ACC spring overreactions: Recharged Clemson eyes return to CFP summit, Georgia Tech has top QB depth

Spring practice is in the books across college football, and now that the spring transfer portal window has closed we can take a look at each team with a refreshed idea of what has happened and what to expect moving forward. With more than 100 days until the opening kickoff of the year, there will be plenty of time for sensible, level-headed analysis regarding each team’s potential and expectations. 

But this is not that time. 

No, this is the time for overreacting. With no more practice updates or roster changes for at least three months this is a penalty-free time to go way over the top with reactions to what has transpired since the end of last season. We have gone through each of the 17 ACC teams to find one talking point worthy of an overreaction, sometimes focusing on coaching changes or the transfer portal, but in some cases taking stock of where a team is positioned in terms of the conference or national picture. 

The Eagles are better off without Thomas Castellanos: Bill O’Brien decided to move on from the multi-year starter at quarterback nine games into the year, naming Grayson James the starter for the conclusion of the season. Castellanos followed that up by announcing his intentions to move on, and he landed at Florida State in the winter portal window. 

O’Brien took over late in the offseason calendar as a result of Jeff Hafley’s exit to the NFL in late January, so to not only guide the team to a 7-6 debut but do so with awkward timing and a midseason quarterback change was impressive. If O’Brien is locked in on James as QB1, that’s the move that must give Boston College the best chance to succeed in 2025. 

Cal

Remain calm! Everything is going as planned! Justin Wilcox addressed some staff needs in the offseason by adding former Boise State and Auburn coach Bryan Harsin as offensive coordinator and former Hawaii and Washington State coach Nick Rolovich as a senior offensive assistant. 

The school also brought on Ron Rivera as the general manager of the football program. That collection of star power could suggest that the Bears have big things cooking in Berkeley, but there’s been off-field drama with program mega-boosters wanting the organization flow chart to run through Rivera. 

The spring transfer portal window brought further doubt to the idea of a breakout season. Star running back Jaydn Ott and Jaivian Thomas, the leading rusher from 2024, were among the nearly two dozen Cal players to hit the transfer portal after spring practice. Rivera has indicated confidence in some of the new faces that fans will gravitate towards in their absence, but between the winter and spring portal windows, we’ve got a roster overhaul that will put Cal’s braintrust to the test when it comes to getting all the right pieces in place for the upcoming season.  

Dabo is recharged for a run at his third ring: There hasn’t been this much certified hype around an upcoming Clemson football season since Trevor Lawrence was on campus. Part of that buzz is Cade Klubnik’s finish to last season, but he’s far from the only advantage the Tigers have going into 2025. This is a team that could see as many as a half-dozen players taken in the early rounds of the 2026 NFL Draft. Klubnik is among those stars in the spotlight, but so too are defensive linemen like T.J. Parker and Peter Woods. 

Yes — when Clemson was winning national titles, it did so with dynamic quarterback play, but it was also also elite up front on defense. Throw in the offseason addition of Tom Allen as defensive coordinator, and it’s easy to see why folks are fired up to see this team run down the hill in 2025. 

Best team in the state is flying under the radar: Manny Diaz went 3-0 against the in-state ACC foes last season, and even with some significant losses from last year’s nine-win team, the Blue Devils are expected to be in the top-half of the conference standings again in 2025. Duke has one of the splashier quarterback portal additions in the conference with Darian Mensah coming over from Tulane, and his commitment speaks to the investment the football program is getting when it comes to building a competitive roster. 

There are important pieces to replace, especially at wide receiver, if Duke is going to match last year’s win total. Butetween internal development and new additions, the expectation is that the Blue Devils will be well-positioned to defend that state championship against North Carolina, NC State and Wake Forest. 

Florida State

The Seminoles have a path back to ACC title contention: Wholesale changes to the depth chart and coaching staff have taken Mike Norvell back to a rebuilding status for the second time in Tallahassee. But the success of 2023 and the lessons learned from 2024 should make the climb a bit easier as he looks to guide Florida State back to ACC title contention. The marriage of new quarterback Thomas Castellanos and new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn seems like a fit in terms of style, and new defensive coordinator Tony White should shore up a group that performed well below expectations a season ago.

No one is mentioning Florida State as a title contender now, but a quick glance at the ACC schedule shows just two games (Clemson, Miami) where the Seminoles will need to play above their talent level to win. If Florida State can knock off one of those rivals and run table against their other six conference foes, it could be in the hunt for a spot in Charlotte at the end of the year.  

