If the Virginia Tech-at-North Carolina football game on Saturday boils down to strength vs. strength, it will be the Hokies' secondary against the Tar Heels' wide receivers, specifically junior Hakeem Nicks and senior Brandon Tate.

Those confrontations also will be an area of interest to the five NFL teams -- Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, New York Jets and Oakland Raiders -- that have requested passes to scout players in the 3:30 p.m. game at Kenan Stadium.

(Hint to the Carolina Panthers: Look guys, we know it's only the ACC. But shoot, it's just a two-hour drive east, and gas stations down this way are beginning to sell fuel again. At least give these kids a wink. Muhsin Muhammad can't possibly hang on forever, and at some point, Steve Smith is certain to strike an exclusive deal with boxing promoter Don King.)

For a league that has struggled in 2008 to gain national respect, the ACC has a large harvest of exceptional receivers and defensive backs.

The receivers group is led -- for now -- by Tate and Nicks. While wideouts are generally deemed to be a dime a dozen and more risky, as high-round draft picks, than a Wall Street bank stock purchase, UNC clearly has an abundance of wealth.

Through most of his career, Nicks has had all the earmarks of a poor man's version of Jerry Rice. Nicks may not be a 4.3-second sprinter in the 40-yard dash, but he's equipped with enough size (6 feet 2, 210 pounds), quickness and jumping ability to project as a high-dollar pro.

Through two games, the 6-1, 195-pound Tate has been as explosive as any player in the country, at times looking like a cross between Devin Hester and Torry Holt. And if you want to look three-deep on the Carolina roster, there is senior Brooks Foster (6-3, 205), who caught 29 passes in '07 and would be the featured receiver in some other ACC programs.

All of that could change. The Tar Heels have cranked out NFL wide receivers with about the same regularity that Cuba has produced gold-medal ice skaters.

There's never been an NFL first-rounder from the school at that position. Bucky Brooks, the former Millbrook High speedster, did go in the second round to the Buffalo Bills in 1994 and went on to have a respectable pro career. Na Brown had a moment or two in the pros, as has Sam Aiken. We can't really count Ronald Curry, a UNC quarterback who was signed by the Raiders as an all-purpose player.

But Tate, from Burlington Cummings High, and Nicks (Charlotte Independence) are good enough to break the curse, thereby providing Carolina coach Butch Davis a powerful recruiting lure in the near future. Both were recruited into the program by former head coach John Bunting, but the positive influence of Davis and his staff on both players, plus Foster, is indisputable.

"With their receivers, Carolina is loaded for bear, just loaded," University of Miami coach Randy Shannon said before the season.

Virginia Tech's secondary looms as a litmus test.

Hokies cornerback Victor "Macho" Harris, a senior, is widely projected as NFL first-day material, and keep in mind that he sat out that season-opening loss to East Carolina in Charlotte while nursing a foot injury. Opposite corner Stephan Virgil, from Rocky Mount, is almost as solid. The safeties -- junior Kam Chancellor and sophomore Davon Morgan -- are off to near-flawless starts.

The X-and-O aspect of passing is more complicated than coverage assignments. Carolina's interior blockers will need to provide quarterback T.J. Yates with roughly three seconds to avert the Hokies' aggressive pocket pressure. Even then, it will be up to Yates to make the correct reads against one of the more sophisticated defensive schemes around.

But if all of that falls into place, fans will will be in for a treat, and those NFL scouts will leave Kenan with a lot of information about which players will fit where next April.

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