Weekend Wrap-Up of Week 5

By Joe Johnson
Oct 3, 2005 

Boston College

Getting a shutout against Ball State is a highlight of the young season for the Eagles. Boston College took advantage of a depleted Ball State roster and held the Cardinals pointless to record its first shutout in three seasons. The task will be tougher this week as Boston College returns to ACC action against Virginia. Boston College had its ACC title hopes dashed by Florida State in its first game in the new league and now the Eagles will be facing a team that had its pride wounded in its last game.

 

Clemson

It will be a long 12 days for the Tigers who still are reeling from their loss to Wake Forest. The thing that will stick with Clemson, and it will have plenty of time to ponder the choice made by Coach Tommy Bowden to try a fake field goal that ultimately failed. When kicker Jad Dean was dropped for a seven-yard loss, that ignited a Wake Forest team that drove 66 yards for the game-winning drive.

 

Clemson had other chances to put away the Deacons and didn't. An interception with 3:36 left should have allowed the Tigers to run out the clock. It didn't. Then the Tigers could have found a way to stop Wake Forest on the final drive but it didn't.  The defense was outdone by Wake Forest's offense.

 

Duke

Winning is getting tougher for the Blue Devils. After losing to Navy to give the Midshipmen their first win of the season, Duke found out that it lost more players to injury. Leading receiver Jomar Wright is out with a knee injury. That's on top of losing Ronnie Elliott before Navy. The dwindling receiver corps is going to make it tougher for freshman quarterback Zack Asack to pull the Blue Devils out of the cellar.

 

Florida State

Defense has been Florida State's calling card all season and against Syracuse, the Seminoles racked up seven quarterback sacks to run their season total to 19. That number is in four games so FSU is almost averaging five sacks a game.

Quarterbacks and offensive lines better tighten their chinstraps when the line up against the Seminoles.

 

FSU is getting better on offense, too. Quarterback Drew Weatherford has settled in as starter and his comfort running the offense is apparent. The Seminoles are improved, especially on third down. Last season the Seminoles struggled, but this season they are near the top of the ACC with a 42.8 success rate on third down.

 

Georgia Tech

The spotlight will be on the Yellow Jackets on Thursday when they host N.C. State.

It will be the 19th time Georgia Tech has played on Thursday, which is more than any other school.

 

Maryland

A two-game winning streak will do wonders for a team's confidence and Maryland is brimming after knocking off then-No. 19 Virginia over the weekend.  Maryland only has to win three more games and it secures bowl eligibility in a year when there could be a rush on bowls in the league. A game against Temple should get them even closer. If the Terrapins can survive games against Florida State and Virginia Tech, then they should have a reasonable shot at knocking off Boston College, North Carolina or N.C. State.

 

Miami

The Hurricanes have done a nice job bouncing back from the season-opening loss

against Florida State. That is exactly what the ACC hoped for when it matched these

two heavyweights in the first game of the year. The loser in that game, which was

Miami, has enough time to get back in the national picture. Miami shook off the loss

and still remained in the polls. In fact, it is the current leader for being ranked at 94

consecutive weeks. The Hurricanes started the season eighth, but fell to No. 14 after

losing to FSU. Since then, Miami has been climbing steadily and has nudged its way

back into the Top 10 at No. 9.

 

N.C. State

The loss to North Carolina has simmered under the surface for more than a week

as N.C. State had an open Saturday. But getting back on the field will do the team

good, according to linebacker Oliver Hoyte. But the trip to Georgia Tech won't be

easy. N.C. State hasn't won in Atlanta since 1988. The Yellow Jackets have had their

way with N.C. State, winning the last two.

 

North Carolina

The Tar Heels are finally finding some team balance. After four years of having to

rely on Darian Durant play the role of Superman and now handing his cape off the

Matt Baker, the defense is beginning to show some signs of toughness. The Tar

Heels shut down N.C. State and then last week against Utah, North Carolina beat the

Utes 31-17. The Tar Heels are in the middle of the pack in the NCAA statistics after

four games but that is a vast improvement over the last three seasons. North

Carolina is 46th in the nation in total defense at 357 yards and 41st in scoring

defense at 20.5. The Tar Heels have 14 sacks in four games, compared with 20 for

all of last year. Improved, indeed.

 

Virginia

Apparently, Coach Al Groh has gotten into a little hullabaloo with some Virginia

media members because he didn't let them in on the fact that linebacker Ahmad

Brooks was going to play against Maryland last Saturday. Earlier in the season Groh

said he would announce when Brooks was ready to play after recuperating from off-

season knee surgery. Once August camp started and Brooks was cleared medically

to play and he didn't, beat reporters wanted to know what was up. What was up was

that Brooks wasn't ready to play in Groh's eyes. Did he go back on his word to let

the media know when Brooks was going to play. It sounds like it. So what's the big

deal? Groh's credibility. Virginia fans won't stop believing what Groh says but some

in the media might. Anyway, Brooks played and was fairly ineffective as the

Terrapins shredded Virginia's defense for 45 points.

 

Virginia Tech

After weeks of the defense grabbing the headlines, Virginia Tech's offense posted

some impressive numbers in its win over West Virginia. While the 34-17 is the main

stat, Virginia Tech controlled the game offensively and didn't let West Virginia get to

run many plays. The Hokies were particularly efficient on third down against West

Virginia, converting 10 of 15 chances. In the second half, Virginia Tech missed only

twice on nine third downs. Quarterback Marcus Vick was responsible for six third-

down plays that resulted in third downs. Now that the Hokies got through their first

four games undefeated and avoided any semblance of a letdown against West

Virginia, the

 

Wake Forest

Cory Randolph made a successful return to quarterback as he helped the Demon

Deacons beat Clemson last Saturday. But he didn't do it all by himself. Randolph got

a lot of help from his receivers. Demir Boldin, Kenneth Moore and John Tereshinski

weren't perfect but they did enough to keep Wake Forest in the game until Randolph

put together what ended up being the game-winning drive. Boldin caught three

passes for 36 yards. Moore caught three for 68 yards but in a statistical anomaly,

his long catch was a 74-yard touchdown. Tereshinski caught five passes for 24

yards.