A look around the ACC with the biggest questions each team must face this spring
A look around the ACC with the biggest questions each team must face this spring
The spring practice schedule is off and running in the ACC, and the 17-team league is looking to build on some of the successes that included putting two teams in the College Football Playoff in 2024. The league welcomes a couple new head coaches with Bill Belichick taking over at North Carolina and Jake Dickert stepping in at Wake Forest, but there is also massive coordinator turnover throughout the league and plenty of NFL Draft talent to replace.
Let’s dive in with one question for all 17 ACC teams.
Is the secondary going to be the best in the ACC?
The Eagles are excited about the pass defense heading into Year 2 of the Bill O’Brien era as they return a strong core of the group that finished tied for seventh nationally with 17 interceptions on the season. Now the challenge for the next step comes as the defensive line loses one of the best players in the country in Donovan Ezeiruaku (16.5 sacks, 20.5 tackles for loss) and another key piece with defensive tackle Cam Horsley (seven tackles for loss). So was the young secondary strong because of the defensive front? Or can they now carry the load for the defense as the new line rounds into shape? Since the Eagles have quarterback mostly settled with Grayson James continuing to build off his late-season experience when he took over Thomas Castellanos, a lot of attention in Chestnut Hill will be on the defensive side of the ball.
Cal
Will the Bears go with experience or youth at quarterback?
Justin Wilcox reunites with a familiar face, bringing Bryan Harsin in as the new offensive coordinator, and the pair of former Boise State assistants will guide an interesting quarterback competition heading into 2025.
On one hand, there is the excitement of a huge recruiting win, flipping four-star Oregon signee Jaron Keawe Sagapolutele, but if Cal isn’t ready to turn the reins over to the rookie they have the veteran presence of Ohio State transfer Devin Brown, who saw limited playing time with the Buckeyes in part due to injury but has shown the athleticism and skill that made him a blue chip prospect coming out of high school. Either player will have a strong supporting cast, with star running back Jadyn Ott back and five of the top eight receiving options, including tight end Jack Endries, who led the team in receptions (56) and receiving yards (623) as a sophomore in 2024.
Is Tom Allen the difference-maker that can return the Tigers to national title contention?
Clemson reasserted itself as the class of the ACC over the last couple of years, but there’s another step before the Tigers are going to be considered national title contenders. Dabo Swinney recognized some of the shortcomings on the defensive side of the ball in 2024 and made one of the biggest coordinator splash hires of the offseason, hiring Tom Allen away from Penn State.
Allen had an interesting take on the group he inherited, telling reporters that it was practice footage, not game footage, that caught his attention. He didn’t like the way he the team was approaching run-of-the-mill drills and practice, and Swinney says Allen has been a “rolling ball of butcher blades” in spring practice as he rides and demands the most from the defense when it comes to fundamentals like open-field tackling. If an already-talented unit tightens up on the details, and the addition of a few new faces like Purdue transfer Will Heldt end up raising the group’s ceiling, then we could see Clemson’s defense elevate from being good enough to win the ACC to being good enough to make a run in the College Football Playoff.
Can Duke hit on the QB in the portal again?
When Riley Leonard left for Notre Dame, Duke replaced him with Maalik Murphy and got what was statistically one of the best seasons from a Blue Devils quarterback with 2,933 yards and a school-record 26 passing touchdowns helping lead the team to a 9-3 regular season in Year 1 of the Manny Diaz era.
Murphy transferred to Oregon State after the year, and that opened the door for former Tulane quarterback Darian Mensah to step in and take over as QB1. Duke’s staff was efficient with targeting and landing Mensah, so much so that he committed soon after being wood by the Cameron Crazies at a Duke basketball game. Jonathan Brewer is a respected offensive mind and he should be able to build around Mensah’s talent, but hitting on QB really comes down to developing the rest of the skill positions, and those contributors are a bit of a question mark unto themselves.
Does rebooting the staff change the outcomes?
Mike Norvell led Florida State to the height of all heights, it seemed, with a 13-0 campaign in 2023 that concluded with the program’s first ACC championship since 2014. Then the Seminoles were snubbed from the College Football Playoff, blown out in historic fashion by Georgia in the Orange Bowl, and proceeded to have a 2-10 showing in 2024 that resulted in the first-ever 17th place finish in the ACC standings.
