UNC trying for top spot in tumultuous ACC

It wasn't a great weekend for the North Carolina football team.

The Tar Heels lost a conference game.

They dropped out of the AP Top 25 and fell in the ACC Coastal standings.

Only thing is — so did Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

 All three teams dropped from the poll and were replaced with three new ACC teams — Georgia Tech" Florida State and Boston College.

""I think that people have kind of taken a knock on this conference a little bit" been saying that the ACC has been down but I think a lot of people are playing a lot of good football" UNC quarterback Cameron Sexton said.

And, while it makes for tougher competition for UNC as it finishes out its schedule against ACC teams, it also means that the Tar Heels' dreams for a conference title are still alive.

Virginia Tech's loss puts UNC in fourth place in the Coastal division, behind Georgia Tech at 3-1 and VT and UVa. at 2-1.

It would be tough, but not unthinkable, for UNC to sneak up from its current 1-2 record to climb near the top.

It's kind of like the NFL" any given week anybody can win and I think that's exciting Sexton said.

You know it's not two teams dominating the entire conference or one team" and I think that the competition is great.""

Anybody can win" as seen from Boston College stealing a ranking with its win against then-No. 17 Virginia Tech" despite the Eagles' five turnovers in the game. Or Maryland's 26-0 dismantling of then-No. 21 Wake Forest on Saturday.

""You could watch Wake Forest a couple of weeks ago and the way that they just totally dismantled Clemson and you'd say" ‘God man that's a really really good football team"'"" UNC coach Butch Davis said.

The same Clemson" by the way" that was ranked No. 9 in the preseason polls and now is 3-4 and with a brand new coach.

""You can see some of those other teams" the way that they play — we've played Virginia Tech we're getting ready to play Boston College we haven't played Georgia Tech yet" Davis said.

But they've just dominated everybody pretty much that they've played.

""So I mean"" it's a pretty competitive league.""

After the loss to Virginia Tech in September"" running back Shaun Draughn said they knew what needed to come next: UNC wins and a Tech loss.

""That was another kind of thing that hurt (Saturday)" he said.

I knew what we needed when we were looking at Virginia Tech" what we needed them to do as far as losing and us winning.

""And they lost" but we lost too" so that hurt us.""

So now what it comes down to" Sexton said" isn't what the rest of the ACC does. It's what the Tar Heels do.

""I mean" everybody knows what's going on but it's not like we sit around going ‘Alright Virginia Tech lost"'"" he said.

""We're worried about us" because like I say all the time" you can control what you can control.""

And for now" what the Tar Heels can control is racking up the ACC wins to get to its season goals: bowl eligibility" then a conference title.

""I mean" our goal is to win an ACC championship of course Sexton said.

And we take it one game at a time so we'll continue to do that and hope that somehow it'll work out for us but we gotta control us first" and that means winning this week.""



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