College Teams with Most NFL Products

I heard this talked about on a local sports radio program the other day and it really sheds some light on the current state of the ACC. This, to me, is the biggest reason the ACC is behind some of the other top football conferences in national credibility and significance. Below is a list of the top programs in terms of producing NFL talent:

1. Miami (FL) - 46
2. Ohio State - 44
3. Florida St. - 41
4. Georgia - 37
5. Tennessee - 36
5. Michigan - 36
7. LSU - 32
7. Texas - 32
9. Florida - 31
10. Auburn - 30

The ACC only has two programs in the top 10 in terms of NFL talent and both of those have many players that have been there a while. FSU and Miami have always produced players with great speed and just really good football players. However, no one else in the ACC even comes close. The other thing to notice: There are 5 SEC teams on the list (just in the top 10). It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the best talent wins football games and the ACC has not had that elite talent. If the ACC wants to be one of the best or the best football conference in America, they need to get better players.

I am watching the South Carolina vs. Ole Miss game right now and tell me how many teams in the ACC could be SC. Not many. And South Carolina is somewhere between the 5-7 range in the SEC.

Virginia Tech always seems to be one more great player away of competing for national championships. Clemson always seems to have great talent at the skill positions but often complain about their offensive line play. Virginia produces some NFL talent but obviously not enough. Georgia Tech is the same way and their program will obviously trend differently now with the new offensive system. Duke and Wake Forest are never going to produce a ton of NFL talent and have to find other ways to win. Maryland is pretty much in that same boat (along with Boston College). The North Carolina state schools (UNC and NCSU) have to recruit better along the east and south as there are simply not enough good high school football players in North Carolina to go around.

The best way to get more talent is to win games on the field, and with the exception of Virginia Tech, ACC programs have not been doing that consistently enough recently. Gotta have the horses.

Better Week for the ACC (almost much better)

Week two for the ACC went better than opening week. Only one ACC team lost (two if you count Clemson losing to conference foe Georgia Tech). The only reason this cannot be counted as much better is because there were a few teams that had games that were much closer than they should have been.

POSITIVES

1. Two ACC teams put on another great show on Thursday night as Georgia Tech and Clemson played a great game with GT pulling out a three point win. It was exciting throughout, especially after GT's initial surge. Clemson did not give up after getting down early and the game turned out to be another good showcase game for the conference.

2. There were quite a few teams that played much better than week one. Duke went from losing to Richmond and really not doing much to beating Army, and beating them fairly convincingly at least (35-19). NC State bounced back, albeit against a much less talented Murray State team, destroying them in every aspect of the game, winning 65-7. Virginia Tech played great against a decent Marshall team, winning 52-10. The 52 is a great sign for the Hokies because they have struggled to muster offense in almost every game the past few years. Wake Forest bounced back after an opening loss to Baylor by beating a solid Stanford team 24-17. Riley Skinner was back to his old self, taking care of the ball and limiting mistakes. Boston College played well again, defeating Kent St. 34-7.

3. The ACC only lost one game against conference foes, definitely the biggest positive. The loss was Virginia to TCU. Virginia is not supposed to be good and TCU is a ranked team.

NEGATIVES

1. FSU absolutely laid an egg. For the ACC to regain national prominence and respectability FSU has to be a powerhouse. To barely beat an average FCS team (Jacksonville St.) 19-9 and need a fourth quarter comeback to do it is simply embarressing. FSU fans are really questioning Bobby Bowden, Jimbo Fisher, Mickey Andrews and the direction of the program and who can really blame them? Teams go through lulls but a team like Florida St. should not have an almost ten year run like this.

2. Maryland barely beat Colonial Athletic Association foe James Madison (38-35 in OT). Maryland is a lower level ACC team this year but should have the talent to handle most FCS teams. Ralph Friedgen needs to turn this program around or he could be looking for a job next fall.