Norvell’s response was to reboot the staff, with the most notable changes coming at both coordinator spots with Gus Malzahn coming in as the offensive coordinator and Tony White arriving as the team’s new defensive coordinator. Both hires bring well-respected expertise to the staff, but the question remains whether the roster is ready to get the Seminoles back to being a real contender in the ACC. Florida State’s use of the transfer portal helped Norvell build the team into a winner quickly, but portal misses were a clear cause for the downfall of 2024. Malzahn has a new quarterback that seems to fit his style with Boston College transfer Thomas Castellanos, but there’s a lot more that both he and White have to get sorted to get Florida State back to where it wants to be in the national picture.
The quarterback is set with depth, but what about the pass-catchers?
Georgia Tech is in a great position with Haynes King returning at quarterback and Aaron Philo sticking with the program after showing some promise as a backup during his freshman season. They are competing, but there seems to be an understanding that King is the QB1 with Philo pushing him every day in the hopes of making both players better. Now, catching the passes will require gifted skill players, and the Yellow Jackets lost a great one when Eric Singleton hit the transfer portal and landed at Auburn. Malik Rutherford is back, and coach Brent Key hit the transfer portal for a couple of other promising options, but the competition at wide receiver is probably more pressing given the need to have multiple starter-quality players while the team might have two starter-quality players at quarterback.
Has Jeff Brohm pulled together another winning portal class?
Brohm’s first two offseasons at Louisville resulted in bringing in a combined 52 players from the transfer portal, and it appears the Cardinals are going to again be carrying one of the larger portal classes with 21 players committed from the portal with another spring window to come in late April. The group includes a handful of four-star transfer prospects, according to 247Sports, and is headlined by former USC quarterback Miller Moss. Interestingly enough, Moss’ big debut as a starter was against Louisville in the Holiday Bowl when he threw for six touchdowns as the next man up behind Caleb Williams. Louisville’s heavy transfer portal activity hasn’t impacted the results — Brohm has 19 wins across his first two seasons — but it’s going to take another spring of getting the new faces acclimated to the program to keep up that standard in 2024.
Will Carson Beck return healthy and in top form?
There are lots of notable changes that will have an impact on Miami’s 2024 outlook, like how new defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman might be able to shore up a group that ultimately prevented the Hurricanes from being in the kind of ACC title and College Football Playoff contention that was possible given their offensive prowess in 2024. But to ignore the quarterback position would be disrespectful to impact that Cam Ward made on the program and the potential of what Georgia transfer Carson Beck can be if he returns to full health after undergoing elbow surgery on his throwing arm. Beck began last season in the Heisman Trophy conversation with an outlook that included being in the mix as the top quarterback in the 2025 NFL Draft, but a midseason stretch of poor play and the season-ending injury in the SEC Championship Game have changed the situation dramatically.
Now after a transfer, Beck has the chance to show, at Miami, that he still is capable of being one of the best quarterbacks in the country in an offense that has up Cam Ward to be the top quarterback option in the NFL Draft. Beck won’t be a full participant in spring practice as he continues to recover from his injury, but his involvement with the team will be key to establishing chemistry as he works to lay the foundation for a season in which he hopes to regain the status he carried as one of the top quarterbacks in the sport not too long ago.
North Carolina
Can the Belichicks turn the Tar Heels into a reliable defensive team?
Bill Belichick’s hire brought a lot of attention to North Carolina football, and the continued offseason storylines about potential “Hard Knocks” treatment (not happening) or who gets what emails have really distracted the conversation from what exactly we are going to see when the Tar Heels take the field for the first time in 2025. To that end, one key question for spring practice will be whether the influx of talent and coaching from Washington can help bolster a defense that can be part of the Belichick identity at UNC. Bill Belichick first won Super Bowls as a defensive coordinator, routinely leaned on his defense to win as a Super Bowl-winning head coach in New England, and now has two of his sons on the defensive staff in Chapel Hill.