The Yellow Jackets have the ACC’s best QB depth: Haynes King’s return to guaranteed another season of dynamic and gritty quarterback play for the Yellow Jackets, but it also sets up the offense to have a true transition season. Backup Aaron Philo could see his workload increase in his second year with the program. And while it’s not always the case, both King and Philo spent the spring engaged in what seems to be healthy competition. They sat together to answer questions after the spring game and are focused on being prepared for whatever they are called to do when the season arrives. 

There are other ACC teams that could see a big step back if QB1 has to miss time, but Georgia Tech not only has a good option if it has to go to QB2, but could utilize both players to help their chances for success in key situations.   

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Miller Moss can play his way into a Tyler Shough-like draft spot: The debut of Miller Moss for most college football fans was stepping in for Caleb Williams in a bowl game and leading USC to victory with a record-setting six passing touchdowns. The opponent in that game was Louisville, and clearly the staff did not forget that game; Moss was recruited to join the Cardinals in the winter portal window. 

Now, Moss hopes that his time with Jeff Brohm can do what it did for Tyler Shough and boost his stock in the eyes of the NFL community. Louisville’s offense under Brohm has sent each quarterback to the NFL — Jack Plummer went undrafted before being signed by the Carolina Panthers — and each quarterback threw for at least 3,000 yards and 21 touchdowns before moving on to the pros. This is an offense that can highlight some of Moss’ best skills and, hopefully, limit the turnover issues that contributed to him getting replaced in Los Angeles.      

Miami

No ACC team will be better in the trenches: It’s not a lazy narrative if its backed up by results: the way Miami has recruited and developed the lines of scrimmage under Mario Cristobal backs up everything about the assumptions of how the former Hurricane wanted to build his version of the title-winning program. Miami has potential first-round picks on both the offensive (Francis Mauigoa) and defense (Reuben Bain) lines, along with depth that continues to get reinforced with nearly every high school recruiting class and transfer portal window. 

Winning the ACC — which is absolutely the goal in 2025 — will require a healthy Carson Beck and defensive improvements in the wake of a coordinator change, but Miami will be able to overwhelm many of its conference opponents thanks to being bigger, stronger and better in the trenches.  

North Carolina

Bill Belichick does seem to have a type: No, we aren’t talking about that, this is a football type. The total roster overhaul in Chapel Hill has been largely overlooked in the conversation around Belichick’s first season as a college coach, but to look at the portal is to acknowledge that the staff seems to be backing up a stated effort to make the team bigger in 2025. General Manager Michael Lombardi has talked about building a team that’s good in the “middle of the field” and finding players who are bigger and longer to win along the lines of scrimmage. 

There are 37 players who committed to UNC between the winter and spring portal windows, according to 247Sports. Fifteen heck in at 6-foot-4 or taller, while nine of them are at least 300 pounds. Belichick is not breaking any new ground with this measurement-forward approach to roster construction, but it at least shows some connection between what the statements and the actions of this new staff that could give us an idea of what, you know, the actual football team will look like in 2025.  

NC State

Coaching changes can be a net positive: After two years of mixed results, Dave Doeren moved on from Robert Anae as offensive coordinator and promoted quarterbacks coach Kurt Roper. That could be a significant and positive change for NC State as it keeps some continuity for emerging star quarterback CJ Bailey while allowing a different vision to take over the offense as a whole. 

And while Tony Gibson was a standout defensive coordinator that helped establish an identity and develop multiple NFL Draft picks across his six seasons with the program, last year’s defense saw a significant step back in performance. It’s possible that a hard reset — something that can come with the outside hire of D.J. Eliot — is just what the group needs to get back to the program standard. 

Pitt

Desmond Reid will be a household name by the end of 2025: Pitt running back Desmond Reid knows what can happen in the jump from Year 1 to Year 2 in Kade Bell’s offense. Reid’s time with the Pitt offensive coordinator goes back to Western Carolina, where he saw how the continued development of the up-tempo attack got even faster and more dangerous once the pieces in place understood the system. 

Now, he gets to be a part of another Year 2 jump. If there’s a production increase, Reid will be in the mix for the Doak Walker Award by the end of the year. Reid finished last season tied for fifth nationally averaging 154.9 all-purpose yards per game, and the only players with better all-purpose numbers (Ashton Jeanty, Cam Skattebo, Omarion Hampton, RJ Harvey) were selected in the first four rounds of the 2025 NFL Draft. Pitt has continuity at quarterback, coordinator and with its star running back, so claims for even more offensive improvement deserve our attention. 

