Repeat run for Miami? Revenge for Duke? Reset for Clemson? Redemption at UNC? Intrigue abounds in the ACC.
That sets a high bar for the 2026 season, but we have quite a bit to look forward to. We get another mammoth Miami-Notre Dame game , redemption efforts from both Clemson's Dabo Swinney and North Carolina's Bill Belichick , James Franklin's debut at Virginia Tech, and a potentiallybitter game between the defending conference champs and the contender that stole their star QB.
And even if Miami actually delivers for the entire regular season for once and claims one of the spots in the ACC title game, the battle for the other spot could be ridiculously wild. More than half of the conference's teams can convince themselves they're a contender, and someone unexpected will probably be right.power conference, but it might be the silliest. Let's preview the ACC!
And because Notre Dame is stillA 17-team conference with eight-game conference schedules was bound to produce silly results. Duke lost to both Tulane and UConn out of conference but sneaked into a five-way tie for second place at 6-2 in ACC play.
And despite losing their only game against another 6-2 team, the Blue Devils managed to not only grab the second spot in the ACC championship game butit over Virginia with a brilliant early surge and clutch plays in overtime. It was a weird result befitting a weird season, but even though the Blue Devils were not ranked by the College Football Playoff committee, the ACC still got a team in the playoff field thanks to Miami's at-large selection.
The Hurricanes then proceeded to come within a minute of winning the national title. The continuity table looks at each team's returning production levels , the number of 2025 FBS starts from both returning and incoming players and the approximate number of redshirt freshmen on the roster heading into 2026. Continuity is an increasingly difficult art in roster management, but some teams pull it off better than others. With almost the entire conference between 49% and 62% in returning production, there might not be many huge advantages to be found here. But it's still interesting that James Franklin was able to generate the No. 4 overall ranking considering how much turnover coaching changes tend to prompt these days.
The hierarchy is pretty clear here, with Notre Dame and Miami leading the way. But among actual ACC teams, only 7.1 points separate second-place Clemson from 10th-place Duke, and no team is projected so low that it can't hope for a lightning-in-a-bottle run at seven or eight wins. Miami avoids two of the league's other projected top-30 teams, and it will take another couple of considerable upsets for the Hurricanes to fall short of a title game bid. But the standings could get very messy after that. Here are the five conference games that feature the highest combined SP+ ratings for both teams and a projected scoring margin under eight points.
We don't have to wait long for the conference hierarchy to establish itself, especially considering Week 0's Virginia-NC State game in Brazil. This Week 3 encounter will be Louisville's firstgame of the season -- the Cardinals play Ole Miss on Sunday in Week 1, then Villanova on Friday in Week 2 -- and it's a big one. After last season's epic skepticism, SP+ is actually more optimistic about Clemson's potential this season than most prognosticators seem to be.
And after a Week 1 trip to LSU comes this huge game. If the Tigers are to produce a redemption arc in 2026, we'll likely know it after Week 5. Franklin's first Tech team gets this far into the season before playing a projected top-30 team. That offers the Hokies quite a bit of runway to figure things out, and it could make this game awfully important.
Clemson is evidently the ACC's hinge team -- either the Tigers will make a run back to the ACC title game, or they'll help to determine who does instead. And if you told me right now that FSU was going to produce a top-20-caliber surgethe moment he entered the portal late in the January transfer window? Yes. Is the 3,900-yard passer a potentially game-changing addition for the defending national runners-up?
Also yes. I love big playmakers, and Wilson is one of the best. The 6-foot-3 316-pounder made 9.5 tackles for loss with seven sacks at East Carolina last season and should provide immediate disruption up front in Charlottesville. Despite playing only 11 games last season at Liberty, Dickens finished ninth nationally in rushing yards .
The BC offense craves a physical identity, and Dickens averaged 3.8 yards per carry after contact. An absolute steal for the Eagles. While Franklin brought a lot of former Penn State players and commits with him from State College, a Troy transfer might have the biggest early impact. White picked off three passes, broke up 12 more and even made 3.5 TFLs as a do-everything cover man last season.
