No self respecting Terp-fan would forget to...

...gloat about FSU's season in the drink

from JoeUser Forums

Not just FSU actually, The "U" (Miami of Florida, not Miami of Ohio) is also having a less than stellar season in NCAA Football.  Not something that most college football fans would have expected really.  Both of those teams are normally near the top of the heap in college football, but not this year.

Bobby Bowden is having the type of year that most college coaches have nightmares about.  Consider Bowden's history near the top of the mountain in college football, the fall is even tougher for him.  FSU fans are not familiar with losing seasons.  Most definitely not familiar with seasons when they are made to look ordinary at best, pathetic at worst.

The same for coach Coker's Miami "U" -- the players on that team, and the players that have been on that team -- don't understand losing at all.  Most have never played for losing teams in their lives.  Miami may yet eek out a bowl game, but my beloved Terps helped make their wait just a little longer this season, and pushed them back down a bit further in their conference record.

A few years ago when the ACC was initially looking to expand I'd have told you I was concerned about what was going to happen to teams like the University of Maryland Terrapins once the big football factory schools got into the conference.  Maryland had played Miami in the past, and had played other teams of equal importance on the college football landscape, but they were typically serving as patsies for the teams like that.  So were many of the other teams in the ACC, a conference much better known for college basketball than for college football.

As I sit and write these words, Wake Forest is shutting out FSU in their own home stadium.  If the score holds up and the result stands, it'll be the first time that Bowden's team has ever been shutout in their home stadium since joining the ACC.  This would be the same Wake team that is surprising many who follow college football.  The same Wake team that has perennially been one of the teams that everyone else in the conference beat up on.  Not this season.

Apparently when the original ACC schools talked about improving their football programs by elevating the level of competition in the ACC they meant it.

I still wish that the ACC would add 2 more teams (if not 4 more) and get themselves up to the true "super conference" level.  With 2 more teams they'd have 14 in the conference.  4 more would make 16.  I'd love to see West Virginia brought into the ACC to really take advantage of the Maryland vs. Virginia vs. Virginia Tech vs. West Virginia natural rivalries that would exist.  I'd also like to see Miami playing West Virginia fairly regularly again.  Go back to the one time expansion plan to bring in Syracuse, and maybe make a big play to get Penn State University into the ACC as well.  Who for the 4th?  I don't know for that one, perhaps a team like Temple, perhaps someone else.  If someone could be brought in that would help provide a rival for some of the other teams, then by all means do it.

Either way though, the ACC is no longer a college basketball conference.  It's quickly establishing its members as football players that will give a good game to just about anyone in the country, including the former heavyweight champs.

football
4,313 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
Updating the scoreboard watching just a bit, Wake Forest 30, FSU 0.  Approximately 7:30 to go in the fourth quarter as I type this.  History in the making possibly.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top

The recent expansion finally pulled the ACC out of NC.  For years, it was the NCACC and the others.  But now, the NC teams still do not have good football programs, and the rest of the conference has grown.

NC still dominates in basketball, and I dont see that changing soon.  But at least football is interesting.

Trivia for you.  Who was the first old line ACC school to beat FSU in league play in football?

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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

I'm not sure of your answer to the trivia question you posed Dr. Guy, but I did want to follow up on the comments about the ACC being far too Carolina based.  You are quite right, they were that way for a long, long, long time and it was very frustrating.

Even now, the ESPNs of the world still look at the ACC and think Carolina or Duke (especially Dicky V).

Frankly I'm amazed that the ACC did pull in the teams that they did because it was obvious in advance that it was going to water down the control that Duke, UNC, Clemson, N.C. State and Wake Forest were going to be able to exercise over the conference.  Once they added Miami, Virginia Tech and such Tobacco Road's influence was seriously watered down.

I'm happy to see things going the way they are though, and would like nothing better than to see the ACC hoops tourney find its way to other locations a lot more frequently.  By other locations I mean not at UNC, and not in the back yard of the teams down that way.  Bid it out like the NCAA championships and hold it wherever you can make the most money.  As neutral as possible, but also as money making as possible.  I'm sick and tired of UNC, NC State and Duke having a home court advantage for that tourney.