3. Virginia, a team with respectable football tradition, is awful. It wasn't long ago that UVA was competing with Florida St. on national television and was probably the second best team in the ACC. Al Groh will most likely be looking for a job next fall as well.

The ACC restored a little bit of their repuation this weekend with a 9-1 record against other leagues. A lot of these games were games where the ACC team was favored but a 9-1 record looks tons better than the 4-6 from a week ago. The ACC still needs a national championship contender to really get back on the map but this weekend certainly did not hurt.

ACC Needs Better Week Two

The ACC did not get off to a good start in the 2009 football season last weekend, only winning one game as a conference against a FBS opponent and going 0-2 against the Colonial Athletic Association (thanks UVA and Duke). This weekend is huge for ACC football as they look to try and get some decent wins against out of conference competition. The ACC did have a nice lift the past two games, with FSU and Miami as well as Georgia Tech and Clemson putting on nice shows on national television. However, there are two things a conference is usually measured upon. One, if your conference has a national title contender it helps because they are constantly in the national spotlight and it just makes the conference "feel" tougher as a team that could win it all is playing week and week out. Two, how your conference does against the other major conferences. The ACC got off to a horrible start and needs to improve this weekend.

NORTH CAROLINA vs. Connecticut

UNC looked fine last week beating up on the Citadel, but this will be a much tougher test. UCONN is always well coached and will be looking for revenge after losing lat year. if UNC can run the football they will win the game as they can let their defense do the rest.

Pick: UNC 27 UCONN 20

WAKE FOREST vs. Stanford

Wake was beaten last seek by Baylor 24-21 and this game is huge for their chances at bowl eligibility. This also would be a nice win for the ACC as Wake is projected to finish in about the same spot that Stanford is in the Pac-10. Stanford has a good passing attack behind freshman QB Andrew Luck. If Wake can pressure him, they have a good shot.

Pick: Wake 28, Stanford 24

DUKE vs. Army

Duke was one of the two biggest disappointments of the first weekend losing to FCS Richmond. Duke desperately needs this win for team morale as well as to keep any interest from the fanbase. If Duke loses this game and starts 0-2 with losses to Richmond and Army, Duke administration will not need to hire a cleaning crew after the next home game because no one will be there.

PICK: Duke 30, Army 20

VIRGINIA TECH vs. Marshall

Virginia Tech played OK in their opener, falling to Alabama 34-24. It wasn't quite as close as the score indicated, but VT did not get destroyed as Clemson did one year ago. This would be another huge blow to the conference's reputation should VT, projected to win the ACC, lose to Marshall. Marshall has a nice team and could pull an upset if VT comes in and tries to sleepwalk through this game.

PICK: Virginia Tech 28, Marshall 17

BOSTON COLLEGE vs. Kent State

BC should have another easy win here to open their season 2-0. Kent St. will be tougher than Northeastern was a week ago though.

PICK: BC 38, Kent St. 20

VIRGINIA vs. TCU

Virginia was the laughing stock of the ACC a week ago losing to William and Mary. That loss will most likely be one that costs Al Groh his job at the end of the year. He could do a lot today to save it if he could pull the upset on a top 20 ranked team. It is not going to happen though.

PICK: Virginia 14, TCU 35

FLORIDA STATE vs. Jacksonville St.

Florida State came up just short in their opener against Miami. This game should be easy enough for the Seminoles. The only way they have any trouble is if they are not over losing last week and come out and just go through the motions. Jacksonville St. does have former LSU QB Ryan Perrilloux, who was a top 2 QB in his high school senior class.

PICK: FSU 48, Jacksonville St. 10

MARYLAND vs. James Madison

Maryland took a beating last week against Cal (52-10). Hopefully they will rebound this week against a Colonial Athletic Association team. James Madison is a decent team and Maryland will have to play pretty well to get a win here.

