• Late Hits archive

ECU: After a 1-2 nonconference start, the Pirates could have folded. After bungling a trip to SMU, and losing on a 96-yard dagger, the Pirates could have checked out.

• Late Hits archive

Boston College: The Eagles' 14-10 over Virginia was their first on the road and seventh of the season, which is about three more wins than any without the last name "Flutie" would have sanely predicted before the season began.

• Late Hits archive

Duke: Break up the Blue Devils, the best team in the state! Saturday's win over Maryland was a major step forward in the 40-year rebuilding project that is Duke football — winning games you're supposed to.

• Late Hits archive

Virginia: It's October and for the sports world at-large, that means an overdose of the insufferable Joe Buck from FOX. For Wahoo fans, it's time to bask in the full glory of Joe Sweatshirt.

• Late Hits archive

Duke: All apologies to Wallace Wade, but Duke's offensive line never looked as good as it did Saturday. The Blue Devils ended a 20-game road losing streak in the ACC and an eight-game conference losing streak with a 49-28 win at N.C. State.

• Late Hits archive

Boston College: First team to five wins the Atlantic Division and the Eagles (2-1 in the ACC), against all football logic, with a Carl Torbush clone at coach and Crash Davis at quarterback, are one step ahead of everyone else.

Maryland: True genius by the Fridge, laying down against Cal, Rutgers and even Middle Tennessee, to throw the rest of the ACC off the scent. Nice touch, too, giving up 118 points in those three losses.

Maryland gets to ACC play and, voila!, defense is served. Clemson's offense is only good for 15 points. (Note: That's what happens, Clempson, when you promote the gym teacher.)

Wake Forest: "Air" Grobe beats N.C. State at its own game, with a pair of Triangle recruits no less, and gets the Deacs back in business in the Atlantic. Kudos to Wake's Josh Bush, who'll go down in trivia history as the one who ended Russell Wilson's interception-less streak at 379 attempts.

ACC bashing: The meek inherited the Earth, with four of the five conference games won by the underdog, but that's not a reason to bag on the ACC (not this week anyway).

Miami beat Oklahoma on Saturday. Oklahoma, from the Big 12, played for the national title last year and opened the season at No. 3. No one judges the Big 12 based on Iowa State, so why is the ACC being judged by Maryland, Virginia or Duke?

Miami's win over a top 10 team is the bikini portion of the Miss USA pageant, the rest is just filler music.

###

Think global, win local

The five major Division I programs in the state of North Carolina have taken the ecological footprint concept to heart.

North Carolina, N.C. State, Wake Forest, Duke and East Carolina have combined for eight wins over what the NCAA, for marketing purposes, calls "Bowl Subdivision" opponents.

Take out Wake's eco-friendly win over State and UNC's win over ECU and the Old North State Illuminati is a combined 6-8 against what normal football fans call Division I-A opponents.

The group's six out-of-state wins are at the expense of the awe-inspiring collection of Pitt, UConn, Stanford, Army, Marshall and Central Florida.

The good news is the in-state group gets four more games against each other.

###

Coachspeak-to-English translation

"Four weeks in a row you get into the same situation, and the first one doesn't turn out right, turn out the way you want it, and now three weeks in a row they've come up."

— Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis after his team's fourth straight dramatic finish, a 37-30 overtime win over Washington.

Translation: If the alumni's going to give up on me, I need NBC in my corner.

• Late Hits archive

Virginia Tech: Miami's back? Virginia Tech never left. Another blocked kick, another win — 31-7 over then-No. 9 Miami on Saturday — and another season of the rest of the ACC looking up at the Hokies.

Houston: Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon, the two most famous members of Phi Slamma Jamma, attended Saturday's 29-28 win over Texas Tech. It's the first time they have seen the Cougars, 2-0 against the Big 12, win a big game in the last minute.

Coaching succession plans: Really, Florida State and Maryland? Your teams' performances are such that Bobby Bowden and Ralph Friedgen have earned the right to set the course directly into the iceberg even after they're gone?

North Carolina: As good as the Tar Heels looked against East Carolina, they were equally bad against Georgia Tech. They couldn't run and couldn't stop the run. Hold off on the engraving of that "state champions" trophy.

####

Aim for the big yellow posts

The ACC's problems have been numerous this decade, and the four previous ones, but a new malady has entered the equation.

What in the name of Marc "Asti" Primanti is going on with the kickers in this league?
Seven ACC kickers (from Georgia Tech, UNC, Virginia Tech, N.C. State, Florida State, Wake Forest and Clemson) combined to go 5-for-14 on field-goal attempts on

Saturday, with six misses from inside 40 yards. And that's without any help from Duke, which is 1-for-4 but did not attempt a field goal against N.C. Central. Georgia Tech's Scott Blair missed two chip shots, one from 27 yards, and UNC's Casey Barth missed a 32-yarder after missing from 38 last week.

Five-of-14 will get you to Cooperstown, but it's not going to win many football games.

####

Winning attitude

Ole Miss suffered a nose bleed after reaching its highest ranking (No. 4 in the AP poll) in 39 years, but perhaps the Rebels were sunk even before Thursday's 16-10 loss at South Carolina.

After the game, Ole Miss tackle Bradley Sowell expressed relief from the preseason pressure.

"I'm glad it's over with so everyone can just stop talking about it," Sowell said.

