Rivals' own Dr. Saturday (a.k.a. Matt Hinton) is training his magnifying glass on the ACC this week, and in this installment he ponders the conference's offense.
We've discussed this topic here before but figured it warranted revisiting -- particularly the question of whether the ACC's offenses, which finally, refreshingly, showed some life last season (and a lot of it), will continue the trend.
The first game of the ACC season (a back-and-forth score fest between Miami and Florida State, won 38-34 by the Hurricanes), and the last game of the ACC season (a back-and-forth score fest between Clemson and Georgia Tech, won 39-34 by the Yellow Jackets) served as appropriate bookends for the 2009 ACC season.
That's 1,763 yards of total offense.
Sure beats those glacial Miami-FSU openers from years back, doesn't it? Or the 9-6 thriller between Wake Forest and Georgia Tech in the 2006 ACC title game?
Six teams finished among the top 50 in total offense: Georgia Tech (26th), Florida State (28th), Wake Forest (41st), Miami (45th), N.C. State (46th) and Virginia Tech (50th).
Previous to 2009, simply getting one team into the top 50 was a notable occurence. Over a four-season stretch from 2005 to 2008, the ACC had a total of four teams that pulled off the feat: Georgia Tech at 50th in 2008, Boston College at 33rd in 2007, Clemson at 15th in 2006, and Boston College at 50th in 2006.
So, can the ACC keep it up?
Given the return of a lot of really good quarterbacks -- something that rarely happens in this conference -- I'd say so. With Ponder, Nesbitt, Wilson, Taylor, Harris and (maybe) Parker, has the conference ever been this deep with high-level signal-callers? I'd say no, and that's a huge deal when it comes to generating high-powered offenses.
Looking at the recent NFL Draft, the ACC absorbed some hits offensively. C.J. Spiller is gone, as are Demaryius Thomas, Jonathan Dwyer and Jacoby Ford. And even though Riley Skinner wasn't drafted, he was an excellent quarterback who contributed to the ACC's offensive resurgence.
As far as defenses go, we could see some teams improve (Florida State can't get much worse). But overall, it's hard to see dramatic improvement being made by several teams whose defenses kinda stunk (Georgia Tech, N.C. State and Duke come to mind).
What I'll be looking for is how the ACC's offenses fare in some key non-conference games.
There were a few notable instances last season where the offensive output did not translate:
Clemson's 260 yards against South Carolina (loss)
Florida State's 288 yards against South Florida (loss)
Georgia Tech's 155 yards against Iowa (loss)
Miami's 249 yards against Wisconsin (loss)
N.C. State's 133 yards against South Carolina (loss)
Virginia Tech's 155 yards against Alabama (loss)
Virginia Tech's 278 yards against Nebraska (win, and an exceedingly lucky one at that)
As Hinton notes, though, the ACC topped all conferences for points per game in conference play (26.8). That's certainly something to be proud of for a conference that was previously known for its minus-3 yards and a cloud of dust offensive identity.
More from Hinton: Florida State is back (again).
Don't worry, Clemson fans. The guy isn't exactly pronouncing them fit to have their juggernaut credentials returned to them.
As I've written before, aside from Ponder, this is probably the least interesting, least explosive Florida State team in decades; it may be the first time I recall thinking that an FSU lineup lacked the players to contend with pretty much anyone in the country. But they've still got the goods to take this division, though, so if the question is limited to the odds of making it out of the Atlantic to the ACC Championship Game, the 'Noles are probably the best bet after "N/A."
Sorry to go overboard on the Seminoles here, but some interesting comments from FSU's AD at a recent booster-club function:
Q: What are your feelings on conference expansion?
A: We’ve been quiet on the topic of expansion, but have been active. President Barron and I have been meeting routinely to explore our options. Right now, we’re very happy it stopped where it did, and expect it to remain that way for the next 6 months to year. The Big 10 is still looking at Notre Dame, and may be the next to make a move.
Q: What is currently going on as far as athletic facilities?
A: We have a couple projects underway currently:
- The new women’s softball cage has started. It is a 2 floor facility with a budget of 1 million dollars.
- The indoor tennis facility is approximately 25% complete. It’s located by the aquatic facility. It will be a two phase project. The phase underway has a budget of 4 million dollars, and phase 2 will have a budget of 3 million dollars, which we’re actively raising funds for.
- The football indoor practice facility is still in the infancy of the design phase. It will eventually be built on one of the three practice fields. We’ve made design changes, which took the budget from 25 million down to 16 million dollars.
- The student / football dorm doesn’t have any new news, but we are actively raising funds for the facility.
- We have a 3 year project on the table to renovate Doak Campbell. The steel structure under the stadium will be completely sandblasted and painted. The entire budget for the project will be 6 million dollars.
Q: Will the Thursday night football games be in the new ESPN TV contract, and will we have a home game for any of them?
A: They will be. It’s something that ESPN wanted in the negotiations. As far as us playing at home, the number of classes in the Moore would compel FSU to have a fall break for a home game. However, we’ve found that home teams win 83% of Thursday night games, so we’ve presented thoughts to President Barron.
Q: Are there any plans to have Coach Bowden come back to be honored this season?
A: We do not expect Coach Bowden to be back for a game in 2010. It’s still emotional for him, and he wants to give Jimbo space to coach the football team. We’ve inducted him into the FSU Hall of Fame, but we will wait until at least 2011 to honor him at his request.
Tom Dienhart of Rivals takes a close look at Auburn, which is ranked No. 39.
At the AJC, Mark Bradley says don't blame Mark Richt for the embarrassment that's befalling Georgia's athletics department.
Speaking of embarrassment: Jesse Jackson ... my goodness.
Jason Whitlock, perhaps the most entertaining columnist out there, puts Jackson in his place for playing the "disgrace card."
Everyone who objectively watched the Boston-Cleveland playoffs series knows James quit on the Cavs, selling out his teammates and costing head coach Mike Brown his job.
Despite Brown’s African-American heritage, Jesse Jackson doesn’t care about Mike Brown. Jesse’s all good with LeBron’s betrayal of a black head coach because Mike Brown’s name doesn’t draw record TV ratings.
We’re a nation of jock-sniffers and hypocrites. It’s not surprising so many of us fall for the crap spewed by Jesse, Rush, Al, Hannity and all the rest.
Speaking of last week's LeBronaroo, Greg Wallace of the Independent-Mail says prepare for similar theatrics from hot-shot high school recruits.
As if the theatrics to date haven't been bad enough.
LW
Click here for the new “Eye On The Tigers" blog archive.
No comments:
Post a Comment