So now that the ECU horse is dead, beaten, killed again, and beaten again, let's move on to some football banter. To get some football conversation going again, here are my rankings for coaches in the ACC. One interesting thing I notice... as strong as the ACC coaching list looked in 2018... it looks really weak now. In parenthesis are my rankings for that coach last year.....

1. Dabo Swinney, Clemson (1): This really shouldn't require an explanation. Dabo is BY FAR the #1 coach in the conference. There is no argument for anyone else.

2. David Cutcliffe, Duke (6): He wins. At Duke. I'm not sure he's quite as great as some say, but I'm not sure who else to rank at #2 in the league. Approaching .500 at Duke deserves a lofty ranking and recognition though.

3. Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech (3): 2018 was a fluke. But his coaching jobs in 2016 and 2017 were actually very good and recruiting had picked up in the program. This is a bit of a bullish ranking... but I think a lot of people are overreacting to last season. That said, 7-5 or so and he drops like a rock in the 2020 rankings.

4. Bronco Mendenhall, Virginia (7): He's quirky. But it's also hard to imagine that there were some real rumblings in Charlottesville about UVA firing BM after the season just 10 months ago. He has completely rebuilt the Hoo program.

5. Dave Clawson, Wake Forest (8): Kind of a poor man's David Cutcliffe. He's doing a good job in Winston-Salem. I'm not sure I see them ever breaking past 7-8 wins under him either though.

6. Dino Babers, Syracuse (14): Last year, I thought he was the worst in a very good crop of coaches. But similar to Fuente, I think people are overreacting a bit on Babers. As I said last year, he's not bad. Winning at Cuse is difficult and they certainly won last year. But can they do it again? He's a candidate to make another big move in the 2020 rankings though.

7. Dave Doeren, NC State (11): I was skeptical of this hire, but two straight 9-4 seasons have Wolfpack fans optimistic. But they have a mighty tall hurdle to climb in the Atlantic if they're ever going to break out. The Gator Bowl kind of brought the program to earth a bit too.

8. Steve Addazio, Boston College (10): Similar to Syracuse, this is a tough job. They've won 7 games in 5 of his 6 years in Chestnut Hill. He's not a bad coach, but soon BC is going to want more than 7 wins.

9. Mack Brown, UNC (NR): Brown has a great track record and he did a great job attracting great assistants. Can Brown fix Fedora's mess? Will Brown be able to recruit over the long term? I think you could argue that Brown deserves to be much higher based on his track record. You could argue he should be lower based on the fact that he hasn't coached in years and is in his late-60s. I split the difference here a bit.

10. Pat Narduzzi, Pitt (12): Moving up by default in a way. But they had a pretty good year last year too, winning the pillow fight that was the ACC Coastal. Still, I'm not sure he has Pitt doing much more than treading water overall. 2019 is going to be HUGE for him.

11. Scott Satterfield, Louisville (NR): This was a fairly decent hire luring SS from his alma mater. He guided the Mountaineers from FCS to FBS and after a 7-5 first season in FBS, they won 9 or more games each of the next four years. They had Tennessee and Penn State each on the ropes recently. It wouldn't surprise me to see him much higher on the 2020 version of this list.

12. Willie Taggart, Florida State (4): He jumps from job to job and while I think he is in his dream job, perhaps he did a great job picking ripe situations rather than actually being a great coach. There were some pretty bad reports of complete chaos in the ranks in Tallahassee. This could end up a two or three year tenure.

13. Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech (NR): His resume is too good (not great) year at Temple. He took over at Temple after Rhule moved on. I see no evidence that Collins is ready for an ACC job.

14. Manny Diaz, Miami (NR): I can't say enough how terrible I think this hire is. Worse than Coker. Worse than Shannon. This to me is similar to our basketball program hiring JJ. MD doesn't strike me as the HC type and he doesn't have any experience in that capacity. He does fit the culture but I really don't see this working out well for the Canes (how sad).