Bobby Ross: ACC shouldn’t panic

The ACC struggled mightily as a conference in the second weekend of games.

But former Georgia Tech head coach Bobby Ross says not to panic. Each loss was to non-conference foe on the road and in a different time zone — except for Virginia Tech. Ross believes that turnovers hurt most of the ACC teams this weekend. Ross also says that Virginia Tech and Miami need to get their running games going. He emphasized that the season is still young and the conference’s strength will be determined at the end of the season.

Here is Bobby Ross’s game by game ACC wrap-up:

Florida State 17, Oklahoma 47

“Florida State just took a licking from Oklahoma. That was a surprise, but nevertheless, they got beat. They were in hostile territory. They were playing a team that was ranked higher than they were and better than they were.”

Miami (FL) 24, Ohio State 36

“Ohio State controlled the ball game. But Miami turned the ball over four times with interceptions. I think the biggest play might have been to start the second half when they were behind 26-17. Miami got down to the six-yard line, had third-and-goal and Harris threw an interception that got returned 80 yards. A big, big play and to me, a turnaround. Although, there’s no question Ohio State was the better football team.”

Georgia Tech 25, Kansas 28

“It was a case, they ran a typical game. They had 308 yards of rushing. But they had a short punt — 13 yards — that shortened the field for Kansas. They had a kickoff that went out of bounds that shortened the field for Kansas. They had several dropped passes that they normally don’t have. And I think they hurt themselves a little bit in the ballgame.”

James Madison 21, Virginia Tech 16

“Virginia Tech is somewhat of a surprise. Offensively, they had 362 yards to JMU’s 235, but they turned the ball over three times. There are two things that are a surprise to me:

1) Their kicking game is not what it normally would be. 2) They’re not running the ball. I thought in Ryan Williams they had one of the really great running backs. He’s only averaging 3.4 yards on 41 carries. A lot of their running yardage is coming by way of scrambles from their quarterback Taylor. They are just not getting their running game going.”

Virginia 14, Southern California 17

“Virginia showed up pretty well as far as I was concerned. I thought physically they played with USC — toe to toe. They were a very physical football team. One of the more physical games I’ve seen Virginia play in a good number of years. I thought they were a football team that might be coming along very well.”

Print Story