Dabo Swinney at Clemson and Dave Doeren at NC State led their teams to victories on Saturday that made them the winningest coach in their respective school’s history. And they both overcame adversity to do it.

That, however, is where the similarities end.

Their record-setting victories were as disparate as their personalities.

The brash and energetic Swinney led his team to a 31-23 upset of No. 15 Notre Dame that snapped a 2-game losing streak and answered his growing number of critics, not the least of which was a certain radio talk show caller from Spartanburg.

Doeren, who describes himself as a “blue-collar, hand-in-the-dirt” kind of guy, kept his team calm and under control despite its offensive struggles to grit out a 20-6 win against Miami for his 78th win in 11 seasons with the Wolfpack.

The victory was also State’s 6th this season, making it the 3rd ACC team to earn bowl eligibility this week. With Florida State clinching a spot in the conference championship game and Louisville moving a step closer to joining the Seminoles in Charlotte, Week 10 was truly one for the books.

So let’s take a look at what we learned about each of the ACC’s 14 teams.

Boston College

Remember all those interceptions in the Eagles’ spring game? There were 5. At the time, we didn’t know if the pick party was the result of an aggressive, ball-hawking secondary or a warning sign of a turnover-prone offense.

We finally learned the answer Friday.

BC intercepted 4 Syracuse passes, including 2 by ACC leader Elijah Jones, to compensate for an off-day by quarterback Thomas Castellanos and secure a 17-10 victory. CJ Clinkscales and Cole Batson had the others, with the latter clinching the win inside the final 2½ minutes.

Friday’s victory was the Eagles’ 5th straight after a 1-3 start. While we won’t officially learn if it’s enough to save coach Jeff Hafley’s job until after the season, we did at least learn that his team will be going to a bowl game after missing out on the postseason last year.

Clemson

We learned that Tyler from Spartanburg is one heck of a motivator. We also learned why Dabo Swinney and Garrett Riley have insisted on giving Phil Mafah so many carries when they have an All-ACC running back in Will Shipley.

With Shipley sidelined in concussion protocol, Mafah ran for 186 yards and 2 touchdowns to lead the Tigers’ 31-23 upset of Notre Dame. And he did it on 30 carries, the most by a Clemson back since Wayne Gallman also had 30 against Auburn in 2016.

The win came after a week of turmoil, fueled by Swinney’s emotional response to criticism from the aforementioned Tyler on the coach’s radio call-in show. It also ended Clemson’s first 2-game losing streak since 2011.

But we learned that even in victory, the Tigers’ problems with turnovers haven’t gone away. A Cade Klubnik interception just after halftime helped the Irish get back into the game and a late fumble by Mafah gave Notre Dame 1 final chance to pull the game out. This time, though, they got away with the mistakes – thanks to the spotty play of Irish quarterback Sam Hartman, who is now 0-5 in his career against Clemson.

Duke

The Blue Devils are short-handed at quarterback and on the offensive line. But we learned Thursday night that there’s no shortage of grit and determination in Mike Elko’s program. It was best illustrated by the performance of 3rd-string quarterback Grayson Loftis, who was thrown into a difficult situation against Wake Forest because of injuries to starter Riley Leonard and backup Henry Belin IV.

While the true freshman wasn’t great, completing only 7-of-19 passes for 83 yards, a touchdown and an interception, he was good enough. With the help of running backs Jaquez Moore and Jordan Waters, and a defense that forced a pivotal 4th-quarter turnover on an interception by defensive end Ryan Moore, he was able to help Duke avoid its first 3-game losing streak under Eklo.

We also learned that the Blue Devils are still as good as ever at field goal “defense.” After Wake’s Matthew Dennis missed twice on Thursday, both from inside 40 yards, their opponents are now only 7-of-13 on 3-pointers this season.

Florida State

The Seminoles gave the College Football Playoff committee an excuse to drop them from 4th to 5th in next week’s rankings with a performance that at face value was less than impressive. But if the committee members do a little research, they’ll learn that Saturday’s 24-7 win at Pitt was much better than it looked.

