The ACC’s Coastal Division — where logic takes a vacation.
Last year’s predicted winner, Georgia Tech, finished in last place. The eventual winner, North Carolina, was picked fifth. In 2014, the Yellow Jackets won the division after likewise being projected to finish fifth, and the projected winner, Miami, tied for fifth. In 2013, the preseason favorite was Miami. The Hurricanes tied for second. The winner — Duke, which was picked dead last.
“You (media) guys don’t have a very good track record,” Tech coach Paul Johnson said Thursday at the ACC Kickoff.
Into the mix come three new coaches, Miami’s Mark Richt, Virginia Tech’s Justin Fuente and Virginia’s Bronco Mendenhall.
“I can tell you this, with the new coaches that have come into the Coastal, you look at the head football coaches in this league, you look at what’s happening in our league in the last three, four years, I mean, this is a (heck) of a division, it really is,” North Carolina coach Larry Fedora said. “From top to bottom, there’s a lot of strength.”
North Carolina has been widely cast as the favorite, as the Tar Heels return 14 starters from last season’s 11-3 team. However, the division hasn’t had a repeat winner since 2011-12 (Virginia Tech) and, as noted, being named favorite doesn’t mean much.
“I don’t know who I’d pick,” Johnson said. “I think that there’s a lot of balance. There has not been what the media would perceive as a great, top-five team. But, who knows, very easily one could emerge.”
The Coastal takes grief for its supposed mediocrity, but its coaches would argue that it’s a case of top-to-bottom strength. Last season, while Florida State and Clemson were clearly the two strongest teams in the league, the Coastal beat the Atlantic 10-4. Further, its last-place team (Georgia Tech) beat Florida State.
“I told somebody (Thursday), you walk in the room (with the other division coaches) and you look around to see who’s your wins, and I’m looking back at me,” Johnson said. “The division’s tough. You walk in there, I don’t see anybody that I’m like, Whew, OK, we’re going to beat them. They’re all tough games.”
Among the three teams with new coaches, Miami and Virginia Tech aren’t the typical rebuilding situations. Miami has had the division’s highest-rated recruiting class (per Rivals) for four of the past five seasons, all four also ranking in the top 25 nationally.
Virginia Tech has been perennially strong on defense, but its offense has gone off the rails, a problem that Fuente is expected to address.
Pittsburgh also looks like a strong possibility. The Panthers were 6-2 in the league last season and will bring back All-American running back James Conner, who missed most of last season with an MCL tear and then was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in December. He was declared cancer-free in May.
“I expect nothing but his best performance,” Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi said. “When you look at what James has done, what he’s been, what he’s been through, the size of that heart inside his chest cavity, you know, I think you’re going to get his best effort.”
That leaves Georgia Tech, Duke and Virginia. It’d be easy to count out each for various reasons. But, it was easy to count out North Carolina last year, Tech in 2014 and Duke in 2013.
“No one knows anything,” Virginia center Jackson Matteo said. “That’s why you play the game.”
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