Duke, App State, WCU, UVa, Miami Among DG’s “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs” (Week 6) – Ncsportsnetwork.com

COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK SIX:

Duke, App State, Western Carolina, UVa, Miami
Among DG’s ACC/NC “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs”

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(final up to date Oct. 6, 2025)

While the main focus of our “This Week In College Football” show is forward-looking as usually as doable, we all the time take a look again on the earlier weekend in faculty soccer, too, and typically we’ll supply some fast mentions to these making impactful headlines on the gridiron, particularly within the Atlantic Coast Conference and/or throughout North Carolina.

With that in thoughts, under are our Week Six “Fun Facts and Shout-Outs,” delivered to you by our good mates at Jimmy’s bar and King Neptune restaurant in Wrightsville Beach.

Jimmy’s has a full bar, nightly drink specials and stay music one year a 12 months(!). (It’s an excellent place to look at a recreation, too.) Right subsequent door, King Neptune has grow to be probably the greatest eating places in all the higher Wilmington space.

Week Six “Fun Fact #1”

Let’s begin, as traditional, with a Fun Fact — this time with an out-of-state honoree — earlier than we return to the good state of North Carolina for almost all of this week’s shout-outs.

Fun Fact: The final time the Miami Hurricanes have been ranked as excessive as #2 nationally in an October ballot was in 2003, which is now 22 years in the past, throughout their final season as a member of the Big East Conference, simply earlier than they formally joined the ACC.

That 12 months — 2003 — can be the newest instance of the Canes ending a season within the nationwide prime 10. Larry Coker was their coach, they went 11-2, they gained the Big East title, they beat a top-10, Bobby Bowden-coached Florida State squad within the Orange Bowl, and so they ended up with a #5 nationwide rating.

Fast ahead: Miami, after all, has by no means gained the ACC soccer championship, and the Hurricanes have made that title recreation solely as soon as throughout their two-plus a long time within the ACC, again in 2017 beneath Mark Richt, once they acquired slaughtered 38-3 by a #1-ranked Clemson squad in Charlotte.

That historical past serves as a significant backdrop for this week’s first shout-out….

#1—Shout-out to fourth-year Miami head coach Mario Cristobal, a former Hurricanes offensive lineman who has led them to a 5-0 begin that has included victories over three nationally ranked opponents — Notre Dame, South Florida and (simply final week) Florida State — plus a 26-7 win over Florida, which then turned proper round and beat nationally ranked Texas.

Cristobal led the Canes to an excellent season final 12 months, at 10-3, however that was with award-winning quarterback Cam Ward (the #1 general NFL draft decide, now beginning for the Tennessee Titans) typically single-handedly saving the day with pinball-machine-like offensive numbers.

This time, the Canes seem to have a way more well-rounded group, together with a particularly proficient, hard-hitting protection that’s giving up lower than 14 factors per recreation. Miami went to Tallahassee final Saturday and dominated the Seminoles for 3 quarters, constructing a 28-3 lead earlier than settling for a 28-22 victory.

The Canes are thriving with a mixture of elite-level highschool recruiting and smart use of the switch portal.

Defensive finish Rueben Bain Jr., linebacker Wesley Bissainthe, cornerback OJ Frederique Jr., operating again Mark Fletcher Jr., vast receiver Malachi Toney, offensive guard Anez Cooper and offensive sort out Francis Mauigoa are all standout gamers whom Cristobal and his workers signed and developed from the highschool ranks. Bain, Bissainthe, Frederique, Fletcher and Toney all hail from the Sunshine State, which ranks as one of many prime producers of Power Four-caliber expertise yearly.

The most impactful portal additions have included quarterback Carson Beck (Georgia), vast receiver CJ Daniels (LSU), defensive finish Akheem Mesidor (West Virginia) and security Jakobe Thomas (Tennessee).

Thanks to that well-executed recruiting mixture, the Canes are in nice place to make a run at their first ACC soccer title and their first journey to the College Football Playoff.

#2—Shout-out to Virginia head coach Tony Elliott, who has gone straight from the proverbial sizzling seat to by far the hottest streak of his 4 seasons with the Cavaliers, even placing them in place for a possible journey to the ACC championship recreation, which was an unthinkable proposition simply two months in the past.

The Wahoos are 5-1 and ranked #19 nationally. It’s essential to do not forget that their 35-31 loss at NC State — which got here all the way down to a UVa throw into the top zone that was intercepted — was a non-conference recreation, so the Wahoos are literally main the league standings with a 3-0 mark that features their 46-38 additional time upset of Florida State and (simply final week) their 30-27 highway win over beforehand undefeated Louisville.

UVa’s 5 remaining ACC opponents are UNC, Cal, Wake Forest, Duke and Virginia Tech, and of that group solely the Blue Devils have performed a excessive caliber of soccer this season.

The Cavs have gained with a mixture of an explosive offense, led by thrilling dual-threat quarterback Chandler Morris (a North Texas switch), and an opportunistic protection that typically offers up quite a lot of yards but additionally appears to discover a strategy to provide you with large performs in key moments.

Morris will be the most balanced run-pass QB within the ACC, and he’s getting loads of assist from operating again J’Mari Taylor (an NC Central switch), vast receiver Trell Harris (a Kent State switch) and vast receiver Cam Ross (a James Madison switch), plus an offensive line that in some way has held collectively regardless of all kinds of accidents, together with to projected starters.

