2011 Atlantic Coast Conference football season

2011 ACC football season
LeagueNCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
SportFootball
DurationSeptember 1, 2011 – January 4, 2012
Number of teams12
Regular season
Season MVPDavid Wilson
Atlantic championsClemson Tigers
Coastal championsVirginia Tech Hokies
ACC Championship Game
ChampionsClemson Tigers
ACC seasons
2011 Atlantic Coast Conference football standings
Conf Overall
Team   W   L     W   L  
Atlantic Division
No. 22 Clemson x$   6 – 2     10 – 4  
Wake Forest   5 – 3     6 – 7  
No. 23 Florida State   5 – 3     9 – 4  
NC State   4 – 4     8 – 5  
Boston College   3 – 5     4 – 8  
Maryland   1 – 7     2 – 10  
Coastal Division
No. 21 Virginia Tech x%   7 – 1     11 – 3  
Virginia   5 – 3     8 – 5  
Georgia Tech   5 – 3     8 – 5  
Miami (FL)   3 – 5     6 – 6  
North Carolina   3 – 5     7 – 6  
Duke   1 – 7     3 – 9  
Championship: Clemson 38, Virginia Tech 10
  • $ – BCS representative as conference champion
  • % – BCS at-large representative
  • x – Division champion/co-champions
Rankings from AP Poll

The 2011 ACC football season is an NCAA football season that will be played from September 1, 2011, to January 4, 2012. The Atlantic Coast Conference consists of 12 members in two divisions. The Atlantic division consists of Boston College, Clemson, Florida State, Maryland, North Carolina State and Wake Forest. The Coastal division consists of Duke, Georgia Tech, Miami, North Carolina, Virginia, and Virginia Tech. The division champions will meet on December 3[1] in the 2011 ACC Championship Game, located in Charlotte, North Carolina at Bank of America Stadium.

Preseason

Preseason Poll

The 2011 ACC Preseason Poll was announced at the ACC Football Kickoff meetings in Pinehurst, North Carolina on July 25. Virginia Tech was voted to win Coastal division while Florida State was voted to win the Atlantic division and the conference. Montel Harris of Boston College was voted the Preseason ACC Player of the Year.[2]

Atlantic Division poll

  1. Florida State – 420 (65 first place votes)
  2. Clemson – 286 (4)
  3. North Carolina State – 270
  4. Boston College – 224 (2)
  5. Maryland – 211
  6. Wake Forest – 80

Coastal Division poll

  1. Virginia Tech – 421 (66)
  2. Miami – 328 (4)
  3. North Carolina – 287
  4. Georgia Tech – 226 (1)
  5. Virginia – 132
  6. Duke – 96

Predicted ACC Championship Game Winner

  1. Florida State–50
  2. Virginia Tech–18
  3. Clemson–2
  4. Boston College–1

Preseason ACC Player of the Year

  1. Montel Harris, BC – 26
  2. E. J. Manuel, FSU – 14
  3. Luke Kuechly, BC – 12
  4. David Wilson, Virginia Tech – 8
  5. Danny O'Brien, Maryland – 4
  6. Andre Ellington, CLEM – 3
  7. Lamar Miller, MIA – 2
  8. Sean Spence, MIA – 1
  9. Brandon Jenkins, FSU – 1

Preseason All Conference Teams

Offense

Position Player School
Wide receiver Conner Vernon Duke
Dwight Jones North Carolina
Tight end George Bryan NC State
Tackle Blake DeChristopher Virginia Tech
Andrew Datko Florida State
Guard Brandon Washington Miami
Omoregie Uzzi Georgia Tech
Center Tyler Horn Miami
Quarterback EJ Manuel Florida State
Running back Montel Harris Boston College
Andre Ellington Clemson

Defense

Position Player School
Defensive end Brandon Jenkins Florida State
Quinton Coples North Carolina
Defensive tackle Tydreke Powell North Carolina
Brandon Thompson Clemson
Linebacker Luke Kuechly Boston College
Sean Spence Miami
Kenny Tate Maryland
Cornerback Chase Minnifield Virginia
Jayron Hosley Virginia Tech
Safety Ray-Ray Armstrong Miami
Eddie Whitley Virginia Tech

Specialist

Position Player School
Placekicker Will Snyderwine Duke
Punter Dawson Zimmerman Clemson
Specialist Greg Reid Florida State

[3]