The Southern Miss transfer made tackles on 17.5% of his snaps last season -- one every 5.7 snaps -- and took part in 15 run stops. I don't know about the pass defense, but I'm betting FSU's run defense ends up awfully strong with Jones and Injury limited Haynes to seven games with Michigan last season, but he averaged 7.1 yards per carry and topped 100 yards six times.
The former blue-chipper is a major get for a new-look Tech attack. Wilson is a bit more of a pass-rush specialist than either Rueben Bain Jr. or Akheem Mesidor was for the Hurricanes last season, but he's certainly special: He recorded nine sacks with an elite 13.9% pressure rate last season with Missouri.
Fernando's brother couldn't have done more with his garbage time opportunities last season at Indiana: He completed 18 of 24 passes for 286 yards and five touchdowns, and he rushed for 190 yards in just 13 carries. The bar for guys named Mendoza is awfully high right now, but this dude has massive potential. Mensah's move made the headlines, but he also brought his No. 1 receiver with him.
After transferring from Harvard, Barkate caught 72 balls for 1,106 yards and seven touchdowns last season at Duke, and his 2.3 yards per route was one of the conference's highest averages. Proven offensive linemen are basically gold in the portal, and State managed to land a first-team All-American Conference selection in McCrimon. He allowed just one sack and committed just two penalties all season.
With a new starting quarterback, it took the Notre Dame offense one game to become elite last season. With a new coordinator, it took the defense three. Once everything came together, the Fighting Irish were comfortably one of the best teams in the country. Unfortunately, the meat of the schedule was over after Week 2.
Two losses to eventual CFP teams by a combined four points cost the Irish a playoff spot. The way it played out exposed everything wrong with leaving playoff selections to humans who createThis year, the two marquee games don't come until Weeks 7 and 10 , and the question marks are minimal. , and coordinator Chris Ash's defense returns 14 of the 20 players who saw at least 200 snaps and adds four solid transfers.
The Irish are projected favorites of at least 17.4 points in 10 games. If they are reliant on the CFP committee to let them in, that's on them.and players responsible for 41 of 60 offensive line starts returning, Mike Denbrock's offense has the basics covered. The Irish will need some new burst in the skill corps, though, without running backs Jeremiyah Love and Jadarian Price and receiver Malachi Fields.
It's easy to assume that some combination of RB, and any number of recent blue-chippers could provide the necessary pop, but we'll still need to see it happen. The defense could stand to see a bit more disruption. Notre Dame ranked only 57th in stuff rate and 25th in sack rate; the leaders in both categories -- edge men.
On paper, it appears he has checked every box, and I'm guessing the chip on Notre Dame's shoulder from last year's snub could come in handy, too. But the Irish's preseason strength of schedule, per SP+, comes in at just 62nd thanks to only three projected top-50 opponents. That's not good enough, both because it might give the committee less to nitpick and, well, the Irish should simply be getting challenged more.
But I will be floored if this team isn't both playing in, and threatening to win, the CFP. . They saved themselves with a four-game run of brilliance to finish the regular season, made the type of run that only an expanded CFP can offer, then went out and grabbedas well. If Indiana was the main character of the 2025 season, then Miami was at least a co-No. 1 at the end.
After winning 10 games with a top-rated offense but falling short of the CFP because of a defensive collapse, Cristobal's Hurricanes were far more well-rounded in 2025: They fell from first to 22nd in offensive SP+ due to an almost complete lack of big plays, but they surged to seventh on defense to make up for it. With the offense teed up to improve again , Miami's playoff and/or title hopes will be dictated in part by how much the defense slips following a massive rebuild in the front six.
Few teams will boast a better selection of marquee names on offense. Quarterback Darian Mensah indeed comes over from Duke after throwing for 3,973 yards and 34 TDs for the ACC champs, and addressing big-play issues by adding guys who averaged 15.4 , 15.5 not enough big plays on offense, far too many big plays allowed on defense and the major turnovers luck the Tigers enjoyed in 2024 to consider them genuine national title contenders.
