TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Wide right.

That's normally reserved for Florida State's series with Miami but the University of North Carolina will remember its own version after an historic win at Doak Campbell Stadium.

Florida State kicker Dustin Hopkins missed a 40-yard field goal wide right in the final seconds as UNC held on for a wild 37-35 win.

For the third time in four years, Virginia Tech was picked to win the ACC in the media poll at the ACC Football Kickoff. Florida State quarterback Christian Ponder was a runaway winner in player-of-the-year polling.

The Hokies received 50 of 98 votes to win the league championship and 62 to win the Coastal Division, with Florida State picked to win the Atlantic Division on 78 ballots.

North Carolina, a trendy longshot to win the league only a few weeks ago, was picked to finish fourth in the Coastal Division as uncertainty about the NCAA investigation apparently put a damper on the Tar Heels' prospects. Duke, in fifth, wasn't far behind.

GREENSBORO -- Last year, Clemson came to the ACC Football Kickoff with life-sized posters of running back C.J. Spiller to promote his Heisman Trophy candidacy. Spiller, despite a solid all-around season, didn’t get far, finishing sixth in the voting.

This year, Florida State handed out portfolios embossed with ‘CP7’ to push quarterback Christian Ponder for the Heisman. The redshirt senior, who already has his MBA and is working on a Masters in sports management, has endorsed the campaign, even if he hasn’t put those graduate degrees to use on its behalf.

“They came to me in the beginning of the process and made sure I was comfortable with everything that was going on,” Ponder said. “There will be more, I’m sure. Have I pitched them anything? No, I’m not that creative. I would never have come up with something like this.”

I've seen some bad plays by quarterbacks so far this year. Real bad. So bad, Harrison Beck's goal-line throw into triple coverage last weekend may not even make the top five.

(Although to be fair, he gets extra credit for sheer cheekiness on that one.)

But Christian Ponder just topped the list. Watching the Florida State-Miami game in the UNC press box, Ponder just threw up a prayer under pressure from his own end zone — right down the middle of the field giving two different Miami defenders had a shot at the pick-six and FSU's lead went from two scores (12 points) to one (five points) in the blink of an eye.

Take the safety, throw the ball out of bounds, do anything but that.

But it's a freshman mistake that freshmen make. Remind me again why Drew Weatherford isn't playing? Something about an assistant coach less worried about winning games now and more worried about two years from now when he takes over for his lame-duck boss?

UPDATE: This post was out of date in less than three hours, after Connecticut quarterback Zach Frazier's fadeaway, falling shovel pass to North Carolina defensive lineman Marvin Austin for a 23-yard touchdown.

Florida State, meanwhile, held on for the win, thereby continuing to avoid the possibility of becoming the first school to consider firing two head coaches (one current, one future) at the same time. 

Christian Ponder says Florida State is "not going to lose" for a third straight year to Wake Forest.

Wait, who's Christian Ponder? If you haven't been following FSU this season, he's the new Peter Tom Willis/Thad Busby/Chris Rix/Drew Weatherford. Ponder won a preseason scrum at quarterback beating out the senior Weatherford, and has performed quite nicely against a pair of Southern Conference teams (6 TD, 0 INTs).