By Luke Brumm
As the 2023 regular season is completed, it’s time to take a look at which teams were big winners and losers this year. We’re going to look at this by conference, starting with the ACC.
WINNERS
Florida State
The Seminoles are 100% winners this year, I don’t care what the CFP committee says. I’m not here to argue whether they should have been in or not, but they did everything they needed to do to qualify for the Playoffs. They ran the table going 13-0, climaxing with an ACC Championship.
The Noles had good wins over LSU, Clemson, Duke, and Louisville and they should be proud of the season they had. Florida State will now have a great opportunity to get a great win vs sixth-ranked Georgia in the Orange Bowl in a couple of weeks.
Louisville
Louisville came out of nowhere this year. They weren’t on many people’s preseason radar, even after hiring Jeff Brohm as their head coach during the offseason. As we see now, they should have gotten more respect before the season started. They came out the gate quickly and started 6-0, beating NC State and Notre Dame in that run.
After that, they were then upset by Pitt, but then won four straight before falling to Kentucky in the regular season finale, and then Florida State in the conference championship game. They still sit at 10-3 with a chance to beat USC in the Holiday Bowl on Wednesday, December 27th.
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North Carolina State
NC State was a program that received some preseason hype before the 2022 season but underperformed. This preseason, I didn’t hear much about them, and maybe that was a good thing. Even during the season, I didn’t hear much about them until I checked and they were 8-3 heading into their final game vs. rival North Carolina.
After starting 3-2, the Wolfpack went 6-1 to finish the season. Their losses came against Notre Dame, Louisville, and Duke. All three of those teams were good opponents. They will now take on #25 Kansas State in the Pop-Tarts Bowl.
LOSERS
Pittsburgh
Pitt had a very tough season in 2023. Pat Narduzzi and company are only two years removed from an ACC Championship, but they have a long road ahead of them to get back there. The Panthers went 3-9 with bad losses to Cincinnati and Wake Forest.
They didn’t have consistency at the quarterback for the whole season and couldn’t get much offense going. They scored seven points or less in three games and only scored over 30 once. I think it’s safe to say this was a season to forget for the people of Pittsburgh.
Wake Forest
Wake Forest was the team that Pittsburgh beat in that 2021 ACC Championship, and they have faced a similar fate as the Panthers since then. The Demon Deacons finished dead bottom of the ACC as they were 4-8 and 1-7 in conference. Some of their losses include Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and Syracuse.
I am excited for 2024 QB Jeremy Hecklinski to get on campus as I think he has a legit chance to make an impact there. He had an incredible senior year and is a candidate for National Player of the Year awards. Could he follow in the footsteps of guys like Sam Hartman? Time will tell.
Miami
The Hurricanes didn’t do as bad as these other two, but they did underperform again. A lot of people thought Miami might be making the jump when they started 4-0 and beat Texas A&M. They then lost in the most inexcusable way vs Georgia Tech and it was all downhill from there. The Canes finished 7-5, going 3-5 in ACC play.
QB Tyler Van Dyke had an underwhelming year and will now be transferring to Wisconsin. Coach Mario Cristobal has still yet to prove he can win on game days. He is a great recruiter but hasn’t been able to fully utilize the talent. We’ll see if next season can be any different.
