Castellanos out with an injury, the Eagles were nearly taken down on their home turf by visiting Western Kentucky, who jumped out to a 14-0 lead and led 20-7 into the fourth quarter. Boston College's defense came up with a key strip sack and backup quarterback Grayson James delivered the game-winning touchdown pass to Jerand Bradley to move the Eagles to 4-1. Though James managed to quarterback the Eagles to a tight victory, BC will certainly be hoping that Castellanos is able to return ahead of next week's trip to Virginia.

Next up for Boston College: at Virginia

Northern Illinois 17, NC State 24
After suffering a 59-35 defeat at Clemson last week, the Wolfpack just barely managed to bounce back and get into the win column this week against Northern Illinois. The key in this game was the turnover battle, as NC State turned NIU over four times, while the struggling Wolfpack offense managed to play turnover free. Even with that margin, the game still came down to the wire as NC State intercepted Northern Illinois in the end zone to prevent what could have been a game-tying touchdown. Still, a win is a win, even when it comes from just 176 yards of total offense.

Next up for NC State: vs. Wake Forest

Holy Cross 14, Syracuse 42
A 14-0 run from Holy Cross briefly interrupted what was otherwise a successul "took care of business" victory for Syracuse on Saturday. The Orange jumped out to a 21-0 lead and, after Holy Cross threatened to make it a game again with back-to-back scores on a 63-yard touchdown strike and a halfback pass trick play touchdown, Syracuse regained control and pulled away for a four-touchdown victory. Kyle McCord threw for 385 yards and four touchdowns on 50 attempts as the Orange rebounded after last week's tough loss to Stanford.

Next up for Syracuse: at UNLV

No. 15 Louisville 24, No. 16 Notre Dame 31
The most high-profile game of the weekend featured a top 16-matchup between the Cardinals and the Fighting Irish in South Bend. Louisville delivered the first punch as Notre Dame fumbled the opening kickoff and the Cards capitalized with a touchdown three plays later. The Irish responded by scoring touchdowns on their next three possessions, sandwiched around a Louisville fumble and a turnover on downs. To their credit, the Cardinals did not collapse after that, answering by forcing another ND fumble and scoring on an incredible throw from Tyler Shough to Ja'Corey Brooks. Louisville couldn't get much going offensively after that, failing to score on its next five drives. By the time the Cards found the end zone again, they were trailing by multiple scores. Louisville did have a chance to tie the game late in the fourth, but an unforgivable mistake, taking a delay of game on 4th and 1, doomed the Cardinals to a turnover on downs with 53 seconds left, sending Louisville to its first defeat of the season.

Up next for Louisville: vs. SMU

Louisiana 41, Wake Forest 38
The Demon Deacons officially have problems on defense. After winning their season opener against North Carolina A&T 45-13, they have given up at least 31 points to each of their last three opponents, three games they have lost to drop to 1-3. Louisiana scored touchdowns on three of its first four drives and racked up 467 yards of total offense. A field goal gave the Ragin' Cajuns a three-point lead with 52 seconds left and Wake managed to get within reasonable distance for a game-tying field goal, but Matthew Dennis just barely missed his 42-yard attempt, which doinked off the left upright to give Louisiana the big road win.

Up next for Wake Forest: at NC State

North Carolina 20, Duke 21
For two-thirds of the game, it seemed the Tar Heels were destined to extend their winning streak in this rivalry series to six games as they heled a 20-0 lead deep into the third quarter. But behind an outstanding performance from Star Thomas, who ran for 166 yards and a touchdown and caught two passes for 45 yards and another score, the Blue Devils rallied with 21 unanswered points to remain undefeated and give Manny Diaz a victory over UNC in his first experience in this rivalry as Duke's head coach. Duke continues to find ways to win, while North Carolina suffers its second-straight defeat after giving up 70 points in a disastrous loss to JMU last week.

Up next for North Carolina: vs. Pittsburgh
Up next for Duke: at Georgia Tech

Stanford 14, No. 17 Clemson 40
It took a little longer than expected, as the Tigers were held to just 10 points through the first 27 minutes of the game. But things snowballed in the second half and Clemson eventually found its way to an inevitable blowout win behind a great showing from Cade Klubnik, who threw for 255 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for 48 yards and another score. The Clemson defense intercepted Stanford quarterback Ashton Daniels three times to help the Tigers win their third-straight game, while the Cardinal fell to 2-2.

Up next for Stanford: vs. Virginia Tech
Up next for Clemson: at Florida State

Florida State 16, SMU 42
The disaster season continues for Florida State. The Seminoles aren't as good on either side of the ball as they were expected to be, but the offense, and DJ Uiagalelei, continue to be the primary culprits. DJU threw three interceptions and FSU went seven-straight drives without scoring a point. That allowed the Mustangs, fueled by a sellout crowd in Dallas, to win their first-ever ACC game. Kevin Jennings threw a career-high three touchdowns and Kobe Wilson returned an interception 82 yards for a touchdown to lead SMU to a blowout win over the reigning ACC Champions. It's do-or-die now for the Noles, while the Mustangs seem to have figured things out offensively after their 18-15 loss to BYU earlier this month.

Up next for Florida State: vs. Clemson
Up next for SMU: at Louisville

ACC Standings Post Week 5

1. Clemson (3-1, 2-0)
2. Miami (5-0, 1-0)
3. Duke (5-0, 1-0)
4. Boston College (4-1, 1-0)
5. SMU (4-1, 1-0)
6. Louisville (3-1, 1-0)
7. Virginia (3-1, 1-0)
8. Stanford (2-2, 1-1)
9. Syracuse (3-1, 1-1)
10. Georgia Tech (3-2, 1-2)
11. Florida State (1-4, 1-3)
12. Pittsburgh (4-0, 0-0)
13. Cal (3-1, 0-1)
14. NC State (3-1, 0-1)
15. North Carolina (3-2, 0-1)
16. Virginia Tech (2-3, 0-1)
17. Wake Forest (1-3, 0-1)