Coaches

During the offseason, two ACC schools, Maryland and Miami, hired new head coaches. Maryland bought out the last year of 10 year coach, Ralph Friedgen's contract.[4] They hired Randy Edsall who had been the head coach at UConn for 12 years. Miami fired their head coach of 4 years, Randy Shannon, at the conclusion of the Hurricanes' regular season.[5] They in turn hired coach Al Golden, who was the 5 year head coach of Temple. In an unexpected turn of events, on July 27, 2011, UNC chancellor Holden Thorp announced that UNC's board of trustees decided to dismiss Butch Davis as the head coach of the football team.[6] The announcement came a week before the start of fall training camp. The firing was cited as being due to the investigations by the NCAA into academic fraud, impermissible benefits, and talking to agents in the 2010 season. The next day on the 28th, Everett Withers, the defensive coordinator of the past 3 years, was named as the interim head coach.[7]

NOTE: Stats shown are before the beginning of the season

Team Head coach Years at school Overall record Record at school ACC record
Boston College Frank Spaziani 4 16–11 16–11 9–7
Clemson Dabo Swinney 4 19–15 19–15 13–8
Duke David Cutcliffe 4 56–53 12–24 5–19
Florida State Jimbo Fisher 2 10–4 10–4 6–2
Georgia Tech Paul Johnson 4 133–52 25–15 16–8
Maryland Randy Edsall 1 74–70 0–0 0–0
Miami Al Golden 1 27–34 0–0 0–0
North Carolina Everett Withers 1 0-0 0-0 0-0
NC State Tom O'Brien 5 100–70 25–25 14–18
Virginia Mike London 2 28–13 4–8 1–7
Virginia Tech Frank Beamer 25 240–118–4 198–95–2 46–10
Wake Forest Jim Grobe 10 100–96–1 67–63 34–51

ACC vs. BCS opponents

The Atlantic Coast Conference had a losing season vs. BCS opponents in 2011 with a record of 8 wins and 13 losses. In rivalry games vs. BCS opponents the ACC went 1-4 with the only win coming from the Florida State Seminoles over the Florida Gators. The ACC also had three teams play Notre Dame in 2011 and recorded a 0-3 record against the Fighting Irish.

NOTE:. Games with a * next to the home team represent a neutral site game

Date Visitor Home Significance Winning Team
September 1 Wake Forest Syracuse Syracuse
September 3 Northwestern Boston College Northwestern
September 10 Rutgers North Carolina North Carolina
Stanford Duke Stanford
Virginia Indiana Virginia
September 17 Oklahoma Florida State Oklahoma
Ohio State Miami Miami
West Virginia Maryland Maryland–West Virginia football rivalry West Virginia
Auburn Clemson Auburn–Clemson football rivalry Clemson
Kansas Georgia Tech Georgia Tech
September 22 NC State Cincinnati Cincinnati
September 24 Kansas State Miami Kansas State
October 8 Louisville North Carolina North Carolina
November 5 Notre Dame Wake Forest Notre Dame
November 12 Maryland Notre Dame Notre Dame
November 19 Miami South Florida Miami
Boston College Notre Dame Holy War Notre Dame
November 26 Florida State Florida Florida–Florida State football rivalry Florida State
Georgia Georgia Tech Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate Georgia
Clemson South Carolina Battle of the Palmetto State South Carolina
Vanderbilt Wake Forest Vanderbilt

Rankings

See also: 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football rankings
Legend
    Improvement in ranking
  Drop in ranking
  Not ranked previous week
RV Received votes but were not ranked in Top 25 of poll
  Pre Wk
1		 Wk
2		 Wk
3		 Wk
4		 Wk
5		 Wk
6		 Wk
7		 Wk
8		 Wk
9		 Wk
10		 Wk
11		 Wk
12		 Wk
13		 Wk
14		 Final
Boston College AP
C
BCS Not released  
Clemson AP RV 21 13 8 8 8 6 11 9 7 18 21 14 22
C RV RV RV 22 15 8 8 8 6 12 10 8 17 21 14 22
BCS Not released 7 5 11 9 7 17 20 15
Duke AP
C RV
BCS Not released  
Florida State AP 6 5 5 11 23 23 RV RV 23 25 25 23
C 5 4 5 14 24 22 RV RV 22 RV 24 25 23
BCS Not released   25
Georgia Tech AP RV RV 25 21 13 12 20 RV 22 20 RV 25 RV RV
C RV RV RV 24 21 13 12 19 RV 23 19 23 21 RV RV
BCS Not released 22 23 21 23
Maryland AP RV RV RV RV
C RV RV
BCS Not released  
Miami AP RV RV RV
C RV RV RV RV
BCS Not released
North Carolina AP RV RV
C RV RV RV 25 RV RV RV RV RV
BCS Not released  
NC State AP RV RV
C RV
BCS Not released  
Virginia AP RV RV 24 RV RV RV
C RV RV RV 25 RV RV RV
BCS Not released
Virginia Tech AP 13 11 13 13 11 21 19 16 15 12 10 9 6 5 17 21
C 13 11 12 11 10 17 17 14 15 11 9 7 4 3 11 17
BCS Not released 12 12 12 10 8 5 5 11
Wake Forest AP RV RV
C RV RV
BCS Not released  

