A house divided? How about a house imploded?
Chronicling the years-long underachievement of Florida State and Miami is not exactly unplowed ground. We've done it often here.
But it bears revisiting in light of the combined 0-4 ACC records of the once-mighty football programs this season.
So let's do the math: From 2005 to now, the Seminoles are 27-23 in ACC play. The Hurricanes are 25-25.
The two programs that were supposed to be the gold standard in a 12-team ACC are a combined 52-48 in ACC play.
Four games over .500.
This is one of the reasons John Swofford and the ACC brass bear only so much of the blame for the conference's underachievement over the last six seasons. Because, back when the conference hatched plans to expand, no one could foresee these two glamor programs sinking into such a pit of abject mediocrity.
Thanks to Nevin Shapiro, Miami has more things to worry about than simply fulfilling its potential in a talent-rich area. Florida State appears in good shape under Jimbo Fisher despite this year's awful start, but if he doesn't start producing soon the fans in Tallahassee will start to howl for something new.
Clemson is in a fantastic position right now. The Tigers are not an obscure program. They are embraceable. They have the talent and the resources to assert themselves as the premier team in the ACC while giving the conference the BCS presence it has so glaringly lacked for more than a decade. It's the basis for this column I wrote Sept. 21 asking "Why not Clemson?"
As much as the Tigers underachieved from 2005 to 2010, the Seminoles and Hurricanes underachieved far more given their resources and access to talent.
And the underachievement in the Sunshine State is showing few signs of abating right now.
Some ACC stats to chew on as we move toward the seventh weekend in conference play:
-- Florida State ranks 112th nationally in rushing with 85.6 yards per game. Florida State's leading rusher is James Wilder Jr., who has 85 yards. And 41 of those yards came on one play. Wow.
-- Wake Forest is off to its first 3-0 start in the ACC since ... ever. the Deacons won the ACC in 1970 and 2006, but they didn't start 3-0 either season.
-- Georgia Tech's Stephen Hill is averaging 32.4 yards per catch on 17 receptions this season.
-- Freshmen or redshirt freshmen have totaled 50 touchdowns in the ACC thus far this season. North Carolina redshirt freshman Giovani Bernard leads the way with eight scores. Sammy Watkins, Virginia running back Kevin Parks and Florida State receiver Rashad Greene follow with six touchdowns each.
-- Last week against Miami, Virginia Tech's Logan Thomas became the third FBS player since 2000 to complete 92 percent of his passes in a game with a minimum of 25 attempts. The others were Duke's Sean Renfree in 2010 (28 of 30 against Navy) and Toledo's Bruce Gradkowski in 2003 (23 of 25 against Buffalo).
-- Maryland quarterback C.J. Brown had a 77-yard touchdown run last week against Georgia Tech. It's the longest run by a quarterback in college football this season.
-- North Carolina receiver Dwight Jones has topped the 100-yard receiving mark six times over his last 14 games.
-- Clemson's five punt returns are tied with Miami for the fewest in the ACC. Virginia Tech has the most with 20.
-- Clemson is second behind Georgia Tech in third-down conversions (48.5 percent). The Yellow Jackets have converted 62.2. Maryland is last at 36.4 percent.
-- Wake Forest's defense is getting off the field better than anyone; the Demon Deacons have held opponents to a 32.4-percent third-down conversion rate, tops in the ACC.
-- Clemson's offense has scored 26 touchdowns this season. Just 14 of those touchdowns have come when the Tigers have driven inside of opponents' 20-yard line.
-- Boston College and Maryland have combined for 27 touchdowns.
LW
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