College Football’s Week Seven:

DG’s “Pick Six” Includes #10 Clemson at Wake,
Plus Heels, Pack, Mountaineers As Underdogs


By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network

Each week during college football season, we offer a “Pick Six” package of intriguing matchups — three “local” games that include one or more North Carolina-based team and three “national” contests that involve the Atlantic Coast Conference and/or the most prominent intersectional games.

Week Seven: Top “Local” Games

Game Four
#10 Clemson (4-1) at Wake Forest (2-3), Sat., noon (ESPN)
Latest Betting Line: Tigers a 20-point favorite

In the last 25 matchups in this series, Clemson has won 22 times. Wake Forest’s most recent win over the Tigers came in 2008, although the Demon Deacons did push the game to double-overtime two years ago in Winston-Salem.

The dominant theme in this series over the last two decades has been that Wake just can’t move the ball consistently or put up a decent number of points against the Tigers’ defense, which has typically been loaded with NFL-caliber talents under coach Dabo Swinney. In 10 of the last 12 matchups, the Deacons failed to surpass even 20 points, although that may not be their biggest problem this year.

As they showed when they beat NC State in Raleigh last week, the Deacs have a very impressive quarterback in 25-year-old Hank Bachmeier (a sixth-year senior who previously started games at both Boise State and Louisiana Tech), a brilliant running back in Demond Claiborne and experienced, productive wideouts in Taylor Morin and Donovan Greene.

The much bigger problem for Wake Forest this time is that its defense just hasn’t been very good this season. The Demon Deacons are giving up 460 yards per game — that’s dead-last in the ACC by a significant margin — and they’re yielding 31 points per game, which is the second-worst number in the league.

Clemson’s much-discussed quarterback, Cade Klubnik, definitely has improved from last season, and he also has one of the league’s best rushing attacks — led by recent David Glenn Show guest Phil Mafah, who’s #3 in the ACC with almost 100 rushing yards per game. That would help any QB, at any school.

Klubnik also can run the ball a little bit himself as a dual-threat guy, he’s built some chemistry with wide receivers Antonio Williams and Bryant Wesco Jr., and he’s making fewer mental and physical mistakes. Klubnik still doesn’t quite match up with the best quarterbacks in the ACC, but so far this year he is averaging almost 250 passing yards per game, and he’s thrown 14 touchdown passes against only two interceptions.

If there is an upset path for Wake in this one, it’s creating turnovers on defense and coming up with big plays on offense. That’s easier said than done against a high-quality Clemson team that once again has its eyes on what would be Swinney’s eighth ACC championship in the last 10 years.


Game Five
Georgia Tech (4-2) at North Carolina (3-3), Sat., noon (The CW)
Latest Betting Line: Yellow Jackets a four-point favorite

The starting point for this one isn’t complicated.

UNC’s junior running back, Omarion Hampton, was an All-American last year and is fifth in the nation in rushing this year, with 127 yards per game, which is by far the best number in the ACC.

Meanwhile, Georgia Tech has been the #1 rushing defense in the ACC so far this season, giving up only 88 yards per game on the ground, although the Yellow Jackets definitely have not yet faced anyone like Hampton or any rushing offense like the one the Tar Heels have to offer this year.

Expect to see Hampton, wearing #28, going head-to-head with talented Tech linebackers Kyle Efford, wearing #44, and Trenilyas Tatum, wearing #0, quite a bit on Saturday afternoon in Chapel Hill.

UNC’s extremely inexperienced offensive line has improved since the beginning of the season, and that group is going to have to be at its best this week if the Heels are going to beat the Jackets.

If the Tech defenders load up against the run, as expected, UNC quarterback Jacolby Criswell — a fifth-year senior who began this season as a third-stringer — is going to have to make them pay for it with accurate throws downfield, a category in which he has been very hit-or-miss so far this season.

Georgia Tech’s only two losses this season came to a Syracuse team that had quarterback Kyle McCord, the Ohio State transfer, throwing the ball all over the place, and to a Louisville team that was actually outplayed by Tech at the line of scrimmage but figured out a way to score on both defense and special teams.

The Yellow Jackets have not been dominant offensively, but they have many of the elements that have driven UNC’s defense crazy this season: an experienced, dual-threat quarterback in Haynes King, a quality running back in Jamal Haynes, and two speedy, hard-to-cover wide receivers in Malik Rutherford and Eric Singleton Jr.

