Spring ACC rankings
On Monday I went through the spring rankings for Clemson. It turns out, that there are other teams on those top-25 lists and some of them happen to be in the ACC. What do the “experts” have to say about the rest of the conference?
| ESPN | Southern Pigskin | Athlon | SI | CBS Sportsline | CFN | |
| Boston College | 20 | - | - | - | 16 | - |
| Clemson | 11 | 17 | 12 | 14 | 15 | 25 |
| Florida State | 5 | 10 | 17 | 12 | 22 | 8 |
| Georgia Tech | - | - | - | - | 25 | 24 |
| Miami | 18 | 15 | 14 | 20 | 20 | 14 |
| Virginia Tech | 24 | 14 | 21 | 24 | 13 | 13 |
It’s worth noting, that all of the rankings, aside from CFN are post-spring. CFN published its rankings in January.
What stands out?
FSU is the only team to crack any top-10’s. Even then, they aren’t put up there consisently. I’m betting a lot of writers are wary of the ‘Noles after last season’s ugliness.
After a string of many good years, BC isn’t getting much credit. I’m thinking they, too, will overperform this year.
Miami’s a consistent top-20 pick. I’m sure they’ll be as talented as always in 2006. So far, it seems like Coker hasn’t been able to fully utilize that talent, and the luster is vanishing from that program. After getting mauled in the Peach Bowl last year, and replacing a bunch of coaches, I was initially surprised at the similarity in rankings given all the unknowns. I suppose the writers expect another really good, but not great season out of Miami. I really don’t know what to expect. But I’m still not sure that Coker is the guy to get Miami back to the national championship.
Virginia Tech, sort of like Florida State, has a lot of skew in its rankings. How the season plays out without Marcus Vick is anyone’s guess. He was a talented player and a major bonehead. Tech is no doubt glad to get rid of him.
All this can add up to be really good news for Clemson. The lane is open for them to make a run to the ACC title game. They just have to hit the hole.
looks to me like they are riding namesakes. How exactly does VT get consistently higher position after losing their QB and most of the O-Line? Also, people must be riding Weatherford hard for wins in FSU for those positions. I agree that BC is the dark horse here, their methodical hard nose football will win some close games for them. As for Miami, well I think Coker can’t do anything to save that downward spiral. They may sputter and win a few this season but I think in the end it will be evident that Coker has taken that team down a notch from their previous national fear factor. But what do I know, I’m just a gnome
I would tend to disagree with what Clem has to say. I think that Miami will be more dangerous as they are being shunned as an ACC fav. I also think that Weatherford has the skills needed to succeed, mainly in the fact he seems to be halfway intelligent as opposed to brain dead Chris Rix who was guaranteed to make a few bone head plays in the other teams favor. Recent history will show a fair amount of success my unhearlded QB’s without a lot of starting experience becasue of the talent around them, one of the reasons folks are expecting big things from Proctor and the Tigers.
As for VT, they have shown they can continue to play at a relatively high level. I contribute this to Beamers ability to coach vs the ability of Coker and Bowden to recruit to the high octane programs. The difference in end of the season success seems to be with the talent that has blossomed at the Florida schools prior to leaving for the draft or becoming an off the field ego trip. Outside of some of the Norfolk/VaBeach/Hampton Roads thugs that VT has (Vick and the number has been increasing) Beamer tends to get a fair amount of hard nosed smart players and 8-9 wins yearly is commonplace for them because of it. Remember they were supposed to be rebuilding when they won the conference in their initial season two years ago. On to BC. ACC coaches will figure them out, it won’t be long. They didn’t succeed tremendously in the Big East when the names were still there and they won’t in the ACC, they will continue to be the fly in the soup of some team with championship aspirations each year. A team that can beat you any given week but won’t win enough big games a year to break through into the National Spotlight.
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