It hasn’t been the greatest start to the regular season for teams expected to contend for ACC supremacy and a spot in the first-ever 12-team national championship tournament this winter.

Florida State was perhaps the clear-cut favorite to win the conference before departing for a regular season and ACC-opening game against doormat Georgia Tech in Ireland on August 24. But the Seminoles returned home in despair–along with an 0-1 record–following a 24-21 upset by the Yellow Jackets.

One week later, Clemson got its doors blown off by the mighty Georgia Bulldogs at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta by a score of 34-3.

The Miami Hurricanes avoided any slipups over their first four games. They went to Gainesville and walloped instate rival Florida by a score of 41-17 on August 31. Miami continued to pad its resume–mostly against Florida opposition–with blowout wins over Florida A&M and South Florida sandwiched around a 62-0 thrashing of Ball State.

The Hurricanes had climbed to number seven in the country by the time their 2024 ACC lid-lifter kicked off at home against a 2-2 Virginia Tech squad at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on Friday night.

Not much was expected of the Hokies in 2024, and they proved their doubters right over the first four games by posting meh victories over Marshall and Old Dominion and close losses to Vanderbilt and Rutgers.

But you know what they say when these two ACC rivals go at it. Actually, I don’t know what they say when Miami and Virginia Tech meet, and I don’t know how much of a rivalry they have had over the years.

I do know that Friday night’s matchup between these two ACC opponents was a classic.

Virginia Tech jumped out to a 7-0 lead before the Hurricanes countered with two touchdowns to go up 14-7 after one period. The Hokies then scored 10 points in the second quarter to grab a 24-17 advantage at the break. Virginia Tech continued to control the game in the second half and ultimately built a 34-24 advantage with just over 12 minutes left in regulation. However, Miami rallied with two unanswered touchdowns–including a one-yard pass from quarterback Cam Ward to receiver Isaiah Horton to take a 38-34 lead with 1:57 remaining.

Fast forward to the final play of the game and the moment and call everyone will be talking about for a long time.

The Hokies managed to navigate down to the Miami 30-yard line with just three seconds remaining in the game. Quarterback Kyron Drones then unleashed a final pass for the back of the end zone where several players–including Virginia Tech receivers and Hurricanes defensive backs–were waiting. Seven went up for it, and only one came down with it. Technically, nobody did at first, as the officials seemed to indicate that it was an incomplete pass. The lights started to flicker at Hard Rock Stadium in celebratory fashion and the Hurricanes and their faithful began to go crazy. But after a quick confab, the officials determined that receiver Da’Quan Felton somehow managed to gain possession of the football amid all of those Miami defenders. The referee announced the score, and the Virginia Tech players began to celebrate, while those in the stands did the thing that college football home fans do where they hold their heads in disbelief.

However, since every touchdown is automatically reviewed in college football, everyone held their breath while the referee combed through the footage. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a lot of evidence that Felton caught the football. Then again, there wasn’t any evidence that he didn’t. You really couldn’t tell. I mean, if you were an unbiased viewer, you may have come to the likely conclusion that Felton never did have possession (that seemed to be the case), but with no clear evidence, how was the referee going to overturn the call on the field?

He overturned it, anyway, and the Hurricanes and their fans resumed their celebration at Hard Rock Stadium, while Virginia Tech dropped to 2-3 and 0-1 in conference play.

As for the Hurricanes, they’re now 5-0 and 1-0 in the ACC. Are they now the clear-cut favorites to win the conference and earn a spot in the 12-team national championship playoff? Yes, they are.

But that doesn’t mean Miami will represent the conference in the postseason.

The ACC still seems to be up for grabs and certainly would be today if Da’Quan Felton was able to grab that final pass at Hard Rock Stadium on Friday night.