Is Notre Dame the third best team in the ACC?

ACC Network analyst Eric Mac Lain ranked Notre Dame third in his conference power rankings. Find out why he’s off base.

This past weekend saw plenty of teams fall from the unbeaten ranks (Florida, Miami FL, and Tennessee) and others continuing their free fall (Texas and LSU). Inside the ACC obviously Clemson’s resounding win against Miami, FL was the headliner. North Carolina and Notre Dame give the conference 3 teams without a blemish.

With that in mind, former Clemson offensive lineman Eric Mac Lain ranked the conference’s teams.

Mac Lain isn’t really high on the Irish, as his week five rankings had Brian Kelly’s squad as the 4th best. With the Hurricanes losing to the Tigers, the Irish had no where but to move up. Is Mac Lain right about where he places the Irish?

Yes, the win over Florida State this weekend wasn’t as pretty as we would have liked, but what did you really expect after such a long layoff? The Seminoles have great individual talent, but as a whole they’re a mess.

As for the Tar Heels, they beat a very good Virginia Tech squad, but had to hold them off late, winning 56-45. The Irish haven’t given up that many points this season so far, just 39 total points, good for the 8th best scoring defense in the nation. North Carolina, on the other hand has given up over 24 points a game, 24th nationally.

Offensively, the Irish have the advantage as well, averaging just over 40 points a game, while the Heels are at about 37 points a game. Again, advantage Irish. Kelly squad is one of the least penalized in the nation, just 10 so far which is good for 5th nationally. UNC has almost doubled that number, they have 29 penalties on the year. Want to dig a little deeper? The Irish have a +.33 turnover margin, North Carolina has -1.

Sure, North Carolina boasts a “sexier” offense but that doesn’t tell the whole story between the two teams. In my estimation, Mac Lain is off base with his assessment of the top teams in the league, after Clemson of course.