Let’s start with who didn’t play. Neither Keon Coleman nor Johnny Wilson, who have 63 catches and 11 touchdowns between them. It was on the road, in cold weather against a conference opponent that, while struggling through a down season, has already knocked off 1 ranked team.

Jordan Travis did Jordan Travis things, throwing for 360 yards and a touchdown while also rushing for a score. And we learned that FSU has some depth at receiver. Ja’Khi Douglas came into the game with only 2 catches this season, both last week at Wake Forest. He ended up leading the Seminoles with 6 receptions for 115 yards on Saturday.

FSU’s defense also pitched a shutout after falling behind 7-0 early in the 2nd quarter. It forced 3 turnovers, limited the Panthers to 89 rushing yards and held Pitt to 0-for-11 on 3rd-down opportunities.

Georgia Tech

We learned that you don’t have to run the triple option to put up big rushing numbers at Georgia Tech. After churning out 348 yards on the ground in last week’s upset of North Carolina, Tech put up another Paul Johnson-like 305 yards in an impressive win against Virginia.

It was a couple of guys named Haynes that did the majority of the damage. Running back Jamal Haynes led the way with 119 yards and a touchdown while quarterback Haynes King also got into the act by rushing for 83 yards and 2 scores.

The win also showed us that the Yellow Jackets can, in fact, win back-to-back games. They had alternated wins and losses through their first 8 games. At 5-4, Brent Key’s team is now over .500 this late in the season for the first time since they were also 5-4 in 2018 – Johnson’s last season. That’s also the last time Tech was bowl eligible, a goal it can accomplish by winning 1 of its final 3 games.

Louisville

With leading receiver Jamari Thrash out with an injury, it made sense that the Cardinals would try to run the ball against a Hokies defense that came into the game leading the ACC with 30 sacks. And they did it successfully, churning out 231 yards on the ground. They were so proficient at running the ball that quarterback Jack Plummer needed only to throw the ball 12 times, completing 11 for 141 yards and a touchdown.

In the process, though, we learned that Louisville has a lot more talent in its running back room than just Jawhar Jordan. The ACC’s 2nd leading rusher played Saturday despite being bothered by a sore hamstring. But he gained only 57 yards on 14 carries.

The bulk of the damage was done by his backup Isaac Guerendo. The 6-1, 225-pound senior got into the end zone 3 times, twice on runs of 30 yards or more, while rushing for 146 yards. Thanks to his career-best performance and a defense that has gone 8 consecutive quarters without allowing a touchdown, we learned that the Cardinals are now officially the team to beat for the right to face Florida State in the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 2.

Miami

We learned that the Hurricanes are their own worst enemy. They turned the ball over and despite outgaining NC State 292-231, couldn’t find their way into the end zone in losing for the 3rd time in their past 4 games.

While quarterback Tyler Van Dyke continues to struggle, throwing 3 more interceptions in the 20-6 loss, at least 1 member of the Hurricanes’ offense is thriving. Building on the momentum gained from an impressive overtime performance last week against Virginia, Mark Fletcher Jr. firmly established himself as Miami’s primary ground threat by rushing for a career-high 118 yards on 23 carries against the Wolfpack.

After missing 3 games with a stress fracture in his foot earlier in the season, the true freshman showed us that he’s back to full speed. His running, along with Kam Kinchens’ 3rd interception in as many games, was one of the few positives to come out of an otherwise ugly effort.

North Carolina

There isn’t much to be learned from a 59-7 beatdown of an overmatched FCS opponent called the Camels.

The biggest thing to come out of Saturday’s game at Kenan Stadium is that star receiver Tez Walker, who spent the night in an Atlanta hospital after taking a heavy hit late in last Saturday’s loss at Georgia Tech, is healthy. He had 2 catches for 41 yards, both for touchdowns.

We also learned that the ACC’s leading rusher, Omarion Hampton, became the fastest Tar Heel to reach the 1,000-yard rushing mark in a season since Giovanni Bernard did it in 8 games in 2019. This is game 9 for UNC. Hampton ran for 144 yards and surpassed the 1,000 mark on a 54-yard touchdown dash midway through the 2nd half.