When they indeed bombed from preseason No. 4 to 7-6, I got a lot of pats on the back for a great prediction. I was still mostly wrong, though: I still thought the Tigers would be a top-15 team and ACC favorite. Even from a skeptic's perspective, Clemson was shockingly poor. The offense suffered a lot of injuries -- especially at receiver and on the offensive line -- but rarely looked threatening even when mostly healthy.
And despite some elite individual talent, the Tigers failed to crack the defensive SP+ top 20 for the third straight season. Whatever their ceiling actually was as a team, they got nowhere close to it and suffered their worst season since 2010. Swinney is now dealing with one of the biggest resets of his career, with a new offensive coordinator, seven new offensive starters and a defense that lost three top-50 NFL draft picks.
Swinney seems to be simultaneously embracing and resisting progress. On one hand, he finally dipped fully into portal life, adding 10 transfers -- still well below the national average but a solid total -- but responding to the need for offensive progress by making a regressive hire. Offensive coordinator Chad Morris is back in town; he helped modernize the Tigers' attack from 2011 through 2014 but hasn't been at the helm of even a decent offense since 2017.
His attack will likely be built around junior, a two-year backup who was solid last year in his lone career start. The running back position might be solid with sophomorestill have all the potential in the world. Nine linemen started at least one game because of injuries, and five of them return, though star tackle Blake Miller isn't one of them.
The Clemson defense has been less than the sum of its parts for a while, and now the defensive front must replace five of last year's top seven. EndHonestly, a reset probably isn't the worst thing after the disappointment of 2025.
While Clemson is projected just 23rd overall, with an average projected win total of 7.9 -- not exactly rampant optimism -- the Tigers are also projected second in the league and have a chance at a 5-2 start with five of their first seven games coming at home. Brohm's first three seasons in charge at his alma mater have been full of wins and what-ifs.
Louisville has won at least nine games all three seasons, but heartbreaking losses have held the Cardinals back. In 2023, they couldn't beat Florida State, despite the Seminoles' QB injuries, in the ACC championship game. In 2024, they beat eventual champ Clemson but fell short of a title game bid because of tight losses to SMU, Miami and, less forgivably, Stanford. In 2025, they beat Miami but lost three other conference games by a combined seven points.
Brohm brings in 30-plus transfers and starts a new quarterback every year but creates a strangely stable product -- four losses every year with an SP+ in the 20s or low 30s. When will the Cardinals make another run to Charlotte?will likely take the reins; he's a good athlete but is less proven than the typical Brohm starter. If he is ready to produce, the skill corps could take it from there.
Louisville has one of the best running back duos in the country with; they combined for 1,588 yards last year despite no run threat from the QB position. The receiving corps will be almost totally new, but Brohm landed a great group with receivers. Richardson was a key big-play threat for Vandy's historic 10-win team and is also a high-level kick returner. .
It's always dicey relying so heavily on the portal to keep the offensive line afloat, but Brohm has earned the benefit of the doubt. New co-coordinators Steve Ellis and Mark Ivey take over an odd situation on defense, where some excellent playmakers return -- defensive end -- but no one else does. Only five of the 16 players with 200-plus snaps are back, which means the answers will have to come once again from the portal.
Brohm signed 14 transfers to fill in defensive gaps, and among them, tackles There are two ways to look at Louisville's 2026 schedule: On one hand, the Cardinals are projected favorites in every game after the season opener against Ole Miss. On the other hand, they play eight games projected within one score, including six in conference play.
Tight losses tripped them up the past two years, but if transfers come through once more, they'll be in the ACC title race until the end. For all the wacky tiebreaker machinations we ended up seeing, the ACC title race was almost incredibly straightforward: If SMU had simply closed things out at either Wake Forest or California , the Mustangs would have reached the title game for the second time in their two ACC seasons.
