Miami quarterback Cam Ward, Boston College defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku and Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi headline the honorees in The Associated Press’ midseason report for the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Ward, a fifth-year transfer who last played at Washington State, was picked as top offensive player and top first-year transfer through the season’s first half in voting by AP writers who cover ACC teams. Ezeiruaku was picked as top defensive player while Narduzzi was the top coach for a team that tied as the most surprising so far, as well as featuring the most surprising player in 5-foot-8 all-purpose back Desmond Reid.
Ward has rolled from the opening day and enters this weekend’s game at Louisville leading the country in passing offense (369.8 yards) and tied for the Bowl Subdivision lead with 20 touchdown throws for sixth-ranked Miami (6-0, 2-0 ACC).
Ezeiruaku, a 6-foot-2 senior, is second nationally with nine sacks through six games. He’s brought down a quarterback in five of them, including multi-sack games against Florida State, Michigan State and Western Kentucky.
As for Narduzzi, his 20th-ranked Panthers (6-0, 2-0) were picked to finish 13th in the 17-team league. But Narduzzi, who won an ACC title in 2021, hired Kade Bell away from Western Carolina as offensive coordinator in a new scheme helmed by redshirt freshman Eli Holstein, a transfer from Alabama who earned multiple votes for top first-year transfer.
That unit is tied for 13th nationally in scoring offense (40.8) and ranked 11th in total offense (481.3 yards), helping Pitt join Miami among the 11 unbeaten teams remaining in FBS and give the program its first 6-0 start in 42 years.
Top first-year freshman
Louisville running back Isaac Brown, who has run for 508 yards to lead all FBS freshmen. He also has run for three scores while aveaging 8.6 yards per carry and also having a TD grab. Brown has three 100-yard games this year, including the past two weeks against SMU (117) and Virginia (146).
Most surprising team
No. 21 SMU tied Pitt for this honor. Rhett Lashlee’s Mustangs (5-1, 2-0) were picked seventh in their first season in the league, but routed Florida State in their first ACC game and won at then-ranked Louisville.
Most surprising player
Reid, who followed Bell from Western Carolina, is second nationally in all-purpose yardage (182.6 per game). He has scored touchdowns on the ground (three), through the air (four) and on punt returns (one) as a big-play threat for the Panthers.
Most disappointing team
Florida State, which entered the year as the reigning ACC champion, the preseason favorite to win it again and carrying a No. 10 ranking in the AP Top 25. FSU (1-5, 1-4) instead came perilously close to being winless at this point, edging California 14-9 in a game that required the Seminoles to make a red-zone stop with about a minute left.
Hottest seat
North Carolina’s Mack Brown, a College Football Hall of Famer and the winningest active coach in FBS, has hit a major bump in Year 6 of his second stint in Chapel Hill.
Defensive problems have persisted under his third coordinator, notably with yielding 70 points in a home loss to James Madison — which had Brown making emotional postgame comments in the locker room that included whether he should stay on as coach. Last weekend, the Tar Heels gave up a 68-yard touchdown run with 16 seconds left to lose to Georgia Tech.
It hasn’t helped that an offense already challenged by replacing No. 3 overall NFL draft pick Drake Maye at quarterback is now on its third starter this year due to injury or ineffective play.
The other coach receiving multiple votes was FSU’s Mike Norvell.
Biggest injury
N.C. State graduate transfer QB Grayson McCall, who entered the year with better than 10,000 career passing yards along with a concussion history. He had a slow start before being knocked out of the win against Louisiana Tech and entering the concussion protocol. He returned against Wake Forest, only to be lost early in that game after a jarring hit that sent his helmet flying and had him carted off before being taken to a nearby hospital.
It’s unclear whether McCall will play again and his injuries have forced true freshman CJ Bailey into the lineup for a team that is off to its first 0-3 start in ACC play since going 0-4 in 2014.
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AP sports writers Josh Dubow in California; Gary B. Graves in Kentucky; Will Graves in Pittsburgh; Pete Iacobelli in South Carolina; and Charles Odum in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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