ACC: Big game opportunities slip away

The ACC had a golden opportunity during the weekend to show its critics that its label as a “basketball conference” is incomplete.

But rather than delivering an emphatic statement, ACC football teams collectively generated a pressing question: When does basketball season start this year, anyway?

ACC teams took the field for four key nonconference games Saturday — and came away with four losses. To be fair, it’s worth noting that the ACC teams were underdogs in all four contests and on the road for three of them.

Still, the ACC was utterly unimpressive as a whole. North Carolina and reigning conference champion Wake Forest hung tough in three-point losses to East Carolina and Nebraska, respectively, but the two games of significant national interest turned out to be disasters for the conference. Virginia Tech’s 48-7 loss at LSU and Miami’s 51-13 defeat at Oklahoma did nothing but confirm the preseason notion that it’s going to be a down year in the ACC.

A couple of the league’s victories Saturday were almost as damaging as those blowout losses.

Florida State trailed UAB, which lost its opener 55-18 at Michigan State, 17-3 in the second quarter before rallying to win 34-24. And Maryland led Florida International, owner of the nation’s second-longest losing streak (ACC member Duke has the longest), just 16-10 early in the fourth quarter before winning 26-10.

For those who want to look at the bright side, the ACC’s early showing of mediocrity against teams outside the conference could be a signal of parity within the conference. With no truly elite teams in the league — not at this point in the season, at least — there’s a good chance the ACC’s divisional races will be tightly contested and unpredictable.

That’s fine, but the ACC needs a couple of teams to emerge as legitimate contenders on the national level to give the league some credibility — and a chance to compete with top teams from other BCS conferences. Otherwise, Saturday’s disappointing results will be duplicated on an even bigger stage during the bowl season.

Scoreboard
Boston College 37, N.C. State 17
The Eagles forced seven turnovers and exploded for 30 unanswered points to hand Wolfpack coach Tom O’Brien a loss in his return to Chestnut Hill.

Clemson 49, Louisiana-Monroe 26
Cullen Harper set a school record with five touchdown passes, and seven Tigers reached the end zone to make Tommy Bowden a winner in his 100th game at Clemson.

Virginia 24, Duke 13
The Cavaliers survived shoddy special-teams play — three bad snaps on punts and a lost fumble on a kickoff return — to hand Duke its 22nd consecutive loss.

Florida State 34, UAB 24
FSU’s Drew Weatherford bounced back after having an interception returned for a touchdown, completing 22 of 35 passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns.

Georgia Tech 69, Samford 14
The Yellow Jackets set a modern school record with nine rushing touchdowns, and they scored on all eight of their trips into the red zone.

Maryland 26, Florida International 10
Keon Lattimore rushed for 111 yards and two touchdowns, and the Terrapins limited FIU to 163 yards of total offense.

Oklahoma 51, Miami 13
Sam Bradford tied a school record with five touchdown passes for the Sooners, who outgained the Hurricanes 411-139.

East Carolina 34, North Carolina 31
Junior Patrick Pinkney, who began the season as ECU’s No. 3 quarterback, burned the Tar Heels for 406 passing yards and three touchdowns in the first start of his career.

Nebraska 20, Wake Forest 17
Playing without injured starting quarterback Riley Skinner, the Demon Deacons dropped to 0-2.

LSU 48, Virginia Tech 7
In front of Tiger Stadium record crowd of 92,739, LSU handed the Hokies their most lopsided defeat since 1982.

Offensive player of the week: Cullen Harper, QB, Clemson
Harper did enough during training camp to hold off true freshman phenom Willy Korn for the starting job, and the redshirt junior has made the most of his opportunity. Five days after throwing for two touchdowns against Florida State, Harper set school records against Louisiana-Monroe with five touchdown passes in the game and four TD throws in the first half. In all, he completed 20 of 26 throws for 270 yards.

And his reward was … witnessing a standing ovation for Korn when Korn entered the game in the third quarter after the game was out of reach.

“Willy Korn pushed him hard in the off-season, and Cullen has really stepped up,” Clemson coach Tommy Bowden said. “Cullen has shown a lot of character, and this is only going to help him.”

Korn completed 6 of 8 passes for 49 yards in his relief appearance, and he scored on a 1-yard touchdown run.

Defensive player of the week: Jamie Silva, S, Boston College
Silva came up with two of BC’s five interceptions against N.C. State quarterback Harrison Beck, and he totaled four tackles and a pass breakup in the game.

