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Plenty to Like: The ACC may not be a colossus on national stage, but it should have an exciting product
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COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Published: September 3, 2009
The ACC looked at the football glass last winter and saw 10 bowl teams, which qualified as half full and then some.
The rest of the college world looked at the ACC and saw no top-10 teams, the big E on any gauge.
These two views of reality don't square, and pretty soon opinions on the subject won't matter. As Coach Tom O'Brien pointed out weeks before the N.C. State opener against South Carolina, the games settle all arguments. In other words, win or shut up.
O'Brien tends to speak softly and go back to work, his understated steel will in blatant contrast to predecessor Chuck Amato. His attention to detail makes the Wolfpack a candidate for serious status climbing (but not yet a strutting player on the national stage).
If the ACC seeks that kind of attention, consensus favorite Virginia Tech needs to flash the red lights on that jacked-up, mountain-climbing, off-road bandwagon.
The ACC predicated expansion on creating a 12-team league that could stage a wildly popular football-championship game and rake in television money. The key elements behind the decision -- Miami's perennial title contender, Boston's TV market, transcontinental acceptance of ACC superiority -- pretty much vaporized.
Although the fat contracts rolled in, the plan got rolled like a wimp in a South Beach boxing club. The championship game, staged exclusively in Florida so far, generates about as much horsepower as Mobile's GMAC Bowl (which will invite an ACC qualifier this season).
One reason: Miami drove into a swamp. Another: Florida State retreated into disorganized mediocrity. Another: North Carolina and N.C. State sank so low they needed new coaches and rebuilding tools. And, did you hear the one about Clemson? Fired its coach -- a Bowden, no less -- before frost killed the peach season.
Hokies in national spotlight
Virginia Tech, an expansion-banquet beggar until politicians delivered the seat originally assigned to Syracuse, stomped into the void and started collecting hardware. The Hokies could make that three ACC flags in a row by winning the championship game in Tampa.
The talent suggests such a finish, with junior quarterback Tyrod Taylor purportedly achieving field-general maturity and the typically nasty defense suffocating pretenders.
Coach Frank Beamer's formula took a wind-sucking punch in the gut as practice opened, however. Darren Evans, a 1,265-yard runner as a mere freshman, tore up a knee. A potential replacement, Josh Oglesby, a sophomore from Garner (N.C.) High School, is the son of the No. 13 name on Carolina's all-time rushing list, Ike Oglesby.
The Hokies will play a schedule ripe with huge rewards. Tech begins ranked No. 7 in the AP poll, two spots below Alabama, its opening opponent in the Georgia Dome. Victories there, the next week against Marshall and the third week against Nebraska could set the table for a magical run.
The whole world might not be watching, but the ACC will. Early stumbles last year -- especially Clemson's lifeless debut against 'Bama and the Hokies' loss to East Carolina -- cast the league as a target for ridicule.
Other early games will affect the ACC status meter -- especially FSU at Brigham Young and Oklahoma at Miami -- but the Hokies remain the league's firmest candidate for national respect.
Parity has plusses
That raises a question from deep left field: How much does it matter? Football teams don't need rankings to justify their existence, and football leagues don't need ranked teams to put on exciting races. People who followed the ACC before Florida State remember.
Parity, although widely despised among the opinion set, offers its own rewards. Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech tied for the Coastal lead at 5-3 last season, with the Hokies prevailing on the basis of a 20-17 home victory. Carolina and Miami tied for second at 4-4.
In the Atlantic Division, all six teams finished within one game of each other. At the top, 5-3 Florida State and Boston College. The others -- including N.C. State and Wake Forest -- were 4-4.
Consequently, picking 2009 winners seems fanciful, maybe even a shade silly. Virginia Tech deserves its preseason perch but must play a possibly pivotal division game at Georgia Tech, the next ACC team in the AP poll at No. 15.
Minutes after West Virginia won the Charlotte bowl, Coach Bill Stewart announced that he wouldn't want to play fast-track Carolina in the near future. The Tar Heels' path to the top could encounter road blocks because of a disjointed offensive line and a schedule that sends them to Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech.
In the Atlantic Division, the six-team scramble resumes without an obvious leader. For the umpteenth straight year, romantics envision Florida State's resurgence. Boston College spoiled the dream the past two years, but staff and player changes make a repeat unlikely.
N.C. State returns the best 2008 quarterback, Russell Wilson, but the best player, linebacker Nate Irving, broke a leg in a single-car wreck and will miss the race.
Clemson gained momentum after its coaching change and could break through, but Wake Forest looks like the most logical survivor. The Deacons will play State and FSU at home, Clemson and BC on the road.
The big question: With the core of the defense going pro, can the remaining amateurs stop somebody? They'll get early chances in a four-week run of division games beginning Sept. 26.
Then there's the big-number solution -- outscore everybody. Quarterback Riley Skinner, a wily senior, and his offensive mates just might do that.
Whether the part of the country west of the Appalachians will notice is one thing. Whether ACC competitors and fans should care about perceived attention is quite another.
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