The best football roster in the ACC heading into 2016

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Ranking the ACC's Football Rosters for 2016 | AthlonSports.com
Who has the best football roster in the ACC heading into 2016?

Ranking the ACC's Football Rosters for 2016
The sky is blue, the Earth is round and when you have better players, you win more games.



Certainly, winning big in college football takes great coaching, enormous support staffs, state-of-the-art training facilities and plenty of luck. But whoever has the most talented roster, has a head start in the race for conference and national championships.



National Signing Day 2016 gave us more than 4,000 new players to root for and track over the next four or five seasons. So which teams are in the best shape for 2016?



College Football Podcast: 2016 National Signing Day Recap



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Below are the national recruiting ranking averages for ACC schools over the last five classes according to 247Sports Team Composite rankings and each team's record over the last five seasons. Obviously, this doesn't take into account attrition but, over time, this should be considered relatively even across the conference.



Ranking the ACC's College Football's Rosters in 2016:

TEAM	16	15	14	13	12	AVG.	WIN-LOSE	CONFERENCE W-L
1. FSU	2	3	4	11	3	4.6	58-10	34-6
2. Clemson	10	9	17	15	15	13.2	56-12	34-6
3. Miami	21	26	12	14	10	16.6	35-27	21-19
4. Virginia Tech	41	29	27	21	21	27.8	40-26	23-17
5. North Carolina	35	28	31	28	43	33	39-26	24-16
6. Pittsburgh	30	47	44	32	41	38.3	33-32	20-18
7. Louisville	37	32	45	37	45	39.2	47-18	28-11
7. Virginia	60	50	32	29	25	39.2	23-38	13-27
8. N.C. State	49	31	34	59	54	45.4	33-31	14-26
9. Duke	33	51	60	70	62	55.2	36-19	19-21
10. Georgia Tech	59	44	56	76	52	57.4	36-30	22-18
11. Syracuse	66	58	50	73	61	61.6	26-36	13-25
12. Wake Forest	58	53	65	67	66	61.8	21-40	12-28
13. Boston College	75	62	52	87	71	69.4	23-39	12-28

What did we learn?


Florida State, Clemson Dominate
Florida State and Clemson have dominated both the football field and recruiting trail in the ACC. These two programs have won the last five ACC championships and have played in two national title games and a College Football Playoff game over the last three years. The Noles’ average national ranking of 4.6 trails only Alabama (1.0) and Ohio State (4.2) as the most talented roster in the nation. Clemson’s 13.2 average ranking is 12th nationally and includes back-to-back top-10 hauls. Only Miami comes close to the Tigers and Seminoles when it comes to recruiting in the ACC.



Mark Richt Returns
Richt is inheriting what is clearly the third-best roster in the ACC - as was the case under former head coach Al Golden. However, this team is just 21-19 over the last five years in ACC play. Miami's average class ranking of 16.6 is better than Ole Miss (18.6), Oregon (19.4), Stanford (22.2), Baylor (26.4) and Michigan State (27.4). Those programs have a combined nine conference titles over the last five years while Miami hasn’t even won its division (ever). We shall see if Richt is the right guy for the job.



Related: Despite Some Defections, New Miami Hurricanes' Head Coach Mark Richt Put Together a Solid Recruiting Class



Fear the Heel?
The Tar Heels went 8-0 in the ACC last fall and it gives North Carolina the third-best ACC record over the last five years (24-16). But can the Heels take the next step under Larry Fedora? North Carolina has been ranked between 28th and 35th nationally in four straight classes but is that enough to topple the two big boys in the ACC? With the fifth-ranked roster in the league — despite being third in the Coastal Division — North Carolina appears to have as good a shot as anyone in the conference of knocking off either the Tigers or the Noles.



Bittersweet change
Virginia Tech and the ACC lost a legend when Frank Beamer retired. However, the Hokies might have made the best coaching hire of anyone in college football. Just like that change feels bittersweet, so to should the Hokies' 2016 recruiting class. Justin Fuente is undoubtedly an outstanding coach, but the regime change led to the worst-rated Tech class (41st) since 2002 (43rd). Let’s see what Fuente can do with an entire cycle to recruit before casting judgment.



