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By Brandon Rink
SouthernPigskin ACC Columnist
SouthernPigskin.com Columnist Brandon Rink breaks down the storylines coming out of ACC Media Days. Follow us on Twitter at Twitter.com/SouthernPigskin. Become a fan of us on Facebook at the SouthernPigskin.com Facebook Page
ACC media days brought a number of stories – mostly non-stories made into stories, but we did learn a few things and here’s how I rank the storylines coming out of the weekend.
1) QB Conversation
The ACC lent a helping hand to FSU QB Christian Ponder’s Heisman campaign by giving out promotional goodies to the media at-large. It’s an interesting move as there are other capable candidates from the ACC, but Ponder is the kind of guy a conference can stake a reputation on.
On the topic of who is best QB in the ACC, Ponder drew praise around the ACC coaching community, but when Frank Beamer was asked who the best QB in the ACC was – he said his QB, Tyrod Taylor. Personally, I would take Ponder, but Taylor brings a dual-threat capability that makes him dangerous in the right offense.
Most QB spots across the ACC were settled this week. Maryland settled on Jamarr Robinson, Wake Forest tagged junior Skylar Jones as the leader for now, and Dave Shinskie at BC received the bulk of the talk at ACC media days.
Parker’s decision to come back settled Clemson’s QB situation, and also brought a funny quote about Tajh Boyd’s role for Clemson. Dabo said, “It's a great opportunity for a young, talented quarterback like Tajh, because otherwise, we'll just stick the firehose in his mouth, just turn it on and hold on. Now, we can bring him along at a normal progression."
2) ACC Media Predictable Predictions
The ACC media partied like it was 2009 with a redo of Virginia Tech as the ACC champ pick and FSU runner-up. The picks were not surprising, but the disparity between them and the rest was, frankly, disappointing. The Hokies had 62 first place votes to the reigning ACC champ Georgia Tech’s 11 votes. Now, I picked FSU and Virginia Tech too, but I have a hard time believing that 63% of the voters did all the research necessary and picked the Hokies from the four real contenders in the Coastal (of course, they all could have read my previews and fell in line which is perfectly fine then…).
Any way you slice it, it was surprising how dominate Virginia Tech was in the voting with 35 votes to win the ACC over FSU to the ‘Noles 11 votes to beat the Hokies.
3) Herzlich Comeback Tour
Everybody wrote a Herzlich story at the ACC Football Kickoff, and deservedly so. He’s a guy that everybody can root for as he tackled cancer, raised a lot of money towards cancer research, and now is coming back to the game he loves this fall. The fact that he will play again is remarkable, but now, it is indeed intriguing how close to his 2008 form he can return to lead the Eagles defense.
4) Wolfpack Secondary Takes a Hit
NC State coach Tom O’Brien announced the season-ending injury of sophomore Rashard Smith – a projected starter at corner. The injury couldn’t come at a worse spot for a Pack defense that finished 106th in pass efficiency defense and 69th in pass defense overall. O’Brien said, “Certainly it is [a blow] to the secondary when you think of all the young kids back there, and you already know that Jarvis Byrd is out until at least November because of his injury…you played five freshmen back there last year, and you’ve already lost two of them, that’s a tough thing for us.”
5) UNC Investigation Talk
No comment. No really, there wasn’t any comments – a lot of questions, but no juicy details were given up by Butch Davis, T.J. Yates, or Robert Quinn.
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Stories written by SouthernPigskin.com columnists are done independently. Views do not always coincide with those of the remainder of the staff or the ownership of SouthernPigskin.com.
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