ACC Football

No. 6 Miami suffered a disastrous loss on Saturday, falling to Syracuse by the final score of 42-38.

Standout quarterback Cam Ward was efficient once again for the Hurricanes, finishing 25-of-36 for 349 yards and two touchdowns without an interception. Miami's defense struggled to keep up, though.

Syracuse racked up 479 total yards in the contest, while Kyle McCord threw for 380 yards and three touchdowns of his own.

The Hurricanes led 21-0 in the second quarter, but the Orange responded by scoring 21 straight points before taking the lead with a fumble return in the third quarter.

With the loss, Miami was knocked out of the ACC Championship Game. No. 12 Clemson will now face No. 9 SMU for the conference title, while the Hurricanes' path towards a College Football Playoff berth became much more difficult.

Fans discussed Miami's CFP outlook following the defeat.

Head coach Mario Cristobal's team opened the season with nine straight wins and appeared to be on track to secure a CFP spot. However, Saturday's defeat combined with a 28-23 loss to Georgia Tech on Nov. 9 puts the Hurricanes in serious danger of failing to secure one of the 12 available playoff spots.

Miami fell to 10-2 and its CFP fate is now in the hands of the selection committee.

Gus Malzahn has coached his final game for UCF.

Pete Thamel of ESPN reported that Malzahn is resigning from his head coaching position with the Knights and will accept the offensive coordinator position at Florida State.

Malzahn spent four seasons as the Knights head coach and compiled a 28-24 victory.

Malzahn oversaw UCF through its transition to the Big 12 Conference and led the program to three bowl appearances and a Gasparilla Bowl victory in 2021. However, UCF did regress each season and finished 4-8 in 2024.

Malzahn could have been on his way out anyway but now joins a Florida State team that desperately needs to improve.

The Seminoles are currently 2-9 and will miss out on a bowl game entirely. This comes after a 2023 season in which Florida State finished the regular season undefeated and took home an ACC Championship while narrowly missing the College Football Playoff.

Florida State will hope Malzahn can inject some new life into the offense while the 59-year-old will enjoy just focusing on the offensive side of the ball next season.

A win in Week 14 would have given Clemson quite a case for inclusion in the College Football Playoff.

Instead, South Carolina played spoiler and improved its playoff chances in the process.

The Tigers entered Saturday with a 9-2 record and while they were not likely going to make the ACC Championship, a win over a strong Gamecocks team would have made their resume pretty solid for the committee's consideration.

Clemson produced 419 offensive yards and forced three Gamecock turnovers. Quarterback Cade Klubnik went 24-of-36 for 280 yards but tossed a costly interception in the final minute to seal the loss.

South Carolina produced 431 total yards and forced two Tigers turnovers. Quarterback LaNorris Sellers went 13-of-21 for 164 yards and an interception but his dominance came from his rushing game. Sellers had 16 carries for 166 yards with two touchdowns.

While the victory was a strong one for the Gamecocks, the Tigers' failure to close things out crept up on them again and figures to relegate them to bowl game status.

Fans took to social media to rip into Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney and debate his job security.

The Tigers have lost three games for the fourth consecutive season and it looks like the glory days of the late 2010s may have officially passed the program by. While a change at head coach could be intriguing, the price may be too high.

Swinney has a $60 million buyout after 2024 and is under contract through 2031. While the school could look to pay it, the likely scenario is that Swinney returns for next season and beyond.

Looking for a spark to get the team back on track, Stanford is bringing back school legend Andrew Luck to work as general manager of the football program.

Per ESPN's Pete Thamel, Luck accepted the position that will put him in charge of the "entire program" and is considered a "distinct evolution" from the traditional role of a college general manager.

In a phone interview with Thamel, Luck confirmed his new job and the role "involves everything Stanford football touches, football-wise and business-wise." He will also help with fundraising, securing sponsorships, increasing attendance and alumni relations.

"I'm excited," Luck told Thamel "I think Stanford is taking an assertive and innovative step. We're undoubtedly the best athletic department in college sports. We have to re-prove it in football, and we're excited to be part of that challenge."

