ACC GAME OF THE WEEK
Miami (1-0) at No. 5 Florida (1-0)
Florida Field • Gainesville, Fla., 8 p.m. • ESPN
Coming off a unenviable bowl season performance and an even worst first weekend of the 2008 season which saw Clemson, Virginia Tech, N.C. State and Virginia lose key non-conference games, the Atlantic Coast Conference needs Miami to come up big against powerhouse Florida in the first meeting between the two schools since the 2004 Peach Bowl.
Don’t count on it this Saturday.
The Hurricanes are rebounding from a 5-7 season and haven’t been to a BCS bowl game since the ’03 season. Sure, Miami scored 52 points and held Charleston Southern to 126 yards last weekend, but let’s not confuse its first opponent with the Gators, a team that features Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and 90,000 screaming anti-Canes fans.
Tebow ran just nine times and threw 14 passes in a laugher of an opener against Hawaii. Expect the big lefty to double those attempts against Miami, who will switch back to suspended QB Robert Marve. Too bad the redshirt freshman won’t have the luxury of a “warm-up game.”
And don’t listen to all the hype about how good prep football is in the state of Florida. The fact is there is a talent gap now between these two programs (and throw Florida State in there, too), so it would take quite a heroic effort on the field for the Canes to stay within two touchdowns.
“I really do feel like we need a game like this because it’s a big-time game, big-time atmosphere, on the road, national TV,” said Miami coach Randy Shannon. “At Miami, we need to know where we’re at as a staff and as a football team. Even though we have a lot of young guys, we need to know where we’re at to move forward and Florida is a great opportunity for us to measure where we’re at now.”
Spoken like a true underdog.
The gap may be even wider on the sidelines where Urban Meyer’s 71-16 record is the third-best winning percentage among active coaches behind Pete Carroll at Southern Cal and Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops. The inexperienced Shannon is just 6-7 in his second season as Miami’s head man. Enough said. Advantage to the Urban Legend.
“A win would be a great start for us as a program and for the conference. Those are things that you look forward to that you don’t ever talk about,” Shannon said.
Expect things to get worst for the ACC before they get better.—David Droschak
SU Prediction: Florida 44, Miami 13
Best of the rest:
Wake Forest 38, Mississippi 21
Boston College 23, Georgia Tech 20
Northwestern 24, Duke 17
ACColades: News and Notes from around the ACC (WEEK 2)
By David Droschak (Posted Sept. 3, 2008)
Turner Time: Chris Turner, who started eight games last season for Maryland, will be back under center this weekend at Middle Tennessee after starter Jordan Steffy suffered a thumb injury.
Steffy, a senior who beat out Turner in the preseason and was intercepted twice in a 14-7 season-opening victory over Delaware, tore a ligament from a bone in his thumb and could be lost for at least three weeks, maybe longer, according to coach Ralph Friedgen.
The Maryland coach said Turner looked “OK” in practice the last few days.
“It was very close, a very tough decision,” Friedgen said of his QB choice for the opener. “I have a lot of confidence in Chris, just as I do in Jordan. I predicted all three of our quarterbacks would play and they did. I don’t think it changes us a whole lot.”
Turner finished third in the ACC last season in passing efficiency, behind Cullen Harper and Sean Glennon, completing 63.5 percent of his passes.
Soul Searching: Tommy Bowden, maybe trying to make himself and his team feel better after getting bombed by Alabama on national TV, was quick to remind the Tigers of several teams – Georgia and South Carolina -- who turned their seasons around after early-season losses in 2007. He even brought up his father’s first preseason No. 1 team of 20 years ago, which lost in the season opener 31-0 to Miami before finishing 11-1 with a No. 3 national ranking.
Bowden went as far as to call his father, Frank Beamer and Mark Richt to see how they handled their teams following the crushing defeats.
“I wanted to make sure I said the things that I was feeling, the necessary things to my team that we needed to address,” Bowden said of the phone conversations. “Coach Beamer mentioned pride, that his team hadn’t played like that (at LSU last season), and we hadn’t been outhit like that in the last three years. It surprised me.
“I guess I just wanted to confirm what I said to the team on Monday.”
Two In A Row: Duke is gunning for a modest two-game winning. Well, modest by most standards, but not for the Blue Devils, who haven’t won two straight since beating Western Carolina and Rice in the second and third weeks of the 2003 season.
Duke’s only victory last season came at Northwestern, which will seek some revenge Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium.
“Handling success is always a challenge,” said first-year coach David Cutcliffe. “We’re pretty good about tempering most things, and when they hit the practice field they are starting to learn about us, that all is forgotten. I don’t care about last Saturday and I don’t care about this Saturday on Tuesday. On Tuesday, all I want to do is have a good Tuesday. They’ve learned that about me. I love practicing football. I love the intensity of it.”
The odds are against Duke winning this weekend, but Cutcliffe does have the excitement level up and players believing they can open with four straight home wins.
Taylor Two-Step: If you read our ACC notes package last week you know we questioned how long it would take Frank Beamer to burn the redshirt season for Tyrod Taylor. Even we at SU didn’t think it would come this soon. But after an upset loss to East Carolina over the weekend Taylor will play against Furman in week two.
“What I think people miss a little bit with this is that yes, Tyrod will help us in our running game, but I think he’s a complete quarterback, more so now that a year ago,” Beamer said. “He’s a good passer, he can read coverages better and he understands things better in the passing game. It’s not just an athlete there playing quarterback, he’s a quarterback playing quarterback. The guy can throw the football.”
Huh? If that’s true, then why did Beamer elect to redshirt Taylor in the first place, possibly costing his team a season-opening victory?
Taylor was dressed over the weekend in Charlotte, but Beamer didn’t think about using his backup QB even though senior Sean Glennon struggled.
“No, no, we had our plan and that never entered my mind to be quite honest with you,” Beamer said.
Why did it enter your mind a day later?
Things are certainly off to a curious start in Blacksburg this season.
Stat of the Week: Georgia Tech rushed for 349 yards in Paul Johnson’s coaching debut in Atlanta. That’s 349 more yards than Clemson, featuring future NFL players James Davis and C.J. Spiller, gained on the ground in its opener. Can you say Navy and Georgia Southern?
Quote of the Week: “If as a young coach you think you have all the answers in this profession it’s probably about time you need to get out. I don’t have any reservations about increasing my comfort zone,” Clemson coach Tommy Bowden said when asked about phoning rival coaches to seek counsel following a 34-10 loss to Alabama.