There was a twinge of disappointment to Rhett Lashlee's fourth season in charge, then, but things have still been remarkably stable for the Mustangs: They've won 31 games over the past three years, and their transition to a power conference has been seamless. Better yet, Lashlee has been able to taper off his portal usage -- after bringing in 26 transfers in 2023, that number has dropped for three straight seasons. Change is still afoot this season, though.
Lashlee needed only 16 transfers this time, but he'll rely heavily on them in the receiving corps, on the defensive line and in the secondary. And for the first time in his tenure, he had to deal with coordinator changes after the loss of OC Casey Woods and DC Scott Symons . In response, Lashlee did something pretty fun: He basically nameda co-coordinator.
Rob Likens, Garin Justice and D'Eriq King will share the role on offense, and Maurice Crum Jr. and Rickey Hunley Jr. will do so on defense. That's the work of someone who either really trusts the culture he's building or is overthinking things a bit.returns for one last dance, and he's just good enough to be maddening -- in 26 starts, he has produced a Total QBR of 76.0 or higher 13 times and has fallen under 50.0 seven times . When he's good, the Mustangs are almost untouchable, but he can still throw a few too many picks at times.
He'll have to build a rapport with a new skill corps, as last year's four yards-from-scrimmage leaders are gone. The defense improved every season under Symons, so his departure, along with that of seven starters, makes this quite the transition year on D. The return of linebackers, all of whom are listed at 305 pounds or heavier.
There might be enough here to produce another top-40 unit, and with Jennings & Co. back on offense, another year of ACC contention wouldn't be a surprise.for Virginia Tech. No matter what limitations Franklin eventually suffered at Penn State, he still raised the floor significantly at both PSU and Vanderbilt, and his recruiting capabilities make him very likely to do the same at Virginia Tech. His Hokies are one of the hardest teams to project for 2026, though.
Franklin put together an excellent recruiting class , but that will be only so helpful in Year 1. He's instead going to be reliant on a mix of transfers -- and I like the transfer haul quite a bit -- and holdovers from a team that underachieved quite a bit in Brent Pry's final season in charge.and offensive coordinator Ty Howle all followed Franklin from State College, and one assumes Grunkemeyer and Reynolds will connect often while Grunkemeyer -- who produced an 85.2 Total QBR with a 76% completion rate in his last three starts as a PSU freshman -- sticks the ball in the belly of backs such as.
Most of last year's extremely young offensive line returns, and both Hawkins and Davis are excellent yards-after-contact guys. Among returnee, the receiving corps could produce some big plays, too. The Hokies haven't had an SP+ top-40 offense since 2020, but it wouldn't surprise me if they play at a pretty high level even if they don't blow anyone away aesthetically. Franklin hired a familiar face as defensive coordinator: Pry!
He never quite balanced his natural defensive chops with the demands of the head coaching job, but now he gets to focus on a unit that underachieved last year but returns potential stars in tackleIt feels unfair to project high expectations on a program that has enjoyed just one winning season in the 2020s. There's a chance it takes Franklin & Co. a little while to get things aligned, and maybe this ends up being a year for getting the young blue-chippers' feet wet.
But with a manageable schedule andTechnically, anytime you improve by three wins and 42 spots in SP+, you have pulled off an excellent rebound season. And technically, going 5-7 just two years after you went 13-1 is never going to be anything but massively disappointing. It's impossible to set expectations for Mike Norvell and FSU, but he evidently did just enough in 2025, following the cataclysmic 2-10 collapse of 2024, to keep his job for a seventh season.
And as long as you're still on the job, you can continue saving yourself. After getting the customary Tommy Castellanos Experience in 2025 -- start out like a house afire , then fade quickly -- the offense is now in quarterbackat Auburn late last season and produced genuine improvement in a small sample.
He's a steadier but less explosive passer than Castellanos, and he's an exciting and physical runner. He could pair well with backs. Kromah is a potential star, and in terms of yards per route, Robinson and Danzy are each among the top six returning WRs in the conference. The big question for the offense comes up front, where last year's top seven linemen are all gone, and Norvell had to bring in five transfers.
