On the road again – final thoughts from ACC Kickoff

Ok, so here I am nearing the end of what will be a 19-hour work day, riding shotgun while intrepid WRAL reporter Jason Jennings polishes off the final four hours of our ride home. The Eagles are playing on the radio. What better time to share some random thoughts on what was a very chaotic, very long, and very productive weekend in Greensboro, GA.

*In the coaches’ interviews Monday afternoon, Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden said that Cutcliffe can win at Duke “if Duke lets him.” What did the ageless wonder mean by that? That Duke needs to step up its facilities? That the administration needs to relax its fairly stringent admissions requirements (comparatively speaking) to allow the former Manning brothers’ mentor a deeper talent pool to recruit from? That they simply need to stay out of the man’s way and let him go to work?

Of course that question was the last one of the interview session, and we didn’t have enough time to get the eldest Bowden to elaborate. It would have been interesting to see what he meant by it though, especially considering the grin on his face when he said it.

*Wake forest still gets no credit, and all they’ve done recently is win football games. All weekend long, all I heard about was how talented Clemson was (what else is new?), how solid Virginia Tech was despite losing a number of players, and how much improved the Tar Heels from Chapel Hill will be. Not that Jim Grobe would complain, but it’s ridiculous how little pub the boys from Winston-Salem get. With 14 starters returning from a team that went 9-4 despite their significant injury woes, the Deacons deserve more than five first place votes. I’m not saying Wake is better than their counterparts from Death Valley, but the gap is far less than you would believe from hearing people talk this weekend.

The ever-quotable Bobby Bowden even went on the record as saying there's one man he always mentions first when ADs with an open head coaching position pay him a call after the season is over. That man? Yep…Jim Grobe.

*There are more questions than answers leading into the season. Who will be the quarterback for State? How will Maryland’s QB by committee work out? Did Miami’s young players gain enough experience during last year’s tough campaign to make a significant improvement this time around? Is David Cutcliffe a magician? How long does it take to install the spread (read: triple option offense)? Is there life after Matt Ryan?

I have a feeling this is going to be one of those seasons where the final standings look almost nothing like the preseason media polls. Of course, those polls lost all respect in my eyes when someone voted Virginia to finish first in their division, so it’s probably just as well.

Here is just a sampling of some of the non-conference opponents on the schedule:

Clemson starts the season against Nick Saban’s boys from Alabama in Atlanta, N.C. State opens on the road against Spurrier and the Gamecocks of South Carolina, the Tar Heels’ second game takes them to NJ to face Rutgers in their place, Miami has a date with the Gators in the Swamp in week two, and Virginia hosts Southern Cal to open the year.

Wow…

So much for trying to load your schedule up with patsies to try and ensure a bowl berth…

So, believe it or not, we just got a flat tire 300 miles away from our destination. So, in the interest of self-preservation I’m going to bring this blogging session to a rather abrupt halt.

You’ll have to trust that I’m not just being lazy – besides, I couldn’t make this up…

Anyway, more later if I have time. But, if this is indeed good-bye, feel free to check out the rest of the site for all of the coverage that WRAL and 99.9 The Fan had this weekend from ACC football’s season-opening event. There are interviews from every coach, stories on every team and player interviews from all of the area programs.