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Diahuebs 16 september 2021

ACC looking to improve shaky performance in Power 5 matchups

(AP) - Atlantic Coast Confer- league and we want the other Mendenhall said bowl season
ence teams have some work members of the league to do used to be the primary time
to do when they step up in well, obviously when they’re when conferences would
competition and play football not playing us,” Fuente said. herald their success against
programs from other Power “But, you know, it’s some- other leagues. Now, there is
Five leagues. thing we’re all conscious of.” more emphasis on early sea-
son matchups, adding cred-
Through two weeks of the The Hokies and Mountain- ibility to rankings produced
season, some ACC teams eers are old Big East rivals, more on projection that per-
have expectedly dominated having met 52 times, includ- formance.
lower division programs, but ing every season from 1973-
the ACC is just 2-6 against 2005. But Virginia Tech left “I think now that’s becoming
Power Five teams — and for the ACC in 2004 and they a bigger thing that’s tracked
Notre Dame. And while have met only once since. and emphasized early on.
three of the losses came So I think as coaches, yes, it
against No. 1 Alabama, No. “I think that’s fine for the matters to us,” Mendenhall
2 Georgia and the No. 12 fans to see the different said. “And yes, we’re becom-
Fighting Irish in overtime, matchups,” Fuente said. “But ing more and more aware
the others were against light- there’s certainly a level of (of) early season games. Not
ly regarded Rutgers, Missis- conference pride that goes only the postseason games,
sippi and Mississippi State. with each trip ... when you’re but every one of us, we just
playing someone from an- want to help our own team
The ACC can improve on other Power Five.” win first and then it goes to
its .250 winning percentage the conference, which is re-
— and the perception that Down the road in Char- ally important.”
No. 6 Clemson is its only lottesville, Virginia, coach
formidable team — on Sat- Bronco Mendenhall agrees Virginia did its part against
urday when No. 15 Virginia but said conference consid- the Fighting Illini, guard
Tech heads to West Virginia, erations are not his primary Chris Glaser said.
Northwestern out of the Big best and we’ve got to make it ACC titles — by an average priority for him. The Cava-
Ten visits Duke and the Big seem that way.” of more than 25 points — liers have one of the two vic- “I think there is a miscon-
Ten’s Michigan State plays at and two national champion- tories against Power Five foes ception that the ACC is not
No. 24 Miami. One way is to avoid losses to ships during their run. so far, 42-14 against Illinois. as good as other -- Big Ten,
FCS programs like Jackson- for instance, SEC,” Gla-
“The only thing you hear ville State and Northern Illi- Hokies coach Justin Fuente “The very first thing is loyalty ser said. “So when we have
about the ACC is Clemson. nois, and have more impres- said his program hopes to and care for our own players, games against them, it’s im-
We’ve got to expand on that,” sive performances against make the ACC proud when our own team and our own portant for us to go out and
Syracuse defensive end Josh programs like Appalachian they visit the Big 12′s program,” he said. “Man, that show that we can beat them
Black said. “The ACC is more State. Mountaineers’ Milan Puskar doesn’t leave much room for and that we’re as good as any
than Clemson. We need the Stadium, one of the loudest much else, but then if you other league out there.”
ACC to keep winning these That would be step in the in the country. were to say, `Okay, what
games to get our name out right direction to derail the else?’, certainly the league The Hokies, Blue Devils and
there. We’re not some scrub sixth-ranked Tigers, who “We always understand that matters.” Hurricanes will try to show
conference. We’re one of the have won six consecutive we are representing our that Saturday.

MATCHDAY: New Europa Conference League shares Thursday stage

(AP) - A look at what’s those headline acts is another team, Roma, which currently the round of 16. Leicester vs.
happening in European question. It wasn’t long ago leads Serie A. Gibraltar, Estonia and Arme- Napoli is the standout game
soccer on Thursday: that Mourinho was boast- nia will have teams in a UEFA Thursday.
ing about being the world’s Indeed, Mourinho can be- group stage for the first time
EUROPA CONFER- best manager — “Mine and come the first manager to win with Lincoln Red Imps, Flora Both teams occupied Cham-
ENCE LEAGUE my coaching staff’s methods all three current major UEFA Tallinn and Alashkert starting pions League qualification
UEFA will be delighted to see are second to nobody in the club trophies, having won their campaigns. places for most of last sea-
its latest competition having a world,” he said before his the Champions League twice son then lost on the last day
couple of high-profile figures firing by Tottenham in April (with Porto and Inter Milan) EUROPA LEAGUE to drop to fifth place in the
for its inaugural campaign. — so he’ll be confident about and the UEFA Cup/Europa The Europa League resumes Premier League and Serie
Whether Jose Mourinho and conquering the Europa Con- League twice (with Porto and with its own new format: A. Galatasaray vs. Lazio and
Harry Kane are happy to be ference League with his new Manchester United). 32 teams instead of 48 and a Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Fen-
new playoff round in Febru- erbahçe pair some of the
Roma starts with a home ary. Nearly every team from most fervent fans in Euro-
match against CSKA Sofia. lower-ranked countries is pean soccer. The latter game
As for Kane, he wanted to now in the Europa Confer- brings Fenerbahçe captain
be playing in the Champi- ence League. Mesut Özil back to Germany.
ons League with Manches- A 15-game schedule
ter City this season. As it is, The Europa League occu-
the England captain will be pies a curious middle ground Thursday is split between
in Europe’s third-tier com- with no genuine minnows 1645 GMT and 1900 GMT
petition, which was created involved and the bigger pic- kickoffs. Legia Warsaw beat
essentially to help countries ture unclear until third- Spartak Moscow 1-0 on
whose teams cannot realis- place teams in Champions Wednesday in a game played
tically compete for the two League groups transfer across a day ahead of the week’s
existing titles. Tottenham, to those February playoffs. other Europa League games
like Roma, is expected to There they will face the eight to avoid a clash with Spartak’s
go deep in the Conference runners-up in the Europa cross-city rival Lokomotiv
League and starts with a trip groups, in two-leg playoffs Moscow, which hosts Mar-
to French club Rennes. for the right to advance to seille on Thursday.