Up to four of them could start, including All-MAC tackle. Quite a few of the nation's biggest offensive underachievers last year found themselves relying too heavily on transfers on the O-line, so this is a major roll of the dice. But if the line holds up, the offense could be excellent despite coordinator Gus Malzahn's February retirement. Tony White's first season as defensive coordinator produced decent improvement, albeit in bend-don't-break form: FSU ranked only 54th in success rate allowed but improved to sixth in yards allowed per successful play. The linebacker duo of40th in SP+, 7.3 average wins What do you do when you're 11-23 after three seasons, and you're struggling to generate any traction? You throw a transfer portal Hail Mary.
And if you're Virginia's Tony Elliott, and the Hail Mary lands you an absolute bounty -- a starting quarterback, your top two running backs, two of your top three wide receivers, an all-conference offensive lineman, a completely revamped and effective defensive line and a completely revamped and effective secondary -- it could work out great. Like, "your school's first 11-win season ever" great.
UVA leaped from 91st to 31st in SP+, from 95th to 56th on offense and from 86th to 19th on defense. Maybe no class in the country changed a program's trajectory as much as this one. Of course, when most of those program-saving transfers are one-year guys, you pretty much have no choice but to go all-in the next year, too.
Of the 40 total players who saw 200-plus snaps for UVA, only 16 return, so in come another 30 portal arrivals. I'm not sure this group is quite as good as last year's, but I still ranked it among could be a solid replacement for 3,000-yard passer Chandler Morris, and I enjoyed that Elliott went after explosive players on mostly unsuccessful offenses -- running backs -- as something of a discount approach to plumping up the skill corps.
He also added one of my favorite big disruptors and grabbed 10 defenders who made FBS starts last season. Perhaps most importantly, only 14 of the 30 transfers are seniors. Granted, so are some key returnees -- third-team all-conference O-linemen-- but even when you hit it big in the portal, you don't want to have to rely so heavily on newcomers every year.
In theory, this class is a step toward something more stable in the roster management department. The only disappointment from 2025 came in the ACC championship game, where UVA dropped an overtime upset to Duke. Without a single projected top-30 opponent on the schedule, the Cavaliers could be in great shape to make another run toward Charlotte if the new players click.
That might be a lot to ask -- SP+ certainly thinks so -- but after last year, Elliott has the hot portal hand until proven otherwise. For much of Narduzzi's tenure at Pitt, his Panthers have been unreliable narrators, thriving when it looked like things might go poorly and underachieving when it looked like pieces were in place. In 2025, however, they were extremely reliable: If their opponents were good, they probably lost. If they weren't, Pitt probably won.
Pitt was basically the precise definition of a borderline top-40 team. Considering the Panthers were 3-9 and 91st two seasons earlier, this was solid work. But do they have another top-20 rise in them? , and both lines are loaded with experience, but six of last year's top seven in the receiving corps and five of the top eight in the secondary are gone, and both units will be seeking help from newcomers.
Heintschel produced a 57.6 Total QBR last season, decent for a true freshman who didn't get as much help as expected from his run game . That could change with sophomore running behind what really should be a strong line. Five of last year's top seven return, and Narduzzi added an All-MAC guard in Last year's run defense was one of Narduzzi's best.
The Panthers allowed just 3.6 yards per carry and stopped 25.8% of carries for zero or fewer yards . Texas-bound linebacker. But even with a decent pass rush, the Panthers ranked 50th in yards allowed per dropback and 82nd in completion rate allowed . Injuries were a problem -- eight DBs started at least once, and no one started all 13 games -- which allowed young cornerbacks and Kanye Thompson could all be important additions.
This doesn't feel like the year for a top-20 breakthrough, especially with trips to Virginia Tech, Miami and Louisville on the docket. But perhaps Narduzzi has a few more antisocial tricks up his sleeve? Key is a former offensive lineman and successful offensive line coach, and for the first three years of his head coaching career, he was able to hand the reins of his program to an offensive lineman in spirit.