Defensive coordinator Steve Belichick, coming off a one-year stint as the defensive coordinator at Washington, brought with him a handful of key contributors from Seattle that figure to be key pieces of building out the defense that might need to be a cornerstone of North Carolina’s team in 2025. That’s interesting for two reasons, first that the Tar Heels have struggled defensively for a large portion of the last two coaching tenures, and that the offense has huge question marks after an exodus of notable skill position talent across the last two seasons. North Carolina might need a strong defense to stay in games against the better teams on its schedule, and while that’s the identity of the Belichick coaching family, it has not been the DNA of North Carolina football.
Can C.J. Bailey be one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC?
After two seasons of spending spring practice getting accustomed to a new quarterback from the transfer portal — and in each case not seeing the highest hopes pay off the following fall — the Wolfpack have a potential star with sophomore C.J. Bailey. Thrust into action as Grayson McCall’s career came to a close due to injuries and concussions, Bailey showed why he was able to be a multiple-year starter at one of South Florida’s top high school programs in Chaminade-Madonna. It took just nine starts for Bailey to reach 22 total touchdowns (17 passing, seven rushing), which was good for eighth in the ACC, and he finished seventh among all FBS freshmen with 2,413 passing yards.
That kind of breakout from an underrated and overlooked quarterback brings some concern in the transfer portal era, but NC State made a commitment to make sure he was retained and back to lead the Wolfpack in 2025. And while NC State does have a new offensive coordinator with Robert Anae being relieved of his duties, the promotion of quarterbacks coach Kurt Roper to the OC role keeps his relationship with Bailey consistent as the team spends this spring looking to build on last season’s success.
Pitt
Will new additions help strengthen the defense around star linebacker Kyle Louis?
An All-ACC and All-American selection (including second-team honors here at CBS Sports), Louis was a dynamic playmaker in 2024 who not only led the team in tackles for loss (15.5) and sacks (seven), but also shined with interceptions, pick-sixes, blocked kicks and more game-changing plays. He’s one of the best players in the sport heading into the fall, but Pitt is looking for some contributors to step up around him to make sure the defense is ready to be a key piece of this team’s identity.Former Utah State defensive end Blaine Spires Oregon transfer Jaeden Moore will be counted on to elevate the pass rush from the line, and former Ohio State safety Jayden Bonsu arrives looking to take his game to the next level by helping the Panthers out in the secondary.
From 2018-22, Pitt finished in the top five of the ACC in total defense, but that standing slipped in the last two seasons and last year saw the Panthers finish 12th. Some of that was an adjustment to the team’s new offensive scheme (Pitt’s yards per play average was much closer to the program standard), but as the bottom fell out in the back half of the season and a 7-0 start turned into a 7-6 finish, defensive depth is a place where Pat Narduzzi’s crew might be able to build a team that can put together a stronger finish in 2025.
Will the offense maintain production after some key losses?
The return of quarterback Kevin Jennings sets a general expectation that SMU will be on brand with a high-powered offense in 2025, but looking under the hood showcases some spots that make spring practice important to get the group ready to keep up that standard. The most crucial is going to be the next man up at running back after the loss of Brashard Smith and his 1,332 yards and 14 touchdowns. SMU has recruited running back well for a couple years, so some of the injury issues for former blue-chip high school prospects like Jaylan Knighton and Camar Wheaton haven’t derailed the entire run game, but now it’s time to see if those players are ready to step up with Smith gone.
Another key part of the equation will be the offensive line, which loses some pieces from last year’s unit and will be a major factor in whether SMU can have one of the ACC’s best offenses against in 2025. With the pace that the Mustangs employ, it’s crucial that SMU doesn’t just have starters that it trusts up front, but some real depth to handle the extra snaps that come with an up-tempo offense.
Can Elijah Brown help get Stanford closer to bowl eligibility?
When Stanford landed a commitment from four-star quarterback Elijah Brown, the anticipation began for what the former Mater Dei starter and state champion could do to bring glory back to a position that had not delivered star power in recent years. Brown saw some action in 2024 when coach Troy Taylor benched starter Ashton Daniels, but the plan has long seemed to be for him to take the reins of the offense in 2025. This was one of the top quarterback talents on the West Coast in his cycle, carrying offers and interest from USC and UCLA before committing to the Cardinal, so as Stanford is looking to take a step up after back-to-back 3-9 finishes, the development of Brown becomes a clear focus.