Pat Narduzzi is coming for you
It hasn’t taken long for Narduzzi to prove that he is the guy for the job in Pittsburgh. A 6-2 finish in the ACC was second to only Clemson and North Carolina last fall, and, in his first full cycle on the recruiting trail, Narduzzi scored the best Panther class (30th) since 2008 (28th). As a result, Pitt moved from the eighth-best roster in the ACC last season to the sixth in 2016.



Cutcliffe-ville
Duke has won 36 games in the last five seasons, trailing only traditional powers Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Louisville and North Carolina in the ACC. It also won the Coastal Division and, this year, won its first bowl game in decades. What did head coach David Cutcliffe do for an encore? He landed the highest-rated recruiting class in modern Duke history (33rd). The Blue Devils now own a more talented roster than Georgia Tech, Syracuse, Boston College and Wake Forest.

 

[Zbrod95]

Sorry, Clemson has at least 8 clear cut first to mid round pick on it's roster. It's clear and far the best roster in the ACC

 

[Mario Hurricanes]

I think Clemson has the best roster in the ACC. Plus Dabo is twice the ball coach that Jimbo is! Clemson is by far the team to beat in the ACC right now.

 

[The Franchise]

Unbelievable how UM managed to continue accumulating talent even with horrific results on the field and total misuse of the players that we signed.

Not only were we losing half of our games, but we were taking players and totally misusing them. There was a stink of death and the worst toxicity I've ever seen around a college program. Yet we still managed to recruit at a top 16 level.

Talk about the ultimate sleeping giant. We were recruiting as a top 16 team nationally but finishing most seasons ranked in the middle of 128 teams on results.

 

[Novacane32000]

So these ranking assume attrition will be even across the board and of course they say that because no one wants to take the time to actually see what the attrition rate really is. I dont do this for a living so I dont have the time but here is the UM class at a glance.

2012 UM class--Signed 20 , 9 started at some point , no contribution from the other 11
2013 UM class--Signed 16 , 7 are still on the roster today, Artie Burns left early, nothing from the other 8
2014 UM class--Signed 24, 18 are active and contributing. Without this class,we are toast.
2015 UM class --Signed 20 -Too early to tell

 

[daddacane]

It's all about coaching...Even in the Glory years, FSU and Florida annually had higher ranked recruiting classes than the "U". We just had better coaches and field goal kickers..

 

[Dirty Sprite]

Sorry, Clemson has at least 8 clear cut first to mid round pick on it's roster. It's clear and far the best roster in the ACC

"Far the best roster in the ACC" - lol y'all love to dxk ride other teams on this board.

Clemsons level of talent isn't that much better than FSUs or Miami's.

 

[maurice3p]

Mark Richt Returns
Richt is inheriting what is clearly the third-best roster in the ACC - Miami's average class ranking of 16.6 is better than Ole Miss (18.6), Oregon (19.4), Stanford (22.2), Baylor (26.4) and Michigan State (27.4). Those programs have a combined nine conference titles over the last five years while Miami hasn’t even won its division (ever). We shall see if Richt is the right guy for the job

No excuses......

 

[Ibis Wingz]

Unbelievable how UM managed to continue accumulating talent even with horrific results on the field and total misuse of the players that we signed.

Not only were we losing half of our games, but we were taking players and totally misusing them. There was a stink of death and the worst toxicity I've ever seen around a college program. Yet we still managed to recruit at a top 16 level.

Talk about the ultimate sleeping giant. We were recruiting as a top 16 team nationally but finishing most seasons ranked in the middle of 128 teams on results.

That speaks about the level of talent around UM. It's almost impossible to not get talent at UM.

 

[Canezum5]

I think Clemson has the best roster in the ACC. Plus Dabo is twice the ball coach that Jimbo is! Clemson is by far the team to beat in the ACC right now.

Dabo doesn't hold a candle to jimbo. Stop it