O'Brien says Pack could surprise

PINEHURST -- Last summer, while he was still football coach at Boston College, Tom O'Brien picked Wake Forest as the league's sleeper. He was proven right when the Demon Deacons won the ACC Championship Game.

Monday, he picked his new team -- N.C. State -- as this season's dark horse. And he hopes history will repeat itself.

The Wolfpack, like Wake last season, was picked to finish last in the Atlantic Division by the 2007 ACC Football Pre-Season Poll. This season, the Deacons were picked fourth.

Meanwhile, North Carolina was tabbed for fifth in the Coastal Division by the league's media, followed by last-place Duke.

It was a familiar position for the Blue Devils.

"We have to play our way out of it,'' Duke coach Ted Roof said of his team's ranking. "We can't poll or politic our way out of it. We gotta block and tackle our way out."

Florida State was picked to finish first in the Atlantic Division. Virginia Tech was chosen first in the Coastal and made the favorite to win the ACC Championship Game.

"I appreciate it,'' Hokies coach Frank Beamer said. "I don't know where Wake was picked last year, But I know where they finished up.

"All it [the poll] tells me is we need to get to work and try to be as good a football team as you think we can be."

GRAYER AND WISER: Duke football coach Ted Roof re-tooled his staff this offseason by adding offensive coordinator Peter Vaas, defensive backs coach John Gutekunst, and special teams and tight ends coach Danny Pearman.

All told, the three new coaches added 59 years of coaching experience to the Blue Devils, with 54 of those years at the Division I level and 33 years of head coaching or coordinating knowledge. The new additions have coached in 24 bowl games and won 14 championships.

Vaas coached quarterbacks at Notre Dame in 2005-06. Gutekunst and Pearman most recently coached at North Carolina, Gutekunst from 2004-06 and Pearman in 2006.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: Florida State coach Bobby Bowden is 77 years old and working on his 32nd year at FSU and his 42nd year overall as a coach.

Still, FSU junior running back Antone Smith said Sunday he thought Bowden had 10 more years in him.

Asked Monday what he thought about that, Bowden said, "Alive or coaching?"

STATE TRANSFERS: N.C. State coach Tom O'Brien said Monday that sophomore linebacker Avery Vogt and junior offensive guard Gerard Miller have transferred from the program. Freshman defensive lineman Gavin Smith, who redshirted last season, has withdrawn from school, O'Brien said.

O'Brien said the Pack would be without three of its incoming recruits: East Wake defensive back Dominique Ellis, Alexander Central High defensive tackle Kyle Linney and Wilson Hunt offensive lineman Justin Whaley.

(Staff writers Luciana Chavez and Chip Alexander contributed to this report.)