Somebody needs a visit to Need4Snead.com, the Web site dedicated to quarterback Jevan Snead's Heisman candidacy, to get in the winning spirit.

####

Ranking the ACC

The middle six

4. Florida State: Watch out, BC —here comes the "good" FSU.
5. N.C. State: Beating Pitt is better than ...
6. UNC: ... beating ECU ...
7. Clemson: ... or Middle Tennessee.
8. Boston College: Not all 3-1 records are created equal.
9. Wake Forest: The Deacs will always have '06.

North Carolina: The Tar Heels are 3-0 for the first time since 1997. Ah, 1997, that was a good year. Mack Brown was in Chapel Hill, Florida State ruled the ACC and Riley Skinner was just a freshman.

USC: There are only so many things in life you can still count on — Brett Favre unretiring, Kanye West acting the fool and USC losing a road game to an unranked Pac-10 team.

Fair or not, like the previous conference pitfalls, Saturday's 16-13 loss at Washington will keep the Trojans out of the national title game, no matter how good they look in December or how many NFL players they pump out in April.

Miami: Who's happier with The U's unbeaten start and first appearance in the top 10 since 2005: the proud Miami alums in the NFL, formerly embattled coach Randy Shannon or ACC commissioner John Swofford?

That 5-year-old lottery ticket just might come home yet for Johnny Swoosh. Amazing what can happen when you have the right quarterback.

Mountain West: Senator Orrin Hatch can focus on actual politics after the lost weekend by his home-state schools, Utah and Brigham Young.

The Utes had their 16-game winning streak ended by Oregon, a Pac-10 team which opened the season with an embarrassing knockout punch (and a loss to Boise State), while BYU get trounced by Florida State, 54-28. Fifty-four points to ACC team? On second thought, the Mountain West Conference really does need Congressional intervention.

###

Is there something in the water?

Every team has health issues but the concentration of injuries in the Triangle is abnormal.

N.C. State went into Saturday's game without starters at running back, guard, tackle, safety — not to mention their best defensive player who is out for the season — and then lost a receiver and cornerback in Saturday's win over Gardner-Webb.

Duke caught a beating from Kansas without its best defensive player and a promising young receiver.

UNC handled ECU without its starting center or tight end.

Plus, all three schools have been hit by the swine flu, Duke the hardest. Makes you wonder if its coincidence or if the basketball gods really don't like football.

###

Coachspeak-to-English translation

"If BYU saw that game, they'll say, 'FSU, y'all ain't no good.' "

— Florida State coach Bobby Bowden on how the Seminoles rebounded from a 19-9 escape against Jacksonville State last week to beat BYU, 54-28, on Saturday.

Translation: Playing possum works every time. Y'all think I've won all them games by accident?

• Late Hits archive

Clemson: You have to admire coach Dabo Swinney's honesty after Clemson's 30-27 loss to Georgia Tech on Thursday night.

“I got my butt outcoached in the first half," Swinney admitted after his team fell behind 24-0 on a series of special teams blunders.

You also have to tip your hat to Swinney, whose credentials have been questioned in this space, he got his team back in the game. If Tommy Bowden was still calling the shots, the Tigers lose by 30, not three.

Old meets new: A pair of oldtime powers got a lift from a young face on Saturday — Michigan from freshman quarterback Tate Forcier, to nip Notre Dame in the final seconds, and Southern California, from frosh Matt Barkley, for a fourth-quarter comeback at Ohio State.

And you thought only Demi Moore liked them young.

East Carolina: Pirates coach Skip Holtz summed up his team's pass defense in their 35-20 loss to West Virginia, thusly:

"Outside of the big plays, I thought our secondary did some decent things," said Holtz, whose team gave up 334 yards and big gains of 58, 55, 46 and 28.

Apart from that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

Maryland: In two games, the Terps have given up 959 total yards and 87 points. At this rate, they'll have to change their name to "Marylan." Still, the Terps can make one claim Duke or Virginia can't — they're 1-0 against the Colonial Athletic Association.

###

Confidence equals controversy

Duke coach David Cutcliffe knows quarterbacks but Late Hits knows press conference pump-fakes.

That's what Cutcliffe's attempt at squashing the notion of a quarterback controversy, sounded like. Freshman quarterback Sean Renfree replaced ineffective senior Thad Lewis and threw a pair of touchdowns to lead Duke to a 35-19 over Army.

"I made my mind up we would play [Renfree] regardless of circumstance," Cutcliffe said. "It's not any kind of statement in anything other than confidence in Sean."

Well, confidence and controversy both start with "con."

###

Ranking the ACC

Top 3
1. Virginia Tech: Fifty-two points? Who are these guys?
2. Georgia Tech: Talent and coaching is quite a combination.
3. Miami: ACC will only let ratings-winner play in primetime.

Bottom 3
10. Maryland: The Fridge petitions league to use 12 on defense.
11. Duke: Coach Cut petitions league to use two QBs.
12. Virginia: Lord Groh petitions NCAA for Matt Schaub's eligibility.

• Late Hits archive
• Faceoff: Is the ACC better since expansion?

The CAA: Apparently, conferences are like report cards, the more A's, the better. The Colonial Athletic Association, gave the ACC a lesson in humility with Richmond's win at Duke and William & Mary's upset of Virginia. The lower Division I conference has more wins (two) over BCS teams than the ACC (one).