September 15 Notebook
September 15, 2006 04:06 AM | General
September 15, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – What do you say we have a little fun. Can someone out there remind me again why the ACC is considered one of the country’s best football conferences, running right up there with the big boys in the SEC, the Big 12 and the Big Ten?
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| Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said his team was "star struck" playing Pat White and the West Virginia Mountaineers Thursday night.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
I must be missing something. I see Boston College opening the season by struggling to beat Central Michigan by seven. Keep in mind, the Eagles consider themselves a national program now that they're in the ACC instead of the Big East.
I see North Carolina losing at home to Rutgers and then getting hammered a week later by Virginia Tech. I see Virginia getting whacked upside the head by Pitt to open the season before hanging on for a 13-12 tooth-puller the following week in its home opener against Wyoming (I heard one NFL scout at the West Virginia-Maryland game actually use the word horrendous to describe Al Groh’s Cavalier team).
I see Wake Forest pulling out a 14-13 victory over Duke -- a team that lost 13-0 to I-AA Richmond a week earlier.
Maryland, 2-0 after season-opening victories over I-AA William & Mary and Middle Tennessee State, was out of the West Virginia game just five minutes into it. Afterward, Terp coach Ralph Friedgen said his team was “star struck.”
Then of course there is North Carolina State, which beat Appy State by 13 in its home opener before falling to Mid-American Conference kingpin Akron, 20-17 last weekend.
“They’re in a conference that allows non-qualifiers in school,” says N.C. State coach Chuck Amato. “Non-qualifiers. Y’all need to look that one up to write stories.”
Amato goes on to call non-qualifiers “inversely proportional to what their grade-point average is” … whatever that means.
A week earlier during a discussion of how tough the ACC has become, this is what Amato had to say: “If a team goes undefeated in this league, they probably ought to go right to the Super Bowl.”
Bobby Bowden, the man now sitting in the catbird seat after his Florida State team knocked off Miami in a game that had all of the allure of Geraldo cracking open Al Capone’s secret vault (with twice the hype thanks to ESPN), drew an interesting comparison between the ACC and the Big East.
“For your own safety, you’d rather be in the Big East, because you got a chance to go through there,” Bowden said. “Now, which has more prestige in the United States of America? The ACC. You better be pretty darn good if you think you’re going to come out of there alive.”
I guess it’s probably a good thing then that Troy State is in the Sun Belt.
Florida State needed a fourth-quarter comeback to knock off the men of Troy, 24-17. The powerful Seminoles had 45 yards rushing for the game – which was twice as much as they had in their season opener against Miami. I suppose that’s progress. I think I recall hearing one of the ESPN talking heads saying Florida State was making the running game a point of emphasis this year.
Virginia Tech’s Frank Beamer is perhaps the man best qualified to talk about the strength of the ACC, having won regular season conference titles in both the ACC and the much weaker Big East.
“There’s no question it’s tougher,” Beamer said. “When we had the Big East, you had a better avenue to the championship. But the trade-off is now you’re in a great league with a championship game; great excitement.”
This is the same line Mr. Beamer feeds recruits.
This week No. 14-rated Virginia Tech prepares for an epic ACC battle against Duke. Be sure to catch the replay of that instant-classic bloodbath on ESPNU Monday afternoon.
Thankfully for Virginia Tech, the Hokies don’t have Troy on the schedule to derail their BCS hopes.
Unfortunately for Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets get their crack at the Trojans Saturday afternoon.
The views and opinions expressed here do not neccessarily reflect those of West Virginia University and the Mountaineer Sports Network.
