OUR LEAGUE: Seeing a lighter side of Al Groh

Scattershooting around the ACC, while noting that Al Groh was in a humorous mood during his Monday press conference ...

The Virginia coach has been tagged by some critics as being a media grouch, but after having been in this business most of my adult life and having covered six major college programs, I find that Groh is about as accessible as any coach I have dealt with over that span.

If a media person does his or her job and asks an intelligent question, Groh normally responds with a thoughtful, insightful answer. He cracked up a roomful of media on Monday with these one-liners:

When asked what he remembered about William & Mary quarterback R.J. Archer’s playing days at Albemarle High School, a few years ago, and likely a team Groh didn’t see very much of, Groh replied:

“I couldn’t find my car keys this morning,” he said, then paused. “But we do have 37 passes (on film) that [Archer] threw against Villanova, so that helped me compensate for that lapse in memory.”

On why he has added some in-state games to the schedule in the past couple of seasons:

“The 12th game. When the NCAA made the 12th game a part of every season, whereas before it was based on some type of calendar formula, how many solar eclipses there were in a particular year or whatever,” Groh said.

On having a fullback listed on the depth chart, and whether or not this new spread offense even has a fullback?

“There’s a lot of occasions (where a fullback will be used), plus, [Rashawn Jackson’s] mother asked us to make sure we listed a fullback because he’s a fifth-year player. Yeah, there’s a lot of occasions.”

Asked if the quarterbacks would be operating 80 percent of the offense this weekend?

“Where is Carnac when I need him?” Groh deadpanned, referring to the late Johnny Carson’s character of Carnac the Magnificent, who could mystically answer any question. “If I knew what level of efficiency that we would operate on here right now, I would probably go to the movies this afternoon. I mean, I don’t know. We are just coaching.”

Up-tempo Tigers

Clemson is trying to juice up its offensive effort this fall by implementing an up-tempo pace, which it will showcase against Middle Tennessee State this weekend.

Billy Napier, who at age 30, is the Tigers’ offensive coordinator this season, has pushed the pace in training camp but it hasn’t been easy because of the lack of depth on the offensive line and a glaringly inexperienced corps of receivers, with the exception of former Fork Union star Jacoby Ford, who has missed most of training camp due to a hamstring problem.

The Clemson staff visited Texas in the offseason to borrow a few ideas from Mack Brown.

Who’s the Hokie?

Virginia Tech fans are wondering who will move into the tailback spot for Saturday’s big game against Alabama in the Georgia Dome.

With starter Darren Evans out for the season due to a knee injury suffered in training camp, Coach Frank Beamer said the staff is getting all three backups ready for the game: true freshman David Wilson, redshirt freshman Ryan Williams and sophomore Josh Oglesby.

“This lack of reps here in preseason has been our toughest thing, really,” Beamer said. “We’re going to try to prepare three and play all three.”

Short yardage

Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson said he intends to run two different offensive lines in games this season, something we haven’t heard of before, so as to keep players fresh and wear down opposing defensive fronts. ... Maryland has just six offensive linemen in camp who have played in a game, and two of them — Bruce Campbell and Phil Costa —  are incumbent starters. Two of the six are former walk-ons. ... Ralph Friedgen is counting heavily on senior starting quarterback Chris Turner. In the three seasons during Friedgen’s era at College Park, every time he’s had a senior starting quarterback, the Terps have won no less than nine games.

The picks

South Carolina 26, N.C. State 21 (pick made Thursday morning); North Carolina 30, The Citadel 13; Boston College 28, Northeastern 10; Georgia Tech 52, Jacksonville State 10; Wake Forest 23, Baylor 17; Duke 21, Richmond 17; California 27, Maryland 10; Clemson 33, Middle Tennessee State 16; Florida State 21, Miami 17; Alabama 30, Virginia Tech 17; Virginia 36, William & Mary 14.