Tudor:N.C. State's basketball fans are worried, and that's understandable.

Tudor:Terry Holland, for more than 40 years in athletics, has been an impressive performer.

Tudor:If you're looking for the 2008 ACC football champion, don't stray far from the final score in Saturday's 2007 title game between Virginia Tech and Boston College.

Tudor:The ACC, of late, has provided the most conclusive evidence yet that college football coaching has become the final frontier for rational thinking.

Tudor:If Duke fires Ted Roof, which is likely, he can reflect on Saturday's 20-14 loss at North Carolina as a perfect example of his undoing.

Tudor:Wednesday was a good day for North Carolina football coach Butch Davis, who got a fat salary raise and a contract extension despite having compiled a lean record before his first season on the job was completed.

Tudor:A year after North Carolina and N.C. State fired football coaches, Duke has to make a decision on Ted Roof's future.

Tudor:Along with a ticket to the ACC football championship game, the race for the league's all-star quarterback likely will be settled when Boston College visits Clemson on Saturday.

Tudor:Skip Holtz can be such a charmer that he had Sandy Wilson, the queen mom of all things UNC (right down to her light blue fingernail polish), singing his praises on Wednesday at the Raleigh Sports Club.

Tudor:Could Tom O'Brien be the ACC's football coach of the year?

Tudor:There's a decent chance the State-Carolina game could turn out to be a two-way air show spiced with a lot of field goals.

Tudor:It's taken what seems like forever, but a North Carolina vs. N.C. State football game is about to be played amid a relatively low degree of coaching pressure.

Tudor:With a ticket to last season's Final Four there for the punching, North Carolina's perimeter shooters went so cold late in the East Regional championship game against Georgetown that the Hoyas were able to win by 12 points in overtime.

Tudor:Boston College's hopes of reaching the Bowl Championship Series title game no doubt died with last weekend's loss to Florida State, but Eagles quarterback Matt Ryan may yet have a shot at the Heisman Trophy.

Tudor: Maybe the football fortunes in the Triangle are beginning to change after all.

Tudor:The Tech Bowl - Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech tonight - was supposed to be just another step in Virginia Tech's march to the ACC's Coastal Division football championship.

Tudor: It's still a long shot and N.C. State is far from being a polished football machine, but the Wolfpack may yet be able to bleed a bowl bid of some sort out of this season.

Tudor: Incentive and urgency have been hallmarks of the East Carolina and N.C. State football series since it began in 1970 on a cool October night in Raleigh.

Tudor:Last weekend's scoreboard perfectly reflected the zany but infectious personality of Conference USA football.

Tudor:Vinny Testaverde is my new hero, too. Don't get me wrong about that. Yo, Vinny, you da man, and all that.

Tudor:When Rod Elkins enters Kenan Stadium for Saturday's North Carolina vs. South Carolina football game, his thoughts will race back 26 years to another Carolinas confrontation.

Tudor:Steve Spurrier's practices at Duke in the late 1980s were daily excursions into football experimentation and open-air brainstorming.

Tudor:On the 10th anniversary of his retirement, Dean Smith is still a busy fellow and has made few concessions to age.

Tudor: There have been a lot of times during the past few years when North Carolina's football program didn't really need a running backs coach.

Tudor:Sprinter's legacy ruined by big lie.

Tudor:By sporting trade, Cameron Plants, age 6 from Clayton, plays defense for the IcePlex Mites in a Raleigh youth hockey league.

Tudor: There is nowhere to hide this season for the ACC football teams in the Triangle.

Tudor:N.C. State's fans are among the most patient and loyal in all of college athletics, but some left early during the Wolfpack's 42-20 football loss to Clemson last Saturday.

Tudor: A few weeks back, Tom O'Brien thought his first N.C. State football team would be good enough to have a winning season, raise a little ruckus in the ACC Atlantic Division and scare up a bowl bid from somewhere.

Tudor:If body language counts for anything, it's fairly clear that the former N.C. State star Philip Rivers isn't yet comfortable in new head coach Norv Turner's offensive system.

Tudor:That North Carolina's football team has deficiencies is as obvious as its 1-2 record.

Tudor:Barring something stunning by Boston College, Clemson or Georgia Tech, the ACC won't have a great team this football season.

Tudor:If there is a clearly marked shortcut to success in college football -- and there aren't many -- it's finding the right quarterback at the right time.

Tudor:Pirates coach Skip Holtz had little choice but to grasp for a light mood with two seconds to go against North Carolina in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

Tudor:Years ago, the 1973 season to be exact, East Carolina defensive back Reggie Pinkney was flagged for a controversial pass interference in a game at North Carolina.

Tudor:A few days before Roy Williams' first game as North Carolina's head basketball coach, his most temperamental player was asked if there had been any personality clashes yet.

Tudor:Other than Georgia Tech's surprisingly easy win at Notre Dame, very little went right.

Tudor:"Do you even believe App?"

Tudor:If all goes as scheduled, the Big Ten Conference will launch a television sports network at 8 p.m. today.

Tudor:In most cases, a starter has been selected but in little more than a tentative sense.

Tudor:In Year 3 of a 12-team Atlantic Coast Conference in football, familiar powerhouses are expected again to rule -- with a few surprises possible. Florida State won the championship in 2005. Last year, Wake Forest took it. Columnist Caulton Tudor predict

Tudor:t if the message of Michael Vick's mess goes in one ear and out the other across the athletic spectrum, sports are in a lot more trouble than I can imagine.

Tudor:If N.C. State's football team had a positional giant on its 2007 roster, it would have been tight end Anthony Hill. That all changed when Hill underwent surgery on his left knee.

Tudor:Steve Logan gets lost occasionally and lots of folks don't understand much of what he says, but life in Boston hasn't dulled his sense of humor.

Tudor:The ABCs of ACC football are about to change, starting at the top with the NCAA.

Tudor:Skip Prosser could handle criticism as well as anybody, but he was looking forward to rewriting recent history.

Tudor:The pendulum on college football's game clock will be adjusted yet again when the 2007 season starts in just more than a month.