Haynes King was a human third-down conversion who threw for 7,907 yards and rushed for 2,277 more as a Yellow Jacket, and despite injuries, talent deficiencies and a defense that only recently began to generate traction, Key's Tech teams enjoyed three straight winning seasons. That's pretty good considering the Jackets suffered four straight losing seasons before Key and King arrived. The Haynes King generation for Tech is now over.
Of the 16 Yellow Jackets with 200-plus snaps on offense last season, only three return . On defense, 10 of 21 are back; that's a better percentage, but it doesn't include star tackle Jordan van den Berg or five of the top six defensive backs. Key also had to replace both coordinators, as Buster Faulkner left for Florida and Blake Gideon left for alma mater Texas.
After 15 years as an NFL assistant, former Tech quarterback George Godsey returns to college to take over as offensive coordinator, and he'll have a fun new duo to lean on in the backfield. QB Alberto Mendoza was nearly perfect in a small sample as his brother Fernando's backup last season -- he had a 99.4 Total QBR in 102 snaps -- and RB Justice Haynes rushed for 857 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Haynes and Hosley will run behind a line with experienced tackles in Mackenny and Carney, but transfers and youngsters will have to complete the picture up front. I'm not completely sure who will catch Mendoza's passes either: 6-foot-4 transferFormer Marshall and Southern Miss defensive coordinator Jason Semore takes over a unit with proven linebackers and not much else. Key's transfer choices tell a pretty big tale: He added six linemen and two cornerbacks.
Tech won't lack for size thanks to newcomers such as, it's hard to find many genuinely proven entities here. This feels like a pretty big reset year in Atlanta; if Key generates another winning season, then something really big could be on the horizon for 2027. If you put Duke's 2025 offense, 2024 defense and 2025 special teams unit together, you would have a top-20 team, per SP+.
If you put the other team together -- 2024 offense, 2025 defense, 2024 special teams -- you'd barely have a top-80 team. Diaz's first two seasons at Duke have produced a good version of everything. They've also produced a pair of nine-win seasons and an ACC title. Now just imagine what could happen if Duke does all the good things at the same time.
Duke was a volatile team in 2025, overachieving against SP+ projections by at least 12 points five times but underachieving by at least 18 points twice. With the amount of change coming their way in 2026, however, the Blue Devils could have a very different personality. . The line could be pretty solid, too, with two returning starters and two solid transfers in all-Sun Belt tackle.
The passing game, however, is going to be brand new. With Darien Mensah and Cooper Barkate off to Miami, Diaz grabbed San Jose State's, a veteran who threw for 3,000 yards with a torn ACL last season. Last year's top three pass catchers are gone, but in come 1,000-yard receiver. Sheppard and Campbell are excellent pass catchers, too.
This offense probably will regress after losing Mensah and Barkate, but it doesn't have to collapse. The defense could go either way. A solid run defense must replace its top four linemen and two of three linebackers, but a secondary that was far too inexperienced last year is returning four sophomores and juniors and adding cornerbacks Diaz didn't load up on transfers in the front seven, choosing instead to trust his succession plans.
Six sophomores and juniors saw at least 100 snaps last season, and players such as junior tacklereturning as well, the defense might be able to improve enough to counter offensive regression. And with six ACC games projected within one score, per SP+, it wouldn't take much overachievement for the Blue Devils to threaten for another nine-win season or conference title berth. Like Pitt, NC State has been the utter definition of a borderline top-40 team under Dave Doeren. In fact, taking out the brief collapse of 2019, the Wolfpack have averaged an SP+ ranking of exactly 40.0 from 2014 to 2025. They're extremely reliable in the way they produce one good unit and one disappointing unit and win between six and nine games every year. Bailey is an exciting playmaker, a scrambler who doesn't run himself into sacks much.