Silva’s first interception came on the first possession of the game, and his ensuing 36-yard return led to a touchdown drive for the Eagles. His second pick came in the end zone, snuffing out a Wolfpack drive deep into BC territory in the fourth quarter.

Specialist of the week: Brandon Tate, WR, North Carolina
Tate enjoyed a breakout game on offense against ECU — the junior caught three passes for 102 yards and two touchdowns — but he was up to his usual shenanigans in the return game. Tate returned a punt 58 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the third quarter that helped the Tar Heels tie the game at 31.

Tate’s return was historic in that he tied the legendary Charlie Justice for UNC’s school record for total kick returns for touchdowns (five). Tate has scored on three kickoffs and two punts in his career.

Freshman of the week: T.J. Yates, QB, North Carolina
Georgia Tech running back Jonathan Dwyer was impressive against Samford — he rushed for 138 yards and three touchdowns on just nine carries — but Yates gets the nod because his performance came on the road against a solid opponent. Yates completed 20 of 32 passes for 344 yards, three touchdowns and one interception. His yardage total is No. 7 in UNC history for a single game.

Team of the week: Boston College
The Eagles are flying high to start the season, beating reigning ACC champion Wake Forest in Week 1 and following up with a victory against their former head coach. Quarterback Matt Ryan (15 of 34 for 142 yards, one touchdown and one interception) wasn’t his best against the Wolfpack a week after lighting up the Demon Deacons for five touchdown passes, but Andre Callender picked up the slack with 158 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.

Most importantly, Boston College’s defense remained takeaway crazy. The Eagles’ seven takeaways against N.C. State gave them 11 turnovers forced for the season, second in the country behind Cincinnati (13).

Game of the week: East Carolina 34, North Carolina 31
The Pirates prevailed in this in-state rivalry game that featured plenty of big plays. Seven of the game’s eight touchdowns were at least 15 yards in length, and all four of UNC’s touchdowns came from at least 37 yards out.

The inexperienced Tar Heels performed reasonably well in their first road game with Butch Davis on the sideline, but they committed two key turnovers and mishandled the snap on a field-goal try in the final minute that might have won the game. ECU’s Ben Hartman shook off three missed field goals of his own to boot the game-winner from 39 yards as time expired.

Stinging defeat
Georgia Tech’s 55-point victory over Samford isn’t interesting on the surface, but the game featured a couple of noteworthy facts. The Yellow Jackets led 45-0 at the half, their most points in a half since their historic 222-0 victory over Cumberland in 1916, and they scored one of their touchdowns despite having just 10 men on the field. Sophomore Jamaal Evans scored the short-handed touchdown on a 6-yard run in the second quarter.

As lopsided as the game was, Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey did his best to keep the blowout from reaching Cumberland proportions. He pulled starting tailback Tashard Choice from the game after Choice rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter, and he used three backups in relief of starting quarterback Taylor Bennett (8 of 9 for 85 yards).

Mr. Versatility
There’s a reason scouts are infatuated with Miami junior defensive end Calais Campbell, a 2006 first-team All-ACC selection who had 10½ sacks last year. Actually, there are several reasons. The 6-8, 280-pound Campbell can do it all, as he demonstrated against Oklahoma.

Campbell recorded a sack in the second quarter and a fumble recovery in the third quarter — nothing new for him. But he also came up with a big play on offense, catching a pass on a fake field goal to extend Miami’s lone touchdown drive of the game.

Quick outs
*LSU performed quite a balancing act in its demolition of a proud Virginia Tech defense. The Tigers racked up 598 yards of offense, splitting their production almost identically between the pass (301 yards) and the run (297 yards). LSU also converted 9 of 15 third downs while posting the biggest winning margin over a top-10 team in school history.

*Clemson sophomore C.J. Spiller, who scored on a 68-yard touchdown reception against ULM, surpassed the career 1,000-yard rushing mark in the first quarter. Spiller did so on the 142nd carry of his career, reaching the milestone faster than any other player in school history.

*Florida State tailback Antone Smith left the Seminoles’ victory midway through the third quarter because of a concussion.

*N.C. State’s nine-game losing streak is its longest since 1959.

*Virginia defensive end Chris Long, son of former NFL Pro Bowl player Howie Long, posted two sacks for the second game in a row.

*Duke junior kicker Joe Surgan missed 3 of 4 attempts against Virginia. Surgan, who made 6 of 8 field-goal tries as a freshman, has made just 4 of 14 attempts since then.

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