Given the all-encompassing nature of college sports nowadays, it's commonplace for programs to have a general manager who oversees the day-to-day operations to ensure they aren't falling behind.

The Athletic's Sam Khan Jr. noted the job really came into being around 2009 with Nick Saban at Alabama. The program began hiring student workers for each of the Crimson Tide's position coaches.

Given the success Saban was having every year, more and more programs across the country started expanding their personnel departments.

Matt Dudek is credited with being the first person who received the official title of general manager from a college program at the University of Arizona in 2016.

The position of college general manager gained increased attention earlier this year when Adrian Wojnarowski retired from his post as ESPN's lead NBA insider to accept the GM role at his alma mater, St. Bonaventure.

Luck, who played three seasons for the Cardinal from 2009 to '11, is one of the most accomplished football players in program history. He is the school's all-time leader in touchdown passes (82), completion percentage (67.0) and ranks second in passing yards (9,430).

Stanford football just wrapped up its first season as a member of the ACC. The Cardinal finished 3-9 for the fourth consecutive year. The program has just one winning season since 2019 and hasn't played in a bowl game since winning the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31, 2018.

The North Carolina Tar Heels will not be moving forward with head football coach Mack Brown after the conclusion of the 2024 season, and could be tapping the Pittsburgh Steelers for his replacement with offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

"Reality is [UNC] reached out on preliminary call," Smith said on Thursday, according to ESPN's Brooke Pryor. "I appreciate it, love that place. But that's not my focus. I mean I've got one of the best jobs in football right now. There's a lot to be said too about [how you] can't put a price on personal and professional happiness, which I have here." Smith continued:

I've got an awesome job here. Love it here in Pittsburgh. [I] probably [have] a different mindset than I had five, four years ago where any head job, I probably would've walked there to take it.

Now my perspective's different, and when you got something good like I got here in Pittsburgh right now, family loves it here. I like the working environment, love being a Steeler.

Bruce Feldman of The Athletic first reported Wednesday that "One potentially intriguing option with very strong ties at North Carolina is Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, who we hear has some traction with key people in Chapel Hill."

Smith played at UNC as an offensive lineman and also began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Tar Heels under John Bunting in 2006. He transitioned to the NFL from there as a defensive quality assistant for Washington (2007-08), a defensive intern for Ole Miss (2010) and worked his way up in the Tennessee Titans coaching staff between 2011-20, eventually spending two seasons as the team's offensive coordinator.

He then was hired to be the Atlanta Falcons' head coach, compiling a 21-30 record with no playoff appearances. After he was fired in Atlanta, Mike Tomlin hired him as the team's offensive coordinator this season, and both Justin Fields and Russell Wilson have looked improved in his scheme.

Granted, Smith's offenses have never been juggernauts. As a head coach or offensive coordinator, those units have finished top-10 in yardage just once and top-10 in scoring twice out of six seasons. The Steelers rank 18th in yardage and 14th in points this year.

There's also the question of whether he could be a program-builder at the college level, where recruiting is arguably as important as Xs and Os. Or whether he would want to leave the NFL in the first place.

North Carolina—which has gone 44-32 in Brown's second tenure as head coach but has never emerged as a national power in football—will likely cast a wide net in its search for a replacement and "preferred to enter the search market this winter instead of a year from now, when it's expected there will be more open Power 4 jobs and thus more competition for top candidates," per Feldman.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has not always been the biggest proponent for paying college football players and embracing what is to come in the sport, but he seemed quite optimistic about the Tigers' overall outlook heading into the future during a Tuesday press conference.

As Grace Raynor of The Athletic relayed, Swinney opened up about topics such as revenue sharing with athletes, the transfer portal, NIL opportunities and more.

"Nobody's gonna have more money than Clemson. Nobody," he said of impending revenue sharing. "For the first time ever. That'll be good."

As Raynor explained, the college sports world is waiting for approval of the House settlement that will allow athletic departments to share 22 percent of their annual revenue with athletes. The cap is expected to be at $20.5 million per school, and that money can be distributed to various athletes across various sports of the school's choosing.

