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Joey Johnston's Sidelines: Wake Up, ACC

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 6, 2008

The ACC had an especially rough opening weekend, spotlighted by the convincing loss of Clemson (the ACC favorite) to Alabama (perhaps the fifth- or sixth-best team in the SEC).

The national consensus seems to have the ACC at sixth among the six BCS conferences. ESPN.com writer Bruce Feldman actually ranked the ACC at No. 7 in his conference power ratings (behind the Mountain West).

So to defend the ACC's honor, it's up to ... Wake Forest?

Maybe.

Wake today faces Ole Miss, potentially one of the SEC's surprise teams. Demon Deacons coach Jim Grobe said the ACC isn't as bad as people are saying.

"Look at who our teams have played," Grobe said. "I don't know many coaches in the country who would choose to open with Alabama, Southern Cal, East Carolina or South Carolina. If coaches had their druthers, they'd open with junior-high teams and get a win under their belt."

Big Moment For Bearcats

Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops grew up in Ohio but wasn't very familiar with the University of Cincinnati's football program.

"Youngstown is a long way from Cincinnati," Stoops said. "I was stuck there between Cleveland and Pittsburgh and didn't get much past that."

But Stoops knows about Cincinnati now. The Bearcats travel to Oklahoma today in a key nonconference game for the Big East Conference.

"It's like playing North Carolina or Duke in basketball," Bearcats coach Brian Kelly said. "When you talk about college football, you throw out names Notre Dame, Oklahoma, USC and Ohio State."

The Big East was 4-4 last week, but all four victories came against Division I-AA opponents.

Here Come The Longhorns

Picture the Florida Gators visiting UCF or Florida Atlantic or Florida International.

Not going to happen.

But a similarly unlikely scene will take place tonight when the Texas Longhorns go to UTEP. The Miners, coming off a 25-point loss to Buffalo, are keeping things loose.

"Man, I hope they aren't as good as Buffalo," UTEP coach Mike Price deadpanned.

The in-state road trips for Texas since the breakup of the Southwest Conference in 1995:

With two touchdown passes last week against Eastern Washington, Texas Tech QB Graham Harrell tied former Houston QB David Klingler with 91 career touchdown passes, good for 11th all-time in Division I-A. Here's the top 10 in TD passes:

•Stanford can go 2-0 in the Pac-10 for the first time since 2001 (when Tyrone Willingham was coach) if it can upset Arizona State tonight.

•Texas A&M coach Mike Sherman desperately needs a win at New Mexico. The Aggies are coming off an 18-14 defeat against Arkansas State, picked fourth in the Sun Belt Conference. Some people think it might be the worst home loss in Texas A&M's 114-season football history.

•Next weekend, really. Today is a relatively light-hitting schedule on the national scene. Next weekend brings us Kansas at USF, Ohio State at USC, Georgia at South Carolina, UCLA at BYU, Michigan at Notre Dame and Wisconsin at Fresno State.

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