PICK: Maryland 27, James Madison 17

NORTH CAROLINA STATE vs. Murray State

NC State looked bad in their opener offensively against South Carolina, scoring only 3 and gaining only 133 yards of total offense. They will look to take out their frustrations on Murray St. as this will probably be a game where State fans will get to see more of Mike Glennon. This SHOULD be an easy win for the Wolfpack but you never know with ACC football.

PICK: NC State 40, Murray St. 13

wow ACC

What a weekend of college football! I am so glad there is some quality sports to watch on TV now. The summer drags on, especially when you are a Cincinnati Reds fan. While this was a great weekend with college football starting back up, the ACC took another nation wide respectability hit as the conference got off to a horrible start. Two ACC teams lost to 1-AA teams (now FCS) and no ACC team won any game of note.

NC STATE 3, SOUTH CAROLINA 7

In an offensive shootout, the Wolfpack came up just short. State was able to muster 133 yards of offense and one whole field goal. In a nationally televised game with football fans from all over the country watching just because football was finally back, the ACC laid its first egg of the weekend in a game that any halfway decent team would have beat SC as they played poorly as well.

WAKE FOREST 21, BAYLOR 24

Another chance for the ACC to get at least something of a statement win over a BIG XII team and another loss. Wake played horribly for most of the game, as it really was not as close as the score indicated. Usually reliable QB Riley Skinner threw three picks and Wake could not contain Baylor QB Robert Griffin. Wake is supposed to be a middle of the road ACC team as is Baylor in the BIG XII and the Big 12 proved superior again.

UNC, BOSTON COLLEGE, and GEORGIA TECH all won their games by scores of 40-6, 54-0, and 37-17 respectively, but they were all against I-AA opponents. While these are obviously not marquee wins, at least these teams did their jobs and won openers against overmatched opponents.

DUKE 16, RICHMOND 24

Richmond is the defending FCS national champion and did return 16 starters, but this still should have been a win for the Blue Devils. The only bright spot for Duke was QB Thad Lewis, who threw for 350 yards and 2 TDs. Duke was awful on special teams, couldn't stop the run consistently at all, and could muster no running game of their own against a team they should have been bigger, faster, and stronger than (only 19 rushing yards). Any time a BCS conference has a team that loses to a FCS team it is a serious blow to the conference.

VIRGINIA 14, WILLIAM & MARY 27

This was by far the worst game of the weekend for the ACC. William and Mary is not even considered to be a good FCS team and was not predicted to have a good year in their own division. Virginia, while not supposed to have a good year, is still an ACC Division I-A football team and should NEVER NEVER NEVER lose to an FCS team, especially not one that probably won't even make the playoffs in their own division. Horrible loss for UVA as well as the ACC (and it really wasn't even all that close!) This is the type of game that will probably cost Al Groh his job.

CLEMSON 37, MID TENN. ST. 14

I wouldn't even write anything about this game as this was an easy opener for the Tigers, but unfortunately Clemson was the only team to beat another I-A football team this weekend. That is really pathetic when you read that statement (the ACC had more losses against FCS teams than it did wins against FBS teams). Even though Clemson won fairly easily, they still have a dicey quarterback situation and need to get that ironed out before ACC play rolls around (or maybe not when you look at the rest of the conference). At least the ACC got one win.

VIRGINIA TECH 24, ALABAMA 34

This game was not as close as the score. Alabama had 3x as many yards as Va. Tech and really controlled the game for the most part. Virginia Tech did play hard and Beamer always has his team prepared, but they were no match athletically for a quality SEC team. The ACC desperately needed this win or at least a great game and we did not even come close. Anyone watching that game could tell quickly who was the more superior team.

The ACC went 4-6 (CAL beat Maryland by 50 points in the other ACC game) on opening weekend and had two horrible losses and no quality wins. For a conference desperate for credibility this weekend was a disaster and the exact opposite of what the conference was looking for. Hopefully the rest of the year will be much better than this weekend or it won't be long before ACC fans will be asking, "how much longer until basketball season?"