But the rest of the State offense has been almost completely rebuilt, with last year's top rusher, top four pass catchers and three starting linemen departing. Sophomore running backis solid after contact, but this is yet another case in which portal finds are vital: Doeren added eight skill corps transfers, the most exciting of whom are probably receivers.
The Wolfpack offensive line will be particularly big as always but might ask for a lot from All-AAC tackle Jimarion McCrimon and 6-foot-8, 345-pound FCS transfer The defense, once one of the nation's best, has ranked outside the SP+ top 60 in back-to-back years. The run defense was reasonably disruptive last season, but the combination of a nonexistent pass rush and a young secondary led to far too many big plays allowed.
Six defensive backs with at least 200 snaps return, and five are sophomores or juniors, as are transfers, who recorded eight sacks and 12 TFLs for the AmericanConference champ. I also like the addition of 6-foot-3, 336-pound tackleBailey alone gives State upside, and that could be important with a front-loaded schedule featuring games against Virginia, Vanderbilt and Louisville -- all of whom have new starting QBs -- by Oct. 3.
A hot start is possible, but the defense and receiving corps definitely have questions to answer. Let's be honest: Wake Forest should have stunk last season. After two straight 4-8 seasons with sub-90 SP+ rankings, Dickert inherited a pretty blank slate, and the Demon Deacons were projected ahead of only Stanford in the ACC. Their offense was dramatically all-or-nothing and suffered too many turnovers and red zone failures.
The defense, meanwhile, was composed mostly of Group of 6 and FCS transfers with almost no proven holdovers. Wake most assuredly didn't stink. The offense certainly suffered some no-shows , but the Deacs won three of those games because of a tough-as-nails defense that ranked ninth in both success rate allowed and yards allowed per play. They were flawed but tenacious, going 4-1 in one-score finishes and finishing 9-4.
That's hard to do with an inefficient offense and a negative turnover margin.is back, as are three offensive linemen who combined for 14 starts last season. But former South Alabama star will likely take over at quarterback, and he'll distribute the ball to Hernandez and a fun mix of lower-level standouts in running back.
The line was probably the best part of last year's offense, so losing four starters isn't great, but five transfers should assure some level of experience. And even if the offense doesn't progress a ton, the defense should still drive a bowl-caliber season.and beaten a couple of ranked teams .
Their starting quarterbacks have been a future No. 1 pick in the NFL draft and a blue-chip freshman who threw for nearly 3,500 yards out of the gate .
I didn't love the hire of coordinator Jordan Somerville, if only because I'm allergic to the words "pro style" -- the 30-year-old Somerville spent the past three seasons with the Tampa Bay Bucs -- but there should be depth and talent around JKS. For a defense that offered little up front and lost star corners Hezekiah Masses and Brent Austin, Lupoi seemed to make a point of loading up on young former blue-chippers, including tackleThe less said about Belichick's collegiate head coaching debut, the better.
His first transfer class didn't have nearly as much talent as he and general manager Michael Lombardi seemed to think, and Lombardi's "33rd NFL team" quote got recycled for all the wrong reasons during a dreadful 4-8 campaign. Consider it a mulligan year, I guess. Belichick seems to have a bit more of a plan this time around.
Coordinator Bobby Petrino comes to Chapel Hill to run the offense; although he hasn't been able to keep his bosses from getting fired, he generated clear offensive improvement at both Texas A&M and Arkansas in recent seasons. Belichick brought in three transfer tight ends and a Patriot League star , a new receiving corps appears to have both size and potential.
The same goes for an offensive line that returns five players with starting experience, including four who were freshmen or sophomores last year . Brown landed some fun transfers on defense, but the most important newcomer is coordinator Vince Kehres, whose Toledo defenses ranked 32nd in SP+ in 2023 and 21st in 2025 and absolutely dominated against the pass last season..
But if he's going to generate the pass rush he's accustomed to, it will likely come from transfers: FCS All-American combined for nine sacks at 290 and 306 pounds, respectively. Syracuse has regressed by at least 20 spots in defensive SP+ for three straight years, and I'm confident that trend will stop even if massive improvement isn't on the table yet.
