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Top to Bottom: League players reiterate ACC is 'serious conference'
By Andy Bitter
abitter@newsadvance.com
July 23, 2007
PINEHURST, N.C. - Last year's ACC championship game seemed to epitomize it all.
It was on a rainy afternoon just short of prime time when an upstart Wake Forest squad slogged through a 9-6 win over Georgia Tech, an odd score in an ugly game by two unheralded teams in the conference's supposed showcase.
Word got out: The post-expansion ACC wasn't living up to its super-conference billing.
"It's a misperception," Wake Forest senior center Steve Justice said, defending his conference's honor at the ACC Kickoff at The Pinehurst Resort on Sunday. "I thought we played really, really well last year. I thought we had a great season. That's somebody's opinion (that the conference is down), so take it for what it is and just come and play next year."
ACC teams will have plenty to prove in 2007. While the conference had six teams finish with eight or more wins last year and eight go to bowl games, tying for the most in league history, it lacked a marquee team.
That's been the case for a while now. The last time an ACC team finished in the top five of the final Associated Press poll of the season was 2000, when Florida State did it. Since then, only one team - Virginia Tech in 2005 - has finished in the top 10 (the Hokies finished at No. 7 that year).
Last year, the teams in the conference's top three bowl games - Wake Forest (Orange Bowl), Georgia Tech (Gator Bowl) and Virginia Tech (Peach Bowl) - all lost.
"Just for the media and the fans (to take notice), we need that top-flight team," Florida State nose guard Andre Fluellen said. "But from top to bottom, this is a serious conference."
The stats back that up. Jeff Sagarin, a computer guru whose rankings appear in the USA Today, had the ACC as the fourth-ranked conference last year, using a system that gives weight to the middle teams in the group and progressively less weight to anomalous teams at the top and bottom of the conference.
That put the ACC behind the SEC, Big East
and Pac-10, but ahead of the more-hyped Big Ten, which garnered plenty of attention during the regular season because of the success of Ohio State and Michigan.
"If you ask me, (the ACC is) one of the top ones in the nation, top to bottom," Georgia Tech tailback Tashard Choice said. "Just because the big-name schools may not be there in the big-time games doesn't mean the ACC is falling off."
Certainly, the struggles of Florida State and Miami have not helped the conference's perception, though.
The Seminoles may have won the inaugural ACC Championship game two years ago, but they finished 8-5 that year, the team's worst record in almost 25 years. Last season Florida State went 7-6, finishing with a sub-.500 ACC record for the first time.
Miami has had a similar decline since coming within a belated pass interference call of winning back-to-back NCAA titles in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl. They went 9-3 in their first two seasons in the ACC before tripping up with a 7-6 mark last year. It cost Larry Coker, owner of a national championship and a winning percentage near 80 percent, his job.
At least one Miami player doesn't see that as a failure on the Hurricanes' part as much as the conference showing its depth.
"Let's say we're 1-5. I mean, look who we're playing," Miami offensive guard Derrick Morse said. "You've got to play Virginia Tech, you've got to play Boston College, you've got to play Florida State. You can't have a down week and win."
Nevertheless, the conference likely won't get much respect to start this season. Only Virginia Tech is a lock to be a preseason Top 25 team.
"I've said this a couple times: I don't get caught up in that," Virginia defensive end Chris Long said. "I look around this room and I'll take these guys to play with anybody. I really believe that. You have to.
"You take pride in the conference. You take pride in the region. You take pride in the guys who were recruited with you. I believe they can play ball."