Now, if for some reason Brown cannot live up to the expectations, keep your eye on the potential for freshman dual-threat quarterback Bear Bachmeier to push for playing time. The younger brother of Hank (Wake Forest and Boise State quarterback) and Tiger (Stanford wide receiver), Bachmeier is a player who talent evaluators believe could have the highest ceiling of the three brothers in part due to his athleticism.
How does the offense get rebuilt after a mass exodus of talent?
Fran Brown had a dynamic debut that included 10 wins, a victory against top-10 Miami and a finish in the final AP Top 25 poll of the season. But after exploding back onto the national scene, Syracuse will spend this spring looking to reload after the losses of multiple key stars from last year’s team. Quarterback Kyle McCord finished first in the ACC with 4,779 yards passing, running back LeQuint Allen was seventh in the conference with 1,021 yards rushing, and the Orange had three pass catchers (wide receiver Jackson Meeks, tight end Oronde Gadsden and wide receiver Trebor Pena) with at least 900 yards.
Since McCord, Allen, Meeks and Gadsden are now preparing for the NFL Draft, Syracuse has a lot to replace this spring on offense. Luckily, Pena is back, but who will be throwing him the football? Michael Johnson Jr. was the primary backup for McCord last season and LSU transfer Rickie Collins appears to be in the mix, but getting quarterback settled is a huge piece of Syracuse building on last season’s success.
Who wins the quarterback battle?
After two seasons of Tony Muskett and Anthony Colandrea battling it out in Charlottesville, coach Tony Elliott has reset the deck with two new transfers set to compete this spring for the QB1 duties. Chandler Morris arrives as a redshirt senior for his fourth school in five years after starting at Oklahoma, spending three seasons at TCU and last year serving as the starter for North Texas. Though the Mean Green went just 6-6, it was the productive season of his career, totaling 31 touchdowns and 3,774 yards en route to earning second team All-AAC honors. He’s expected to be the starter, but he’ll be pushed by Nebraska transfer Daniel Kaelin, who was officially the third-string quarterback in Lincoln but redshirted the season and did not appear in a game. For either quarterback, there is also the issue of pass-catcher. Virginia lost wide receiver Malachi Fields to Notre Dame after he turned in back-to-back 800-yard seasons for the Cavaliers.
Can Philip Montgomery unlock the best of Kyron Drones?
New offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery arrives with an established reputation as an offensive mind thanks to his rise in the industry that included offensive coordinator stops at Houston and Baylor, where he helped coach up game-changing quarterbacks like Robert Griffin III, Bryce Petty and Case Keenum. But the most important piece of this equation, and the one that makes Montgomery’s track record notable, is what’s in store for Drones’ third year as Virginia Tech’s starting QB. Drones had 17 passing touchdowns to just three interceptions and was second among all ACC quarterbacks with 818 yards rushing in 2023, but injuries and inconsistencies in performance kept Virginia Tech from delivering on any preseason “ACC dark horse” talk last year. If Montgomery can take advantage of Drones’ skill set, this Virginia Tech offense could be dangerous and the Hokies might be able to finally break through beyond being just a bowl team in 2025.
Wake Forest
What does the Jake Dickert era look like?
This is more stylistic than personnel-driven, as Dave Clawson’s tenure in Winston-Salem mostly brought a look that fans came to expect. The Demon Deacons had a team that would get old and stay old, leaning on veterans, and an offensive style that helped them gain an advantage with the slow-mesh and RPO principles that kept defenses on their heels. With Jake Dickert arriving from Washington State, there are some things we can take from his time in Pullman to create expectations, but this is a much different roster and general school makeup than what he had with the Cougars. Clearly, the coach who had Cam Ward and John Mateer is going to want a difference-maker at quarterback, so keep your eyes on that battle as Robbie Ashford arrives following his stops at South Carolina, Auburn and Oregon and looks to beat out former Charlotte quarterback Deshawn Purdie for the QB1 duties.
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