"Those are decisions that you have to make year-to-year but everybody will have the same money, and when I say nobody's gonna have more money than Clemson, that's because of the commitment from our administration," Swinney said.

There will also be opportunities for athletes outside of the revenue sharing, but the Tigers head coach called NIL "a challenge" for his program and encouraged fans and alumni to donate.

Being so open about the need for more money to pay players is quite the shift for Swinney, who famously said in 2014 he might quit college football entirely with such developments.

"As far as paying players, professionalizing college athletics, that's where you lose me," he said at the time. "I'll go do something else because there's enough entitlement in this world as there is."

Swinney has also received plenty of criticism for his hesitancy to use the transfer portal in the new age of college football. While he didn't suggest he is suddenly going to start bringing in tons of players from the portal in the future, he did advocate for some changes to the overall calendar.

"To me there should just be one portal window—it's in the spring and you're done with it," he said. "If we had just a little more common sense we could fix it. But it's where we are."

Having just one spring portal window instead of another one in December would mean coaches and teams who are actively preparing for College Football Playoff games and bowl games while recruiting high school classes won't also have to worry about players on the current roster transferring out before postseason games.

Swinney also called the idea of capping rosters at 105 players with 85 scholarships "the worst thing" because of the lost opportunities for walk-ons and the greater availability of players for practices over the course of a long season.

All of this comes ahead of a massive game against rival South Carolina for the Tigers.

If Clemson wins, it will have a solid chance to make the CFP. It would also have a chance to make the CFP if Syracuse defeats Miami and opens up a spot for Swinney's team in the ACC Championship Game against SMU.

It wasn't long ago the Tigers were one of the gold standards of college football. They reached four national championship games and won two of them during the five seasons from 2015 to 2019.

Yet they missed the CFP entirely in each of the past three seasons and failed to win double-digit games last season for the first time since 2010. It wasn't difficult to make an argument that the program was trending in the wrong direction, especially with other powerhouses relying on things like the transfer portal.

However, Clemson has the opportunity to build momentum and perhaps reach the CFP with a strong finish this season. And Swinney sounds optimistic about what the future holds, which is surely welcome news for Tigers fans.

Cam Ward is widely considered to be one of the best quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL draft class, but one AFC scout is concerned he may possess a fatal flaw.

"He has times where he has to scratch his itch for reckless plays, and it leaves you asking, 'What the heck was he thinking there?'" the scout said to ESPN's Jordan Reid. "I like him and don't know if that can be coached out of him."

Ward has thrown for 3,774 yards and an FBS-best 34 touchdowns with Miami sitting at 10-1. He probably deserves more credit than any other player for the Hurricanes being a College Football Playoff contender.

To the scout's point, however, the senior signal-caller has been prone to making some puzzling decisions in the pocket.

No game sums up the Cam Ward experience better than Miami's 39-38 win over Cal on Oct. 5.

The Hurricanes trailed 35-10 midway through the third quarter and Ward had a hand in creating that sizable deficit. On Miami's first play of the second half, he committed the cardinal sin of throwing against his body into the middle of the field, and it resulted in an ugly pick-six.

But Ward caught fire in the fourth quarter and helped Miami score 21 unanswered points to complete its comeback. His five-yard touchdown pass to Elijah Arroyo was the decisive moment.

The trouble with a prospect such as Ward is that there's an eternal push and pull. He's so good in part because he's instinctual and isn't afraid of taking chances, but that kind of approach is bound to backfire at times.

Caleb Williams had a similar propensity to extend plays at USC, and it didn't take long for him to discover that's not gonna fly in the NFL.

With Ward, the upside is so high that he warrants being the first or second quarterback off the board this spring. He's narrowly ahead of Colorado's Shedeur Sanders for the title of QB1 on Bleacher Report's big board.

But it's not hard to see why Ward would eventually fall short of expectations at the next level.

Despite being bowl-eligible for the sixth consecutive year, Mack Brown's tenure as North Carolina's head coach is coming to an end, the school announced on Tuesday.

Brown will coach Saturday's regular season finale against NC State before departing the program.

