Article: ACC finds trouble in paradise
Courtesy of the Richmond times....I love it
Jackson
ACC finds trouble in paradise
BOB LIPPER
TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST Sep 19, 2006
If misery loves company, Al Groh should be thrilled to have so many lodge brothers to dish with these days. It's ACC football's version of "The View" - with Chuck Amato in the Star Jones role, the Fridge as Rosie the replacement and Mike Tranghese giving John Swofford noogies in the gallery.
Point being: Duke QB Thaddeus Lewis took it on the chin over the weekend (good of Aaron Rouse to apologize, but it was still a nasty play), and so did ACC football.
Maryland? Crushed at West Virginia. Miami? Demolished at Louisville. N.C. State? Routed at, umm, Southern Mississippi. North Carolina? Lucky to beat Furman. Virginia? Dumped by (huh?) Western Michigan at home.
The scorecard for the ACC so far now reads 1-2 against the Mid-American Conference, 2-5 against teams from BCS leagues (if you count Notre Dame in that mix) and 2-4 against the Big East.
You remember the Big East? It's the collective left for dead when ingloriously plundered by the ACC three years ago. Big East boss Tranghese called ACC chief Swofford a ratfink and deleted him from his Rolodex and Christmas-card list. Then he found some replacement parts, asked for benefit-of-the-doubt dispensation from those who'd evict his league from the BCS benefits package - and hoped for better days.
Bingo. West Virginia whipped Georgia in last season's Sugar Bowl. The 'Eers and Louisville are top-eight in the latest AP poll. And beginning opening day (Pitt smacks U.Va., Rutgers zings UNC) and continuing over the weekend (WVU 45, Maryland 24; Louisville 37, Miami 7), the Big East has enjoyed payback at the ACC's expense.
Not that Tranghese (he swears) is counting.
"To me, it doesn't matter," he said yesterday. "Any time we can get a win against any of the teams in one of the BCS conferences, it's good for us. I wanted Louisville to beat Miami not because they were once in our league but because Miami is one of the top programs in the country, and a win over them would be good for us."
Miami. Miami was the supposed crown jewel of the ACC's heist (and Virginia Tech the grudgingly-accepted lump of coal - holy irony, eh?), but the 'Canes are a pale imitation of their former might. Some of them danced on Louisville's midfield logo before Saturday's kickoff. Oooh, that was intimidating. The Cardinals - even without their standout tailback and with their star quarterback injured mid-game - rolled.
The outcome was another blow for UM's Larry Coker, who looks more and more like a dead-duck coach walking. He's 54-11 and won a national championship in his debut. But the 'Canes have been in decline since then, the talent level is down, the boosters are howling, Coker's already churned the staff - and there's only one more head that's a candidate to roll.
Same could be said at State, where Amato was reduced to whining about Akron's unsubstantiated academic leeway after a home loss to the Zips - this from the guy who presides over the lone ACC program not to be recognized by the coaches association for superior graduation rates at least once during his six seasons in Raleigh.
Meanwhile, Groh is one missed extra point by Wyoming from maybe being 0-3, UNC's John Bunting hasn't posted a winner since his 2001 break-in, Maryland's Ralph Friedgen keeps wobbling two-plus seasons after a splashy three-year run with another guy's material and Bobby Bowden and offensive coordinator/son Jeff still can't get Florida State's attack out of second gear (204 yards against Clemson - sheesh).
Their only salvation is they mostly play each other from here on out. It might not be pretty.
Contact staff writer Bob Lipper at blipper@timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6555
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