Johnson's arrival is ACC's gain

There have been times in the past when winning the ACC coach-of-the-year award in football was worth less than its weight in turkey feathers.

Wake Forest's Paul Amen, for instance, was the winner of the fourth award in 1956. His Deacons that season went 2-5-3 overall and scored all of 13 points during the final three games. Amen's next team went 0-10. It wasn't long thereafter that he gave way to Bill Hilldebrand.

North Carolina's Jim Hickey (1963) was a co-winner. Bill Elias of Virginia (1961) won it outright. So did Bill Tate (1964) and Cal Stoll of Wake (1970) and Fred Goldsmith (1994) of Duke.

"It's nice to get it, but you always understand that you're only as good as you were in your last game," said Wake's Jim Grobe, the 2006 winner.

Grobe gave way to Virginia's Al Groh, who also won in 2002. Groh now finds himself under fire in Charlottesville.

But by ACC standards, winning the top-coach award has become more important, and perhaps never more so than in now. That's why much stock has to be placed on the win by Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson in 2008.

The level of coaching in the conference has been elevated.

No one better reflects that fact better than Johnson, who introduced a new offensive system to a new school in his first season and won nine times, including a memorable victory at Georgia of the Southeastern Conference in the regular-season finale.

The state of North Carolina -- with Grobe at Wake, David Cutcliffe at Duke, Butch Davis at North Carolina and Tom O'Brien at N.C. State -- has contributed in a big way to the upgrade. The ACC's football health hasn't been so promising since those many years ago when Dick Sheridan was at State, Steve Spurrier was at Duke and Mack Brown at North Carolina.

Second-year Boston College coach Jeff Jagodzinski had an equally impressive performance. Having lost quarterback Matt Ryan to the NFL and several top offensive players from last season's team, little was expected from the Eagles.

At Virginia Tech, Frank Beamer continued his remarkable run of consistency, and Miami made progress with its second-year coach Randy Shannon.

By no means is the ACC on the cutting edge of football coaching. Compared to the Big 12 and the SEC, the ACC has a long way to ago. But things have improved, and Johnson's win in 2008 has to be considered significant.