Carolina’s embattled defense, which has been missing its best player, edge rusher Kaimon Rucker, for all but a few plays since the team’s season-opening win at Minnesota, desperately needs more guys to step up as playmakers.

Tackle Jahvaree Ritzie, linebacker Amare Campbell and cornerback Alijah Huzzie have been outstanding at times this season for Carolina. But those guys need a lot more help, as shown by the 70 points the Tar Heels gave up to James Madison earlier this season and the 34 points and 500-plus yards they gave up to Pitt at Kenan Stadium just last week.

As with the Clemson-Wake game, there’s a path to an upset in this one for the Tar Heels, but it seems like a narrow path, with little margin for error.


Game Six
Syracuse (4-1) at NC State (3-3), Sat., 8 pm (ACCN)
Latest Betting Line: Orange a three-point favorite

The starting point for this one also is very simple.

The Wolfpack’s defense — which spearheaded the team’s recent victory over Northern Illinois but wasn’t good enough last week against Wake Forest — must figure out a way to make Syracuse quarterback Kyle McCord uncomfortable at Carter-Finley Stadium.

That means sacks, obviously, but also batted-down passes and quarterback hurries and all the rest. A loud and lively Wolfpack Nation could help, too.

An Ohio State transfer who was 12-1 as the Buckeyes’ starting quarterback, McCord has been absolutely tearing it up for the Orange. He plays with a lot of swagger and confidence, and right now he’s neck-and-neck with Miami quarterback Cam Ward — yes, the Heisman Trophy candidate — as the ACC’s leading passer, with 17 touchdown passes and 363 passing yards per game.

McCord has excellent skill players around him in tight end Orande Gadsden II and wide receivers Trebor Pena and Jackson Meeks. A Georgia transfer who didn’t play much for the Bulldogs over the last three seasons, Meeks definitely is having his coming-out party with the Orange. Syracuse also has an excellent running back in LeQuint Allen, although he’s had only limited success on the ground this season behind a mediocre offensive line.

Syracuse is not nearly as strong on defense, which means it’s up to true freshman quarterback CJ Bailey to keep the chains moving and keep McCord and the Orange offense off the field as much as possible.

Everyone has seen by now the scary-looking play from last week, where Wolfpack starter Grayson McCall’s helmet popped off during a collision with three Wake Forest defenders.

McCall was temporarily unconscious and had to be carted off the field and taken to a local hospital. The doctors there apparently cleared McCord fairly quickly, but this is the same guy whose season ended prematurely last year at Coastal Carolina because of a concussion and who missed time with the Wolfpack earlier this season after another head injury.

State’s offense did make strides against Wake last week, with Bailey throwing for 272 yards and two touchdowns, but the offensive line and running game haven’t been very good for the Wolfpack, and that needs to change quickly if the Pack is going to knock off Syracuse as a home underdog on Saturday night.


Week Seven Bonus Game!
Appalachian State (2-3) at Louisiana (4-1), Sat., 7:30 pm (ESPN+)

Latest Betting Line: Ragin’ Caguns a 10-point favorite

With Duke (5-1), Charlotte (3-3) and East Carolina (3-3) all off this week, App State’s trip to Louisiana offers the only other tasty item on this week’s in-state Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) menu.

The Mountaineers are 2-3, and all three of their losses have been by wide margins, mainly because their defense just can’t get off the field.

It’s one thing to get annihilated by Clemson at Death Valley. It’s another to suffer an embarrassing 48-14 loss — at home, on national television, in the exclusive Thursday night ESPN window — to a South Alabama squad that hasn’t posted another victory over an FBS opponent all season.

Now App State has to play Louisiana, which appears to be one of the best teams in the Sun Belt Conference, at their place.

The Rajin’ Cajuns are 4-1 and beat Wake Forest in Winston-Salem earlier this season. Their only loss is to a really impressive Tulane team that might be the best in the American Athletic Conference this year.

So, while App State is a 10-point underdog, the Mountaineers must look at this as an opportunity to shock the world and get their season back on track. That definitely won’t be easy, but that’s the challenge in front of fifth-year coach Shawn Clark and his staff right now.

NOTE: For the complete Week Seven schedule (including television/streaming options) for all ACC and state of North Carolina teams, please click HERE.