ACC Championship is up for grabs

N.C. State and UNC, despite 1-2 starts, still say they can win the league, which is off to a slow start in '06

Despite their aggravating 1-2 starts, N.C. State and North Carolina still believe they can reach the ACC Football Championship Game Dec. 2 in Jacksonville, Fla. It sounds far-fetched, considering their only victories have come against Division I-AA teams. But who would have expected Miami to fall out of the top 25, Florida State to be averaging 49.3 rushing yards and Boston College needing two double-overtimes to remain undefeated?

"I'm not going to make any assumptions as to where it's going,'' Tar Heels coach John Bunting said of the ACC. "But right now, it seems rather wide open."

The ACC is struggling so far because of several factors, including the loss of 51 players to the NFL draft and the lack of experienced quarterbacks.

Last year, in the ACC's first season with 12 teams, the league sent eight teams to bowl games and finished with five in The Associated Press Top 25 -- including one in the top 10.

Through three weeks of this season, however, Florida State struggled to beat Troy; Maryland gave up 28 points in the first quarter in a loss to West Virginia; Virginia lost to Pittsburgh and Western Michigan; and the three Triangle teams are a combined 2-7.

This couldn't have been quite what the ACC was expecting when it raided the Big East and grew into a so-called "superconference."

"It's hard to be too critical or too upbeat about where you are after three games, because there's so much football left to play,'' said Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe, whose team is undefeated but also lost its starting tailback to injury last weekend.

And especially with the quality of football that has been played.

The ACC is 15-9 against non-conference foes.

The ACC still has four teams ranked in the top 25 -- the highest-rated Virginia Tech at No. 11. The SEC, by comparison, has five teams in the top 15.

At this rate, the chances appear slim the ACC will get a second team into a BCS bowl, and thus another $14 million-$17 million in its coffers.

But it could make for an interesting conference race.

"One loss doesn't put anybody behind any eight-ball in this conference, as tough as it is,'' Boston College coach Tom O'Brien said earlier this week.

The Eagles are one of three undefeated teams left in the league. What sets them apart this season is experience.

In the 2006 NFL draft, 12 of the 32 first-round picks came from the ACC -- the most from one conference in NFL history. The losses gutted the defenses at N.C. State, Florida State and Virginia.

This season, five ACC teams began the season with new quarterbacks. Since then, three others have made changes at the position.

Talk about a scramble behind center.

"When you've got a new quarterback starting for you, there's always some concern and adjusting, and that guy for all of us needs to play well," Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer said.

That need for good quarterback play reverberates loudly at N.C. State and North Carolina this week.

On Saturday Wolfpack redshirt sophomore Daniel Evans will make his first start at quarterback against Boston College, replacing Marcus Stone. At Clemson -- whose only loss is to BC -- Carolina redshirt freshman Cam Sexton will make his second start behind center.

To keep the ACC Football Championship Game in their sights, both local teams will have to show that even if it is a down year in the league, they were just suffering from slow starts.

"I can cite you examples where people have lost one or two games, and are sitting up there [in the league standings] where they could have been or should have been, at the end,'' Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato said. "You've got to let the whole season play out ... and we're part of it."