NC college football season one to remember, even if only bragging rights are at stake
The fact that this football regular season will end in two games that are essentially solely for regional bragging rights, as so many have before, shouldn’t take away from what was actually one of the more remarkable campaigns in recent memory.
From top to bottom, no matter what happens Friday with N.C. State and North Carolina and Saturday with Wake Forest and Duke, this goes down as the most successful collective season in Big Four history — not only the first time all four schools are bowl-eligible, but the first time they’ll all finish above .500 since 1947, before the ACC was even a thought — and one of the most entertaining.
Even as thoughts inevitably turn to basketball, albeit a little later than usual, across the Triangle, everyone’s got something to take from this season, inside and outside the ACC.
Ironically, the team that came into the season with the highest expectations will be the most disappointed of anyone, with injuries and its own weak spots conspiring to derail a once-promising N.C. State season, but the Wolfpack can still win eight or nine games and a win Friday would salve some of those wounds.
It isn’t surprising that a local team will be playing for an ACC title in Charlotte next week, but it is a little surprising which one it is. North Carolina rebounded from last year, when it looked like the program might have steered itself into a cul de sac, to win the final edition of the Coastal Division. Last week’s inexplicable loss to Georgia Tech will sting for a long time, as the Tar Heels’ slim CFP hopes went with it, but wins over N.C. State and Clemson would still open the door to rare air.
Drake Maye ended up having the season Sam Howell was supposed to have last year and Devin Leary was supposed to have this year — as with N.C. State, a reminder that you never really do know when your moment has arrived.
Wake Forest may not have played up to its usual standards and fell out of Atlantic Division contention quickly, but it’s a measure of how far the Demon Deacons have come that a 7-5 season would be considered grave underachievement. On the opposite note, it was hard to watch Duke’s loss at Wake Forest a year ago — a complete and utter disaster — and think these programs would ever be at the same level again.
It wasn’t long ago Duke was the worst football program in the country, and David Cutcliffe still deserves credit for making it into something credible, as bad as things got at the end. Mike Elko, with new support from the Duke administration, was able to resurrect Duke in a great big hurry and has a chance to post a better ACC record than Wake with a win.
East Carolina was a kick or two away from a truly magical season — a massive upset of N.C. State and a trip to the AAC title game — but will take 7-5 with a win over Temple on Saturday. The Pirates have to replace quarterback Holton Ahlers next season; will they have to replace coach Mike Houston too?
Appalachian State eventually regressed to the mean, but it was the September of Yosef. From the near-upset of UNC that nearly broke the scoreboard in Boone — a game the Apps somehow got retrospective credit for winning in the court of popular opinion — to the Mountaineers’ win at Texas A&M to Game Day’s visit to Boone and the Hail Mary to save that game, the Apps lived like the main characters in a reality show for a month. The next two months, not so much.
There’s one already-crowned conference champion: N.C. Central won the MEAC and is headed to play Jackson State in the Celebration Bowl, the Eagles’ first visit to that event since 2016. Davidson, Elon and Gardner-Webb all made the FCS playoffs, which open Saturday. And the NAIA title game returns to Durham in December, even if the closest remaining quarterfinalist is from Kentucky.
All of which is to say, in a state where basketball still reigns supreme, it wasn’t just the ACC schools that thrived this fall. One of them will be in Charlotte next week with a chance to win the Triangle’s first outright ACC title in 42 years. A better-than-usual selection of bowl games should await. For once, football season isn’t over quite yet.
Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at tinyurl.com/lukeslatest to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.
Luke DeCock’s Latest: Never miss a column on the Canes, ACC or other Triangle sports
This story was originally published November 25, 2022 at 5:10 AM with the headline "NC college football season one to remember, even if only bragging rights are at stake."