Bowl Games

Bowl Game Date Stadium City Television Matchup/Result Attendance Payout (US$) per team
BCS
Allstate Sugar Bowl January 3, 2012 Mercedes-Benz Superdome New Orleans ESPN Michigan 23, Virginia Tech 20 64,512 $17,000,000
Discover Orange Bowl January 4, 2012 Sun Life Stadium Miami Gardens, Florida ESPN West Virginia 70, Clemson 33 67,563 $17,000,000
Non-BCS
Advocare V100 Independence Bowl December 26, 2011 Independence Stadium Shreveport, Louisiana ESPN2 Missouri 41, North Carolina 24 41,728 $1,100,000
Belk Bowl December 27, 2011 Bank of America Stadium Charlotte, North Carolina ESPN NC State 31, Louisville 24 58,427 $1,000,000
Champs Sports Bowl December 29, 2011 Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium Orlando, Florida ESPN Florida State 18, Notre Dame 14 68,305 $2,125,000
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl December 30, 2011 LP Field Nashville, Tennessee ESPN Mississippi State 23, Wake Forest 17 55,208 $1,700,000
Hyundai Sun Bowl December 31, 2011 Sun Bowl Stadium El Paso, Texas CBS Utah 30, Georgia Tech 27 48,123 $1,900,000
Chick-fil-A Bowl December 31, 2011 Georgia Dome Atlanta ESPN Auburn 43, Virginia 24 72,919 $3,350,000

Postseason

All-conference teams

First Team

Second Team

[8]

ACC Individual Awards

National Awards

References

  1. ^ "2011 ACC Football Schedule". CBS Interactive. 2011. Archived from the original on October 10, 2012. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  2. ^ "ACC Football Kickoff #ACCfbk Media Tabs Florida State as 2011 Favorite". CBS Interactive. 2011. Archived from the original on September 7, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2011.
  3. ^ "2011 Preseason ACC Football Team Announced". CBS Interactive. 2011. Archived from the original on October 10, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2011.
  4. ^ Prisbel, Eric; Yanda, Steve (December 18, 2010). "Ralph Friedgen out as Maryland football coach". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
  5. ^ Miami fires coach Randy Shannon, ESPN, November 27, 2010
  6. ^ UNC Athletic Comm. (2011). "UNC Announces Coaching Change". insidecarolina.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  7. ^ "Everett Withers Named Carolina's Interim Head Football Coach". tarheelblue.com. 2011. Archived from the original on April 8, 2012. Retrieved August 3, 2011.
  8. ^ "Virginia Tech and Clemson Dominate All-ACC Football Teams". theacc.com. 2011. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2011.
  9. ^ a b "Hokies' Wilson Voted ACC Player of the Year". theacc.com. 2011. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
  10. ^ "Eagles' Kuechly Named ACC's Top Defender". theacc.com. 2011. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved December 1, 2011.
  11. ^ a b "Tigers' Watkins Tabbed as ACC's Top Rookie". theacc.com. 2011. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  12. ^ "Deacons' Noel Voted ACC's Best Rookie on Defense". theacc.com. 2011. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  13. ^ "Virginia's London Named ACC Coach of the Year". theacc.com. 2011. Archived from the original on September 14, 2012. Retrieved November 30, 2011.
  14. ^ "UNC's Giovani Bernard Named 2011 ACC Brian Piccolo Award". theacc.com. 2011. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved December 3, 2011.
  15. ^ "Virginia Tech's Danny Coale Honored with ACC's Jim Tatum Award". theacc.com. 2011. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved December 3, 2011.
  16. ^ "Luke Kuechly of Boston College University Wins 27th Annual Collegiate Butkus Award". thebutkusaward.com. 2011. Retrieved December 5, 2011.
  17. ^ "Fayetteville native Dwayne Allen wins Mackey Award as nation's top tight end". fayobserver.com. 2011. Retrieved December 10, 2011.
  18. ^ "Luke Kuechly wins Lombardi Award". bceagles.com. 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2011.
  19. ^ "Amerson Wins 2011 Jack Tatum Award". gopack.com. 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2011.