The Tar Heels’ defense also healed some wounds after allowing 78 points in its past 2 games, both losses. But it’s going to take until next week when they take on rival Duke to learn whether the improvement was legit or simply the product of playing an overmatched opponent.

NC State

Adversity seems to bring out the best in Dave Doeren and his Wolfpack. Seemingly down and out after getting shut out at Duke 2 weeks ago, they’ve gotten off the deck to win 2 straight to earn bowl eligibility for the 9th time in the coach’s 11-season tenure.

And the most amazing thing about their revival is that they’ve done while getting little to nothing from their offense. The unit led by linebacker Payton Wilson, who finished with 16 tackles, 2 pass breakups and 2 quarterback hurries, held an ACC opponent without a touchdown for the 1st time since 2011 in helping its coach to his milestone victory.

Not only did Doeren surpass Earle Edwards for the school record, but we learned that with his 78th career win at NC State, he has now beaten every current member of the ACC.

Pittsburgh

There’s something about ranked ACC opponents that seems to bring out the best in the Panthers. After beating Louisville earlier in the season, they gave No. 4 Florida State a much tougher challenge than expected. They actually led 7-0 briefly after a 2nd quarter touchdown. And hey, they covered the 21.5-point spread.

But other than learning that Pitt’s players have it in them to respond positively to the criticism they received from their own coach after last week’s embarrassment at Notre Dame, there’s not a lot left to find out about the Panthers during this lost season.

Syracuse

We learned, courtesy of the fans at Dome who stuck around until the bitter end on Thursday, that the folks in Upstate New York are running out of patience with Dino Babers. Their chants of “Fire Dino” were clearly audible on the ESPN broadcast as the Orange stumbled to their 5th straight loss after a 4-0 start.

On the plus side, Syracuse’s defense played by far its best game since mid-September. But all that did was hold the score down thanks to a putrid offense that managed only 34 passing yards and committed 4 turnovers.

And yes, quarterback Garrett Shrader didn’t play because of an undisclosed medical issue. But that’s not an excuse. The Orange have scored only 3 touchdowns in their last 4 games combined and now find themselves in serious danger of missing out on bowl eligibility.

That’s the kind of result that gets coaches fired.

Virginia

The most important takeaway from Saturday’s 45-17 loss at Georgia Tech is that losing quarterback Tony Muskett to an injury just 5 plays into the game was the worst thing that could have happened to the Cavaliers.

Muskett being able to play the entire game probably wouldn’t have had a significant impact on the outcome. Not the way UVa’s defense struggled to stop the Yellow Jackets’ running game. The biggest impact is that it forced coach Tony Elliott to burn the redshirt of promising true freshman Anthony Colandrea.

Elliott tried to avoid it by sending walk-on Grady Brosterhous in after Muskett’s injury. He actually completed the only pass he attempted before the decision was made to go with Colandrea, who played in 4 games earlier this season after Muskett got hurt in the season opener against Tennessee. He finished 21-of-37 for 200 yards, 2 touchdowns, an interception and a lost fumble.

Virginia Tech

It was fun thinking that the Hokies could actually play their way into the conference championship game. It was just like old times. Beamer Ball was back. Sort of. And then reality set in.

Louisville reminded us that while Tech has made significant strides back toward respectability since its 1-3 start to Year 2 of the Brent Pry era, it still has a long way to go to actually becoming a legitimate contender. Now that the Hokies have been knocked out of title game contention, they can set their sights on a goal they can actually achieve – winning 2 of their last 3 against BC, NC State and Virginia to earn bowl eligibility.

Wake Forest

We learned that the Deacons have no one but themselves to blame for this loss and potentially missing out on bowl eligibility for the 1st time since 2015. Dave Clawson’s team outgained Duke 400-267.

But Mitch Griffis was intercepted on the verge of field goal range in a tie game with 4:12 remaining and Wake’s defense helped the Blue Devils out by committing a pair of 15-yard penalties on the ensuing drive to lose in walk-off style. “It really stings,” Clawson said afterward.

The loss means that the Deacons will have to win 2 of their last 3 games – against NC State, Notre Dame and Syracuse – to reach the 6 wins needed to qualify for the postseason.