The Mustangs did not “peak” with 2024 success: The Mustangs achieved all this success, making the ACC title game and the College Football Playoff, but they have another level that can be reached — potentially this season. SMU was three points away from a 12-0 regular season, all while undergoing an early season quarterback change and surviving some close calls in conference play. 

Once SMU starts flying around and playing with confidence it’s an avalanche, but wins against Louisville and Duke required some late-game heroics, and an eventual 10-point win against Boston College was a field goal game until the final minutes. The new kid made quite a statement with this debut, but there is an opportunity to grow into full bully with the pieces back and new portal additions for 2025.    

Frank Reich is more than a steadying presence; he can lead the Cardinal to wins: General Manager Andrew Luck and Stanford’s leadership faced a tough “what to do” decision after the firing of Troy Taylor in late March. They could have promoted an existing staff member, hoping to secure as much continuity as possible, but they knew the program was facing a massive exodus to the transfer portal as a result of the firing. 

Bringing in Reich is better for the locker room than thrusting one of Taylor’s assistants into the head coaching duties. Reich can be a shock to the system that can prevent the attitude of a lost season from the start. It’s a roster that still lost some real star power, but the hope is that Reich gets the best out of the group that remained and the season isn’t a total loss.

Profit-loss ratio from spring portal window puts Orange in a good spot: Syracuse lost its leading returning receiver in a very public manner. Trebor Pena hit the transfer portal and coach Fran Brown explained, vaguely, a differing point of view on NIL valuations. What Pena did or did not expect to get from Syracuse has not been confirmed, but his move to Penn State suggests that retention might not have been cheap. 

So what did Syracuse do? Well, if we judge the program’s spring portal activity, it seems as though Syracuse was able to allocate resources to address multiple positions in the wake of Pena’s exit. Among the group is two power-conference defensive linemen, three power-conference offensive linemen, and another quality addition to the quarterback room with Steve Angeli from Notre Dame. Syracuse might have lost some of that high-end individual skill of Pena, but they also got deeper and better at some key positions in the spring window. 

It’s bowl or bust: Year 3 had some real steps forward for coach Tony Elliott. It included the most wins (five) of his tenure, his best conference record (3-5) and his first win against a ranked opponent, taking down then-No. 18 Pitt on the road in early November. But what Elliott has yet to do is lead Virginia into a bowl game, something that the program enjoyed in three consecutive seasons under Bronco Mendenhall from 2017-19. 

Virginia clearly understands the urgency of the moment. This is not a roster that is asking fans to wait for development or be patient, something made evident by the 30 incoming transfers across both portal windows. That’s tied for the second-largest transfer class in the ACC among schools that did not have a coaching change. Among the group are some instant-impact additions like quarterback Chandler Morris. It might be an uphill battle winning enough coin-flip games against other bowl-hungry programs in the league, but if Elliott’s evaluation and portal work pays off, there’s a path to the postseason. 

With a strong NFL Draft, why didn’t the Hokies have more wins in 2024? This overreaction is tied less to what we learned on the field this spring and more to we saw from Virginia Tech the 2025 NFL Draft. The Hokies had five players selected, the most for the program since 2018 and second only to Miami among ACC schools. It was a veteran group that helped quickly restore order to a program that was lost, but ultimately the record over the last two restorative years is a cumulative 13-13. When Virginia Tech won last year, it was often overwhelming — it beat all six opponents by at least two touchdowns — but it also went 0-5 in one-score games.  

Regression suggests the Hokies might set for some better bounces this fall, but there is an exodus of talent that puts that theory into question. It’s a big year for QB Kyron Drones, new offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery, and especially head coach Brent Pry. If the group is ready to take advantage of some mathematically-suggested better bounces, it could be a continuation in the restoration project in Blacksburg.      

Wake Forest

Don’t be surprised if it’s a two-quarterback system to start the year: One of the primary storylines around Wake Forest for Year 1 of the Jake Dickert era is the battle between former Charlotte quarterback Deshawn Purdie and former South Carolina-Auburn-Oregon quarterback Robby Ashford. Purdie has good arm strength but the coaching staff wants him to tighten up on decision making, while Ashford’s athleticism and ability to run make him a dynamic playmaker at the position. 

Dickert did not finish spring looking to squeeze either transfer quarterback into “their offense,” but instead is still looking at how to build an offense around their respective skill sets. Fall camp will be where things get really put to the test, but this is an ACC quarterback battle that could easily bleed into the start of the season.