After third-ranked Clemson steamrolled No. 24 Virginia, 62-17, in the ACC Championship Game last week to win its fifth consecutive ACC Championship, Cavaliers quarterback Bryce Perkins said the gap between the Tigers and the rest of the league is still big.

“Coming out here tonight and just seeing it firsthand, they’re a great team, and I think the gap between them and the ACC is big,” he said after the game. “But I feel like we’re closer than people think, and we played extremely well at times, and we executed, and there was glimpses of this Virginia team that can be one of the teams that battles with them from year to year, from here on out.

“It is big, but we have the opportunity in the years coming up to close that gap.”

Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi agrees with Perkins, he thinks the gap is getting smaller and believes his Panthers can be the team to take down the Tigers in the near future. In fact, Narduzzi guarantees it.

At a news conference in Detroit for the upcoming Quick Lane Bowl, where Pitt will take on Eastern Michigan, 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh reported that Narduzzi said the Panthers’ time is coming to win an ACC Championship.

“We’ve reached an ACC Championship, our goal is not to just to get there, our goal is to get there and win the thing and in the next couple years, we’re going to win one, I guarantee you that,” he said.

Pitt, who finished the regular season 7-5 this year, has already had their chance to knock off the Tigers once in the ACC Championship Game. Clemson beat the Panthers 42-10 in the 2018 ACC Championship Game.

However, Pitt is one of the two teams to knock off the Tigers since the start of the 2015 season. In 2016, the Panthers came into Death Valley and stunned No. 3 Clemson, 43-42, on a last second field goal. Syracuse beat the Tigers at the Dome in Syracuse in 2017, that is the last time Clemson lost to a team from the ACC.

The Tigers are 43-2 against the ACC since the start of the 2015 season, including a 5-0 record in the ACC Championship Game. The Tigers have won 22 straight games, including 19 in a row in the regular season, against conference foes.

However, in terms of the present, Narduzzi believes Clemson is still the best team in the country and he will not be surprised to see the Tigers win another national championship this year. He thinks because Clemson is so dominant it gives everyone else outside the ACC a false perspective on how good the rest of the league really is.

“I think the rest of the ACC does get disrespected . . . because its competitive I mean there’s not a game in the ACC Coastal (Division) you’re going to go into and say ‘oh, this is a win,’ there’s not one,” Said Narduzzi.

The ACC is the only conference to send 10 teams to postseason bowl games this season. Clemson will play No. 2 Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 28 in Glendale, Arizona, as part of the College Football Playoff Semifinals.

Clemson is back in the College Football Playoffs once again. Get the latest official Clemson CFP gear right here!