OUR LEAGUE: From walk-on to record-setter

Scattershooting around the ACC, while noting that fans showing up to Saturday’s Virginia game against visiting Boston College will witness one of the more interesting stories in college football ...

That would be the winding down of BC kicker Steve Aponavicius’ career.

Five years ago, Aponavicius, a former high school soccer player was sitting in the stands one week as a fan, adorned in body paint and taking in BC’s season-opener. The team was struggling with its kicking game, and one day, a former BC grad assistant was on his way to class and spotted Aponavicius practicing field goals by himself.

The grad assistant asked the youngster if he’d like to walk on to the team, and Aponavicius figured, ‘Why not?’

Five years later, Aponavicius is Boston College’s all-time leading scorer with 267 total points, including a school-record 144 PATs.

“It’s a great story,” said Eagles coach Frank Spaziani, a former UVa assistant who will be making his first visit to Scott Stadium in almost 20 years this weekend. “A guy drops from the student body and after a lot of hard work, a lot of time and energy, he becomes the all-time leading scorer. That’s a great accomplishment he can be proud of.”

Virginia coach Al Groh found it bewildering that BC has a record-setting kicker and a 25-year-old quarterback (Dave Shinskie, a former professional baseball player) as key figures.

“You’ve got your kicker, a guy who is sitting in the student body one week, and your quarterback was playing minor league baseball last summer,” Groh said. “I don’t know how it happened, but I can just imagine.”

Groh pretended to be a player knocking on the door of a coach’s office.

“Coach, can I talk to you for a second? I would like to introduce myself. I want to kick for you,” Groh chuckled. “Or, ‘Hey, I’m here and I want to be your quarterback.’ Oh, no kidding? Really? Come on in. I don’t know if it went down that way, but it’s a good story.”

Stat of the week I

Teams might want to keep Georgia Tech from scoring first in games. When the Yellow Jackets score first, they’re 7-1 on the season.

Stat of the week II

While Boston College is 0-3 on the road this season, Virginia had better make sure that Eagles’ running back Montel Harris doesn’t reach 100 yards rushing. When Harris goes over 100, BC is 4-0 on the season.

Quote of the week I

N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien was baffled about how quiet his locker room was after Saturday’s win over Maryland, snapping a four-game losing streak, leaving the coach to say:

“Did you guys forget how to celebrate?”

Quote of the week II

After turning 80 years old over the weekend, Florida State coach Bobby Bowden was asked how hard it was to celebrate his birthday:

“You don’t celebrate after last night,” Bowden said Sunday morning. “Our team got beat. [Son] Terry’s team lost their first game last night, too, in overtime. My son-in-law, Jack, who coaches a local high school that had a seven-game winning streak, they got beat. So our whole family got whipped. We aren’t celebrating nothing.”

Quarterbacks down

A rash of late-season quarterback injuries have started to plague ACC teams.

Virginia’s Jameel Sewell went down in the Duke game and missed the Miami game.

Now, Florida State will be forced to start redshirt freshman QB E.J. Manuel (of Virginia Beach) in place of Christian Ponder, the league’s leading passer in Saturday’s game against Wake Forest. Ponder injured his shoulder when trying to tackle a Clemson player that intercepted his pass last Saturday night.

That’s a lot of pressure on Manuel, since FSU must win two of its last three games in order to maintain the nation’s longest active bowl streak (27 in a row).

Maryland QB Chris Turner, who has started 29 of the last 30 games, watched the second half of last week’s loss at N.C. State due to a knee injury that could keep him out of this game or more.

New unis

When Virginia Tech travels to Maryland on Saturday, the two teams’ attire might be more interesting than the game. The Hokies are lopsided favorites to extend the Terrapins’ misery.

The visiting Hokies will wear their eighth uniform combination of the season, a special uniform that Nike will supply, then auction the jerseys later. Tech will wear an all-white uniform, including white helmets.

Meanwhile, Maryland will wear camouflage uniforms (black and tan) to honor military veterans during a week that featured Veterans Day. The Terps are also promoting the Wounded Warriors Project.

Checks & balances

Virginia ranks eighth in the ACC in average home attendance with 46,605 fans per game. Some blame the low figures on the team’s record, but N.C. State (4-5 overall and 1-4 in the ACC) is still drawing 56,305 per home date, according to the league office.

Miami is 7-2 overall and attracting an average of 49,421 fans per game. Boston College is 6-3 and averaging 34,790 fans per home date. Georgia Tech is 9-1 and drawing but 50,819 fans per home game.

How’s the ACC’s instant replay doing this year? So far, 142 plays have been reviewed by ACC replay crews only. Of that total, a mere 23 have been overturned. Average length of the replays has been 1 minute, 14 seconds.

Short yardage

League oddity: is N.C. State the determining factor in Maryland’s bowl chances each year? Strange but true, since 1978 each of the 15 times the Wolfpack has beaten the Terps, Maryland failed to make it to a bowl game. Conversely, in 13 of the 17 meetings the Terps have won, they’ve gone to a bowl. ... Give North Carolina credit for finding a way to cool off Duke QB Thaddeus Lewis last weekend. During the Blue Devils’ three-game conference winning streak, Lewis completed 70.6 percent of his passes and averaged 391 yards per game. However, vs. the Tar Heels, he was mediocre at best with a 16 of 33 game for only 133 yards. Said, Duke coach David Cutcliffe: “Carolina’s rush got to Thad ... he got hit way too much.” ... ESPN will feature a 2 1/2-hour special to evaluate the college basketball signing class of 2010 recruits on Friday at 2 p.m. on ESPNU. It will be interesting to see how those experts rate Virginia’s class of five incoming players. ... Watch for our feature story on Spaziani’s homecoming in Friday’s Daily Progress. ... Don’t forget that UVa legend Barry Parkhill will be the featured speaker at the MS Dinner of Champions on Dec. 2 at JPJ, proceeds benefiting the MS Society (tickets, 971-8011).

The picks

Last week: 6-0. To date: 48-21. This week: Virginia Tech 48, Maryland 10; Wake Forest 30, Florida State 24; Georgia Tech 40, Duke 23; Clemson 33, N.C. State 21; Miami 20, UNC 17; Virginia 27, Boston College 24.