Wake Forest
What do Chuck Amato, Tom O’Brien, Carl Franks, Ted Roof, David Cutcliffe, John Bunting, Butch Davis and now Larry Fedora have in common?
They’ve all lost to a road game to Jim Grobe. The estimable Wake Forest coach improved to 13-2 at home against the rest of the Big Four with Saturday’s 28-27 win against the Tar Heels.
Grobe will always have the ’06 ACC title, and an uncanny ability to beat Florida State, but a large part of his legacy will be the ability to beat in-state opponents and usually with less talent.
Pac-12
The Pac-12 got upset wins by Arizona (against Oklahoma State), Oregon State (against Wisconsin) and UCLA (against Nebraska) against ranked nonconference opponents, and Southern California, Arizona State and Stanford beat BCS foes. Note to the ACC, that’s how you make a statement.
Maryland
Give Randy Edsall his due; the beleaguered second-year coach has the Terps off to a 2-0 start, matching last year’s win total, after Saturday’s 36-27 win against Temple. The Terps led 26-3 in the second half, a lead Temple cut to two points, but Edsall’s skeleton crew held on for an unexpected road win.
Miami
As fake Dan Beebe, a Twitter account mocking the erstwhile Big 12 commissioner, noted during Miami’s 52-13 loss at Kansas State – at least we know the Hurricanes aren’t cheating anymore.
Not that infamous booster Nevin Shapiro ever got much of a return on his investment in the mid-2000s, but the Canes are hitting new lows. Kansas State used Miami for an ashtray Saturday, a concept that would have been unfathomable in salad days of “The U” in the 1980s.
Adieu, injury reports
The days of meaningful ACC injury reports appear to be numbered. Once one coach fails to cooperate, in this case the Tar Heels’ Fedora, you can be sure the rest will follow.
Fedora didn’t list any injury details, even a vague “lower body” descriptor, or provide an update on the status of star running back Gio Bernard, who missed the game with an apparent knee injury, in last week’s report for the Wake Forest game.
Fedora likes to share injury information as much as he likes to punt, which is his prerogative, unless the ACC says otherwise. And the ACC says the injury reports, agreed to by the coaches before the 2008 season and in place ever since, are a guideline not a policy, so there’s really no recourse for the failure to cooperate, other than other coaches doing the same.
Ultimately, we all find out who’s playing, and who’s not, when the game starts, so it’s not that big of a deal.
Ranking the ACC
1. Clemson: Auburn might not be that good, but Clemson is only getting better with the return of Sammy Watkins this week.
2. Florida State: Reminder, the Seminoles lost to Wake Forest last year.
3. Virginia Tech: The Hokies won’t hit high gear for another month, not that they don’t need to.
4. Georgia Tech: We know this: The Yellow Jackets are better than Presbyterian.
5. Wake Forest: Reminder, the Deacons beat the Seminoles last year.
6. North Carolina: Tar Heels will need Bernard in order to knock off a ranked Louisville team on the road.
7. Virginia: Nothing wrong with depending on the kindness of errant kickers.
8. N.C. State: Ugly win at Connecticut but still a win.
9. Maryland: Edsall’s holdovers vs. Edsall’s leftovers this week at UConn.
10. Duke: Stick to directional Florida schools, Blue Devils.
11. Miami: There’s no “d” in Miami or Hurricanes.
12. Boston College: Eagles will regret that Miami loss come November.
Giglio: 919-829-8938 or twitter.com/jwgiglio
