Hurricanes, Seminoles could be on the rise

Scattershooting around the ACC, while noting that the rest of the league better watch out for Florida State and Miami ...

The last couple of years haven’t been too kind to the former national powerhouses, but early glimpses of the Seminoles and Hurricanes hints that the two young teams are on their way back.

Yes, FSU pummeled hapless FCS member Western Carolina 69-0, but one must look deeper than the score to discover what’s really going on in Tallahassee.

“I know the opponent was Division I-AA [now FCS], but it seems like the last couple of years when we won [over FCS teams], it was close,” said Coach Bobby Bowden. “We have a lot of young guys. You got to feed them baby food before you give them steaks.”

Bowden played 22 true freshmen in the game, while 39 players made college debuts. By contrast, the Seminoles played a combined total of only 21 true freshmen in the openers in the previous four years.

Miami, which gave No. 5 Florida a decent battle until the veteran Gators pulled away late in the game, is also playing a lot of freshmen, including quarterbacks Robert Marve and Jacory Harris. The QB duo are the first freshmen to start the season for the ’Canes since Bernie Kosar in 1983.

FSU split time between two redshirt sophomore QBs in Christian Ponder and D’Vontrey Richardson, who together accounted for six touchdowns rushing and passing against the Catamounts.

The two Southern squads are young but talented and it’s only a matter of time before that kind of talent begins paying dividends.

Bowden noted that FSU’s other quarterbacks, Ponder and veteran Drew Weatherford, are going to be pushed hard by Richardson, who has been tagged “D’Vo” by his teammates.

“D’Vontrey’s almost go so much talent that everybody better watch out,” Bowden said. “Everybody better keep looking over their shoulders ... he’s got a whole lot of talent sitting back there.”

Young Tigers

Clemson coach Tommy Bowden is concerned about his young offensive line and with good reason.

Two of Clemson’s starting linemen, left tackle Chris Hairston and right guard Barry Humphries, are injured, which means the Tigers are starting three redshirt freshmen on the line this week against N.C. State.

“It’s not very often that you start three freshmen on your line,” said Tommy Bowden during Wednesday’s ACC Coaches teleconference.

In fact, it will be the first time since 1943 that a Clemson team will start three freshmen on its offensive line, and that was because the entire junior and senior classes were drafted that year because of World War II.

Bowden is concerned that the Wolfpack’s defensive front could give his young line a lot of trouble and is expected to utilize the quick passing game to offset the lack of experience. Wahoo fans, does that sound familiar?

Hairston, by the way, wasn’t injured in Clemson’s rout over The Citadel last Saturday, but rather later than night when he was involved in a moped accident.

Hide the QB

Al Groh isn’t the only ACC coach to be coy about who his starting quarterback will be. Groh was criticized for that in the preseason when he refused to reveal who would start for the Cavaliers.

For the second straight week in Blacksburg, Frank Beamer has put both his quarterbacks, Tyrod Taylor and Sean Glennon, off limits from media. Maybe part of that stemmed from Glennon’s dissatisfaction with playing time last week in a win over Furman, that coming a few days after Beamer decided to take the redshirt off Taylor in order to help the Hokies’ anemic running game.

Taylor, by the way, rushed 14 times for 112 yards against the Paladins.

Coach K of USA

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who led the United States to an Olympic gold medal in men’s basketball recently, has recorded a spirited message to kick off the Golf Channel’s Ryder Cup coverage beginning Sept. 16.

“In all my years in sports, representing my country is without a doubt the most important thing I’ve ever done,” Coach K says in the cameo. “I know that feeling when superstar athletes commit to playing for something greater than themselves.”

Whether or not that will inspire American golfers to defeat the Europeans is yet another question.

Stat of the Week

Guess who leads the ACC in rushing?

If you guessed Da’Rel Scott, a sophomore from Maryland, then you were correct.