First impressions are frequently misleading. In 2024, Boston College began O'Brien's first season 4-1 with random big plays on offense and a physical and unforgiving defense. Even when the Eagles faded a bit down the stretch, I was impressed enough to think O'Brien could build something fun. Since that 4-1 start, however, BC is 5-15.
During last year's 2-10 collapse, the offense had its efficient moments but suffered countless implosions in terms of sacks and turnovers, and the defense, promising the year before, was simply not good at anything. The Eagles' D couldn't create disruption or turnovers, and it gave up an endless stream of big plays.
In response to the dismal season, O'Brien did something I generally don't like, taking over as his own offensive coordinator and hiring an old hand to run the defense. But he also signed a really intriguing transfer class.
From the mid-major ranks, he landed 1,339-yard rusher Evan Dickens , a couple of offensive line starters inMcKenzie's spring was up-and-down, as one might expect when jumping from Division II to the ACC, but he's a good dual-threat QB who could pair well with Dickens, and he'll have a strong tight end in sophomoreThe 62-year-old Roof hasn't helmed a particularly effective defense since the 2010s, and he doesn't seem to have a ton to work with. Most of the secondary returns, but it's a secondary that helped BC rank 126th in yards allowed per dropback.
There's size and depth up front, but it feels like the offense is closer to a breakthrough than the defense. Of course, I'd have said the exact opposite a year ago. Over the past five seasons, Stanford has gone 9-5 against teams ranked worse than 80th in SP+ and 7-39 against everyone else. The Cardinal's average SP+ ranking in that span: 102.8.
In the post-COVID 2020s, this has comfortably been the worst power conference program in existence. To turn things around, Stanford is basically doubling down. General manager Andrew Luck, a former Jim Harbaugh quarterback, hired Pritchard, another former Harbaugh quarterback, as head coach. Pritchard hired former Stanford offensive line coach Terry Heffernan as his first offensive coordinator.
He did go outside the Farm family in grabbing former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator Kris Richard to run the defense, but the faces of this program are primarily Stanford grads. I am not confident. The Cardinal did improve late in 2025 under interim coach Frank Reich, and they have some exciting individual talents: Running back), the defensive line is replacing four of six, and even with Nicholson, the pass defense undid any gains provided by a solid run defense.
Meanwhile, the physical Stanford run game -- the core of the Harbaugh/David Shaw golden years -- hasn't existed for years. Even with Ford breaking tackles, Stanford averaged 3.9 yards per non-sack carry last season, 132nd nationally.is the likely starter. He's 24 and by all accounts a good leader, but he also has averaged just 5.4 yards per dropback in his career with seven TDs to 10 INTs.
Any major growth will likely have to come from the defense, and experience at linebacker and in the secondary could help there. I worry about a thin defensive line, though. Most of Pritchard's spring quotes used the word "competition.
" That was a favorite of Harbaugh and Shaw, too, and I'm sure the Cardinal will fight with plenty of heart. But after five straight seasons of dreck, it's going to take more than fight to start turning the program around. Twenty years ago, Wake Forest and Georgia Tech played the weirdest ACC championship game imaginable.
Thanks to the legacy of the ACC Coastal division, we're used to, but 20 years ago we got one of the most unexpected conference title runs and one of the funkiest title games in the history of the league. The 2006 title game produced zero touchdowns. Wake kicker Sam Swank was the MVP. Honestly, Tech punter Durant Brooks might have deserved co-MVP honors.
Georgia Tech's Reggie Ball was 9-for-29 passing. Tech legend Calvin Johnson caught eight balls for 117 yards, and 59 other Tech snaps gained just 255 yards. The teams went a combined 9-for-31 on third downs and 1-for-4 on fourth. And after the ultimate battle of attrition, Jim Grobe's Wake Forest team lifted the trophy.
It certainly wasn't great football, but it was beautiful in its own way.
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