By Morris Phillips
RENO—ACC Football kicked off Saturday morning in Dublin at Aviva Stadium, and the reception was deadly, shenanigans commenced with the second half kickoff, and a traditional Irish jig aced by a trio of Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets highlighted the impromptu postgame celebration.
Inside the stadium, the pre-dominant Seminoles fans itched as Georgia Tech comported itself as a miserable pox. And outside the stadium, and across the U.S. football fans consumed it all via television.
ACC Football in 2024 has expanded its reach, entertained the masses and adapted to the prevailing conditions, whether it’s what really needed or not.
A Week 0 mandate: ACC, you better put your blocking, tackling and mistake-free football closer to the top of your list. A glaring loss by Florida State followed by a narrow win at Nevada by SMU isn’t the ratings winner the expanded league wants.
“We found a way to win in the fourth quarter,” SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said. “Guys dug deep. It’s not always how you won, it’s that we won. We’re 1-0.”
SMU’s circumstances of demanding that they be included with the big boys is unique. The SMU athletic department agreed to take what they were offered (or leave it) from the ACC. They didn’t care. The SMU boosters and sponsors stepped up, and the Mustangs are in. And in 2024, being in is a 180 degree spin from being out.
Nevada and coach Jeff Choate in his first game as head coach were noticeably poised and prepared. Offensive coordinator Matt Lubick dialed up a great scheme that caught the Mustangs’ defense by surprise early on. Lashlee obviously noticed that he needed to step up as much as his players, and he was quick to acknowledge Choate afterwards.
“He’s hard nosed, tough, culture-type guy and I think his team played with the edge he’s going to want them to play with moving forward,” Lashlee said.
If there’s any observation, it’s this: the pool of great high school players may be deep enough to stock Power 4 rosters, but the coaching pool may be deeper. That dynamic was on display Saturday night in Reno with Choate and Lubick, who almost pulled off a spectacular debut.
For the coaching staffs at Stanford and Cal, SMU-Nevada was appointment viewing. Every year, the new ACC trio competes in football they’ll see each other. In this first season of new rivalries, SMU will visit Stanford, and Cal will travel to Dallas to see the Mustangs in the regular season finale. Forget what the Bruins, Trojans, and Ducks are doing. For the ACC’s Bay Area teams, SMU gets a big share of their attention. If Cal and Stanford can hold their own against the Pony Express, then maybe, just maybe, they can have realistic hopes of hanging with Clemson and Florida State as well.
For all three programs, the ACC presents a unique challenge. Given significantly less resources, and a smaller cut of the league’s contract with its broadcast partners, they must compete. While coaches and their student athletes probably don’t like cross-country flights, they do like to compete, and it’s clear that they will do that and let those around them make the excuses.
Lashlee got his first taste and it was nearly bitter. After a big fourth quarter in which they shocked Nevada with 16 unanswered points to win 29-24, the taste was sweet.
“The experience, we’re going to need it,” Lashlee said. “Like I said, I’ve been on teams that lost games like that, but we find ways to win games like that early in the year and it ends up helping us later in the season.“
And a little clarification regarding the phrase “deadly.” In Dublin, that’s an up-to-the-minute slang term of curious origins that means “good or great.”
In the newfangled ACC, you’ve got to know your surroundings, and knowing them sooner is much better than later.
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