"Mack Brown has won more games than any football coach in UNC history, and we deeply appreciate all that he has done for Carolina Football and our University,'' athletic director Bubba Cunningham said in a statement.

"Over the last six seasons—his second campaign in Chapel Hill—he has coached our team to six bowl berths, including an Orange Bowl, while mentoring 18 NFL draft picks. He and his wife Sally have done an outstanding job supporting the Carolina community, including raising funds for UNC Children's Hospital while hosting other popular events such as the Ladies Day Clinic. Both also have been terrific in leading our program during some incredibly tough stretches, including the tragic passing of wide receiver Tylee Craft this season."

Mack later issued a statement saying his "total focus is on helping these players and coaches prepare" for Saturday's game against the Wolfpack:

Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports and 247Sports first reported that Brown informed Tar Heels players on Tuesday he had been fired.

Brown was under contract to the Tar Heels through the 2027 season after signing a one-year extension in February 2023. His base salary was $5 million annually.

North Carolina hired Brown in November 2018 after parting ways with Larry Fedora. Brown had been out of coaching for five years at that point following his resignation from the University of Texas in December 2013.

Brown previously coached the Tar Heels for 10 seasons from 1988 to '97 before he was hired by Texas. He went 67-46 with six bowl appearances in his first stint with the program.

The Tar Heels had an immediate turnaround during Brown's second tenure. They went from 2-9 in Fedora's final season to 7-6 with a win over Temple in the Military Bowl in Brown's first year.

Brown's peak in his most recent tenure with the Tar Heels was in 2022. He led the team to a 9-5 record and an appearance in the ACC Championship Game.

North Carolina has made a bowl game in each of the past five seasons. It is bowl eligible again this season with a 6-5 record heading into the regular-season finale against North Carolina State on Saturday.

A decision on whether or not Brown will coach in the bowl game has not yet been made. North Carolina is currently projected to play USC in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 31.

Miami quarterback Cam Ward has joined some elite company.

In the Hurricanes 42-14 victory over Wake Forest, the senior quarterback broke Bernie Kosar's program record for passing yards in a single season. This feat saw Kosar himself take to X to celebrate Ward.

Fans took to social media to praise Ward for breaking Kosar's record and hyped up his Heisman candidacy.

Ward finished the day 27-of-38 for 280 yards with two touchdowns and one interception while also adding a touchdown on the ground.

The Hurricanes produced 508 total offensive yards and limited the Demon Deacons to just 193. Jordan Lyle paced the rushing attack with seven carries for 115 yards and a touchdown. Jacolby George was the top receiver with seven catches for 91 yards and two touchdowns.

Miami's improves to 10-1 with the victory and will head to Syracuse next week to close out the season. This redemption performance came after the team dropped its previous game against Georgia Tech, but the push for a conference championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff is officially back with the win over the Demon Deacons.

Amid rumors that the 2024 season would be his last, North Carolina head coach Mack Brown plans to return next season.

Per 247Sports' Matt Zenitz, Brown has told people around the program, including the staff, players and recruits, that he will remain with the Tar Heels beyond the 2024 season. Brown, who is 73 years old, is in his sixth season at North Carolina.

Brown, who coached the Tar Heels from 1988 to 1997 and returned in 2019, took over a team that had won just five games across the two seasons before his arrival. He has led North Carolina to five consecutive winning seasons and has the chance to do so again this year.

The Tar Heels' best finish under Brown came in 2022 when they went 9-5 and reached the ACC Championship, losing to Clemson.

North Carolina started the 2024 season 3-4, but has since won three straight games over Virginia, Florida State and Wake Forest and has meetings with Boston College and NC State to close out the year.

Wins over the next two weeks would give Brown his fourth season with eight wins or more since taking over at North Carolina.

Before his time with the Tar Heels, Brown was the head coach of Texas from 1998 to 2013. During his tenure, he led the Longhorns to a 158-48 record and won two Big 12 championships and a national championship in 2005.

While Brown has accomplished plenty in his 50-plus seasons as a coach, he's not ready to call it a career yet and will look to lead the Tar Heels to more success in 2025.