And just like that, a season that was once young is all grown up now. Suddenly it has arrived at middle age. Blink, and it’ll all be over. We’ve already reached the halfway point of the 2022 college football season.
Doesn’t it feel like yesterday when it all began?
Yes, those were innocent days, weren’t they, back when we thought the N.C. State offense might be especially formidable, and that Duke might struggle to win a conference game. When Drake Maye was a mystery instead of a certainty. When Wake Forest wasn’t thought to be North Carolina’s best, and when Appalachian State still had yet to collect a check for beating another top-10 team.
So it turns out — and this may or may not surprise you, as a consumer of these weekly musings — that we might’ve been wrong about some things. “We” being the collective sports media and all. And what better time than now, at the midpoint of the season, to do some reevaluating based on half of a regular season’s worth of games.
Let’s begin with the affirmations, and the things we suspected might be true and have turned out to be. In some cases they’re even more true — which technically isn’t possible, but you know what we mean. Two things we were correct about: The N.C. State defense is as expected, if not better, and Wake Forest is as good as advertised, if not better — especially on offense.
State’s defensive front seven is as nasty (in a good way!) as any in the ACC, and that’s a good thing for a team that was always going to be reliant on defense but is especially reliant on it now (more on that soon). As for Wake, Sam Hartman is the closest thing the conference has to a Dangerfield-like character who could make an entire shtick out of getting “no respect.” All he does is put up gaudy numbers and win (well, except for beating Clemson, but no shame there).
Now, things that have been surprising? One could make a case for just about everything else.
First the good surprises: UNC’s offense has been a powerhouse more often than not since the start of Mack Brown’s second tour of duty in Chapel Hill, and that unit has returned to form after something of a step back last season. But who could’ve known it’d be this good? Maye, despite a shaky second half in the victory at Miami on Saturday, has at times looked like the best quarterback in the country, and as a freshman. The downside? He probably only has one full season left, before becoming a very high selection in the NFL draft.
Duke has been a surprise, in a good way. Under first-year coach Mike Elko, the Blue Devils have awoken from their disaster-filled malaise of recent seasons and become instantly competent and competitive. The not-so-good surprises: The N.C. State offense has taken a significant step backward. The UNC defense, while showing signs of late, emerged as a leading early season contender for delivering the worst results with the most talent.
And the just plain weird: App State. The Mountaineers score 40 points in one quarter only to lose to UNC on a blown two-point conversion, then go on the road and win at then-No. 6 Texas A&M, then need a Hail Mary to beat Troy, then lose (and look bad doing it) at Texas State on Saturday. The Mountaineers packed a season’s worth of emotional swings into its first three games. Maybe they’re spent. In some ways, App’s early season swings best represent the kind of season it has been to this point: odd, unpredictable, wild, bizarre and at times exhilarating.
In a way it feels like we’re just getting started.
ONE BIG THING
With quarterback Devin Leary, N.C. State can maintain the reasonable hope of winning 10 games for the second time in school history, and keeping alive its (albeit slim) chance of competing for the ACC’s Atlantic Division. But without him?
Leary during the third quarter on Saturday night suffered an injury to his right arm, or shoulder, during State’s improbable comeback victory against Florida State. The Wolfpack rallied without him, and that’s to be commended. Yet still, this is an offense that hadn’t yet discovered its rhythm with Leary, the ACC’s preseason player of the year. It’s difficult to imagine State maintaining the status quo without him.
THE HOTTEST TAKE
“Miami finally found its man in Mario Cristobal, and in no time he’ll restore the Hurricanes to glory!”
— the general college football punditry, back before the season began.
— a take in which we sarcastically poke fun at a real, actual take. Not meant to be taken seriously.
THREE TO LIKE
1. N.C. State coach Dave Doeren conjured all the tough-man football words after his team’s unlikely comeback Saturday night. “Gut check.” “Heart.” And so on. And indeed, the Wolfpack’s win was the stuff of grit, if not Florida State’s, um, questionable play down the stretch. But good teams find a way, and State did — without its starting quarterback, without much of an offense.
2. The Tar Heels have been the inverse of N.C. State this season: UNC can score, but hasn’t often stopped anyone. The Heels did, though, at Miami — and, like State, won on an interception in the final moments. If UNC’s defense becomes less of a liability — and it did surrender nearly 500 yards passing on Saturday, still — then there’s not a better team in the Coastal.
3. Don’t look now, fans of North Carolina ACC schools, but your long lost rival south of the border made a significant move Saturday. South Carolina’s victory at No. 13 Kentucky instantly became a statement game for coach Shane Beamer in his second season in Columbia. The likes of State and UNC (and, yes, Clemson) have benefited from South Carolina’s irrelevance in recent years, but it’s clear Beamer’s program has a pulse and is trending in the right direction.
THREE TO ... NOT LIKE AS MUCH
1. For a little while Saturday night, the lights at Carter-Finley Stadium became a main character on Twitter. And folks, you never want to be a main character on Twitter. Why didn’t those lights turn on on time? Who can be sure. What we know is that it made for some good jokes, about an engineering school having some electrical problems.
2. The ACC’s Coastal Division continues to delight in its ineptitude. The latest result that makes no sense: Georgia Tech’s overtime victory against Duke. The Yellow Jackets are aiming to accomplish the rare feat of going onto win a division championship after firing their coach. If this somehow were to come to pass — and Tech is 2-1 — it would be oh so very Coastal.
3. Call it “The Best Program in the State Jinx.” You may or may not remember reading in this space an argument not too long ago that North Carolina’s best college football program resided in Boone. Since then, App State hasn’t exactly lived up to the billing. The latest disappointment: the 36-24 loss at Texas State on Saturday. Cue the Twitter haters! It’s OK, people. I can take it.
CAROLINAS RANKING
1. Clemson (which did Clemson things in a rout of Boston College); 2. Wake Forest (which did Wake Forest things in a rout of Army); 3. N.C. State (which did things suddenly characteristic to N.C. State in grinding out an improbable victory against Florida State); 4. North Carolina (which made a defensive stop to seal a win!); 5. Coastal Carolina (the Carolinas’ other unbeaten team); 6. South Carolina; 7. Duke; 8. Appalachian State; 9. ECU; 10. Charlotte.
FINAL THOUGHTS, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER
— I think if you’re N.C. State, you adopt the “three yards and a cloud of dust” offensive philosophy, for as long as Leary is out. And maybe even if he returns. Go old-school. Keep it on the ground. Wait for the other team’s offense to make a mistake. Like FSU did Saturday night.
— I think the annual Victory Bell game between UNC and Duke this weekend looks much more interesting than it did at the start of the season. UNC fans back then had this as an easy win. Now? Not so sure. Could be. Might be. But Duke has been in every single game this season and, whatever intangibles the Blue Devils were missing in recent years, they’ve rediscovered.
— I think Virginia has solidified itself as the worst team in the ACC Coastal, and Miami as the most disappointing. These are teams that should always be better. Why Virginia has spent this long in the college football wilderness is a mystery. And as for Miami, has any program in the country done less with more over the past 20-plus years?