Scott already has 320 yards rushing, which ranks him atop the ACC and No. 4 nationally with 160 yards per game. In fact, Scott has more yards rushing than 62 other FBS (formerly I-A) teams.

Quote of the Week

Asked who was portraying Navy’s option quarterback Jarod Bryant on Duke’s scout team this week in preparation of Saturday’s clash at Wallace Wade Stadium, Blue Devils coach David Cutcliffe had this response:

“They wanted me to do it so they could hit me.”

Bobby & Joe

If you believe all the mumbo jumbo that finishing his career as major college football’s all-time win king doesn’t matter to FSU coach Bobby Bowden, then think again.

After the Seminoles dismantled Western Carolina last Saturday night, Bowden asked FSU play-by-play man Gene Deckerhoff a pointed question during the post-game interview.

“Did I catch Joe today?”

Deckerhoff confirmed that Bowden had tied Penn State coach Joe Paterno for the most career victories with 374. JoePa had taken the lead in the race earlier in the day with a win over Oregon State, the first time the PSU coach had owned the lead since Oct. 25, 2003.

Bowden is 79. Paterno is 82. Neither of them seem interested in giving up.

Speaking of retiring ...

College Football Hall of Fame coach George Welsh, who led Virginia for 19 seasons, didn’t seem to care for the school’s new policy of retiring jerseys rather than numbers.

During last week’s game against Richmond, UVa retired the jerseys of five players: Herman Moore, Terry Kirby, Chris Slade, Mark Dixon and Ray Savage. The week before, Ronde Barber had his jersey retired, joining brother, Tiki, who was so honored last season along with Chris Long.

That’s eight recent retired jerseys as opposed to six all-time retired UVa numbers.

“I don’t believe in that though,” Welsh said. “If somebody’s that great, you retire the number. If we’re going to get into retiring jerseys, it’s going to go on and on and on.”

Personally, I can see it either way. If you retire too many numbers, you won’t have any left for future players. Seems to me, you can have your number retired, but still allow outstanding players to use it.

The recent flurry of retired jerseys, all to deserving players, honored the 1989 team. Many of those players started a run midway through the ‘89 season that stretched to the showdown with Georgia Tech in 1990 when UVa was ranked No. 1 in the nation. During that string of games, Virginia went 22-3.

Short yardage

Virginia left offensive tackle Eugene Monroe hasn’t given up a sack going back to sometime during the 2006 season, not even against powerful Southern California. ...  The Miami game at Florida last week attracted the third-highest ratings of any regular season game in ESPN history, behind only a pair of Miami vs. FSU games in 1994 and 2006. ... If Virginia can hold UConn to less than 100 yards rushing come Saturday night, the Wahoos stand a good chance to pull off the upset on the road. The last 19 times UVa had held foes to less than 100, the Cavs have won 17 times (the only exceptions coming last season against N.C. State and Texas Tech). ... Former UVa defensive coach Mike Archer, now on Tom O’Brien’s staff in Raleigh, must be beaming over the fact that his Wolfpack defense leads the nation in interceptions with six. ... What does a coach do with an open date? Wake’s Jim Grobe, a UVa alum, flew up to ESPN in Bristol, Conn., where he made live appearances on three shows, taped another and did a podcast interview and answered 200 questions during a live online chat. ... Clemson QB Cullen Harper has been suffering from shoulder fatigue and it’s easy to see why. He has completed 65.4 percent of his passes in two games. ... BC fans weren’t real happy with Matt Ryan’s successor, Chris Crane, last week when he was 18 of 35 with two interceptions, a fumble and a safety in a loss to visiting Georgia Tech.

The picks

Last week: 9-1. To date: 19-2. Tonight: Rutgers 24, North Carolina 20. Saturday: Clemson 20, N.C. State 13; California 30, Maryland 10; Navy 33, Duke 27; Florida State 50, Chattanooga 10; Georgia Tech 27, Virginia Tech 20; UConn 30, Virginia 10.