#3—Shout-out — once more — to second-year Duke head coach Manny Diaz, his offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer, his defensive coordinator Jonathan Patke, his switch quarterback Darian Mensah, his true freshman operating again Nate Sheppard and his thrilling vast receiver and return man, Que’Sean Brown.

Back in August, we on the North Carolina Sports Network predicted that Duke can be the very best faculty soccer group within the state once more this 12 months, and the Blue Devils proceed to stay as much as that description. Their 3-0 ACC report even has them tied for first place within the ACC proper now, and so they have this week off as they put together to host #13 Georgia Tech, which is 5-0 but additionally barely escaped a current journey to Wake Forest.

In their late-night recreation at Cal final Saturday, the Devils trailed 21-7 within the second quarter. They had traveled greater than 2,000 miles, and so they have been enjoying at an unconventional time, so they’d all the reasons they may presumably want for a letdown at that time.

Instead, they caught to their plan and made some big-time in-game changes. Mensah once more confirmed super management and manufacturing, and the Devils scored 38 consecutive factors towards a Cal group that had been enjoying fairly good protection this season to seize a convincing 45-21 victory.

Mensah, one of many ACC’s prime transfers, ranks third nationally with 306 passing yards per recreation, and he’s finishing 70 p.c of his passes, with 15 touchdowns and solely two interceptions. Those are lights-out numbers.

Sheppard, one of many ACC’s prime freshmen, had 12 carries for 91 yards and two touchdowns towards the Bears. Brown, who’s a product of East Forsyth High School in Kernersville, simply outdoors of Winston-Salem, had six catches for 104 yards and a landing towards Cal.

This Duke story simply retains getting higher and higher, and it’s a tribute to that workers and people gamers.

#4—Shout-out to Appalachian State security Myles Farmer.

A seventh-year senior, Farmer beforehand began at Nebraska and in addition performed at Syracuse, however he competes with such a particularly bodily and typically even reckless, violent type that he’s usually been sidelined with accidents. He really arrived at App State in 2024 however performed solely three video games earlier than getting harm once more and lacking the remainder of the season.

Last Saturday, within the Mountaineers’ 27-23 victory over Oregon State in Boone, Farmer had a defensive participant’s Dream Game.

On particular groups, whereas overlaying a kickoff within the first quarter, he pressured a fumble that gave App State the ball on the opponent’s 18-yard line. Four performs later, the Mountaineers scored a landing and had a 10-0 lead.

Then, on the finish of the sport, with Oregon State trailing 27-21 however knocking on the door of an upset victory, Farmer made two extra enormous performs from his security place, down by the aim line. On a third-and-goal play, he assisted Ronnie Porter to barely maintain the operating again out of the top zone, and on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Farmer darted into the backfield and dropped the operating again for a two-yard loss.

In what ended up as a 27-23 App State victory, Farmer principally arrange seven of his group’s factors with a special-teams play and personally prevented seven factors by the opponent, which is about nearly as good because it will get for a participant who’s taking part in these two phases of the sport.

In his seventh faculty season, Farmer simply had his most impactful recreation, and that deserves a particular hat tip.

Last, however actually not least …

#5—Shout-out —on the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) stage — to Western Carolina quarterback Taron Dickens, whose title you might have seen within the nationwide headlines over the weekend.

We talked about this man right here on the North Carolina Sports Network again in August, as a result of we have been questioning what would occur whenever you put collectively — for a full season — offensive wizard Kerwin Bell, the Catamounts’ head coach, and Dickens, an electrifying expertise who began 4 video games final season after an harm to beginning QB Cole Gonzales, who’s now within the ACC with the Pitt Panthers.

Well, now we all know what would occur, and it’s really sensational.

Quick backstory: Three years in the past, Dickens was Florida’s Class 6A Player of the Year (these are massive excessive faculties) and the top-rated prep passer in all the Sunshine State, however he wasn’t recruited as a quarterback by most faculties, primarily as a result of he’s solely 5-foot-11 and 180 kilos.

Now a redshirt sophomore for the Catamounts, Dickens missed the primary three video games of this season, and Western misplaced all three. Now he’s performed in three straight video games, and the Catamounts have gained all three — whereas averaging 38 factors per recreation. Western is simply 3-3 general, however the Catamounts are 2-0 within the Southern Conference, with an enormous recreation towards Furman this Saturday afternoon in Cullowhee.

The feat that put Dickens within the nationwide highlight, through the Catamounts’ 23-21 win at Wofford, was that he accomplished his first 46 passes in a row throughout his group’s comeback victory. He began the day 46-for-46 for 325 yards and three touchdowns, completely crushing the NCAA’s earlier all-time report (29) for consecutive completions in a single recreation.

Interestingly, as a result of Dickens additionally had linked on his final 4 passes in his earlier recreation, his 50 straight completions over a number of video games set one other all-time NCAA report. That earlier report — 36 straight completions over a number of video games — had been held by one other man who performed proper right here within the Bold North State, former ECU quarterback Dominique Davis, who set that report again in 2011.

Congrats, once more, to Bell, Dickens and the Catamounts, who’re quite a lot of enjoyable to look at once more this season and have at the least an opportunity to make a run at what can be their first-ever Southern Conference soccer title.