Back from Christmas and New Year - ACC Bowls over

Sorry there have not been many posts recently (a little before Christmas). I will be back to posting more regularly now throughout the basketball season. I want to wrap up my thoughts on the ACC bowl season to finish off the 2008-2009 football season.



Wake Forest beat Navy 29-19 to take revenge from their regular season loss. It was not always pretty for the Deacons this year, but going 8-5 at Wake and considering it a small disappointment shows how great of a job Jim Grobe has done. On a small side note, Rich Belton scored on a 35 yard TD run to ice the game in his last game as a senior. Just wanted to send him a small congrats b/c I played AAU basketball with him growing up and was happy to see him score a TD in his last game at Wake. Player of the game: Riley Skinner, QB Wake: did not throw an incompletion and went 11-11 for 166 yards and a TD. (ACC 1-0)



West Virginia edged UNC 31-30 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte. UNC led entering the fourth quarter for the twelfth time this season but could not hold on as Pat White had a career day throwing the ball against the UNC secondary. UNC finishes the year at 8-5 which is improvement but left some UNC fans questioning some late game play calling as they let four fourth quarter leads slip away this year. Hakeem Nicks turned in an outstanding ball game, catching 8 balls for 217 yards and 3TD's. He has now entered the NFL draft and will not be back at UNC next year. (ACC 1-1)



Florida State bloodied Wisconsin 42-13 to win the Champs Sports Bowl and perhaps catapault them toward a potentially great season next year. FSU started a little slowly but turned it on after halftime and made a statement in this game. They will be my preseason favorite to win the ACC next year with so much returning from this team that finished 9-4 and saw steady QB for the first time really this decade with soph. Christian Ponder. If their running game continues to develop along with the o-line FSU could be really good next year. (ACC 2-1)



California beat Miami 24-17 in the Emerald Bowl. Miami was in the game the whole way but Cal had Jahvid Best and he proved to be too much for the Canes D, rushing for 186 yards and 2 scores. Miami played Jacory Harris at QB the whole way in this one as Robert Marve was suspended and has since transferred from the program. Harris played fairly well and should give UM fans something to get excited about for next season. Miami finished 7-6. (ACC 2-2)



Rutgers came back in the second half to beat N.C. State 29-23 in the papajohns.com bowl. State was in control of the game for the entire first half behind the continued excellent play of redshirt freshman QB Russell Wilson but he was injured on the next to last play of the first half and did not return. State did not have any chance from that point because the QB's behind Russell are not capable of leading the offense. If Wilson had not been injured I think NCSU would have won this game. Never the less, Rutgers did play well and deserved the victory. State finished 6-7 on the year. (ACC 2-3).



Maryland beat Nevada 42-35 to win the Humanitarian Bowl. This was a high scoring game with neither defense playing very well. Maryland got a big effort from running back Da'rel Scott, who gained 174 yards and two scores. This is even more impressive when considering that he did not play until midway through the third quarter because he was benched by Coach Friedgen for breaking curfew. Maryland finished 8-5 on the year (ACC 3-3)

Vanderbilt upset Boston College 16-14 in the Music City Bowl, making BC the most disappointing team for the ACC this bowl season. An ACC division champ could not pull out a win against a mediocre SEC team that sputtered down the stretch. While most ACC teams are looking forward to next season with very few teams thinking they will be worse than this year, BC may be the exception. They are losing their head coach with the firing of Coach Jagodzinski because he interviewed with the Jets (more to come on that later) and don't return as much as other teams in the conference do. BC finished 9-5 on the year. (ACC 3-4)

LSU pummeled Georgia Tech 38-3 to win the Chick-Fil-A bowl. GT was overmatched athletically and their rushing attack could never fully get going as LSU's solid front seven controlled the line of scrimmage. Georgia Tech fans have to be excited however at the direction their program is taking under Paul Johnson and GT should be one of the ACC's most consistent and best teams under Johnson. GT finished the year at 9-4. (ACC 3-5)

Clemson let another fourth quarter lead slip away, losing to Nebraska 26-21 in the Gator Bowl. Clemson had an 11 point lead in the second half before two touchdown passes by Joe Ganz brought the Cornhuskers back. Clemson continued to show the same problems that they had all year (lack of QB play, which was a big surprise with Cullen Harper returning) and came up short. Dabo Swinney has much work to do this offseason to change the culture of Clemson football from someone who expects something to go wrong to a team that knows they are going to do things right. Clemson finished 7-6 on the year. (ACC 3-6)

Virginia Tech beat Cincinnatti 20-7 to win the Orange Bowl and end the ACC's eight game losing streak in BCS bowl games. VT was led by their defense and freshman HB Darren Evans. Evans looks as if he will be one of the ACC's best backs in the coming years. VT should be very good next year with the return of most of their offense along with Bud Foster. As long as he is in Blacksburg and not taking a head coaching job somewhere else, VT will have great defenses. Virginia Tech finished the year at 10-4 and Frank Beamer called this one of his most rewarding seasons. (ACC 4-6)

The ACC finished under .500 as a conference in this bowl season but did win their BCS game and probably would have been 5-5 had Russell Wilson been able to play in the second half for N.C. State. The ACC looks to have plenty of teams that are improving and should continue to get better and more competitive as a league. Every team in the conference looks as though they are committed to winning in football and that will certainly make for a better, more competitive league.

Early 2009-2010 predictions:

Division winners: Florida State and Virginia Tech
Team to watch: North Carolina State
Bold prediction: Duke makes a bowl game under second year coach David Cutcliffe
Player of the year: Russell Wilson, NCSU
Coach of the year: David Cutcliffe, Duke