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Friday, November 16, 2007

All-ACC football nominations mindboggling as usual

Where's the greatness?

By Doug Doughty

Doug Doughty

Doug Doughty's College Notebook Plus is exclusive to roanoke.com and is posted by 5 p.m. Fridays.

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What does it say for the ACC that 157 players have been nominated for the all-conference football team, including three who have been nominated at multiple positions?

Does that qualify ACC football for the description “star-studded?”

With no team ranked higher than 10th and only one -- No. 10 Virginia Tech -- ranked higher than 15th? Probably not.

There’s a good reason that a team like Maryland, which is 5-5 overall and stands last in the Atlantic Division at 2-4, would have the audacity to nominate 16 players.

The coaches don’t want to alienate their players by not nominating them.

If the coaches could be sure that the media wouldn’t write about the nominations, maybe the number of nominations would be more reasonable.

On the other hand, when a school nominates multiple players at the same position, all that does is hurt the most worthy candidate.

Let’s take the wide-receiver position, where Virginia Tech nominated Justin Harper, Josh Morgan and Eddie Royal for All-ACC.

Tech is ranked 94th out of 119 Division I-A teams in passing offense. How could the Hokies have three wide receivers worthy of All-ACC selection?

I can see what Tech is thinking. Harper has 30 receptions for 490 yards and three touchdowns, Morgan has 30 receptions for 383 yards and four touchdowns, and Royal has 21 receptions for 272 yards and two touchdowns.

How do you choose between them?

You don’t.

For those of us who vote, maybe you pick Royal for return specialist, but you can’t pick him over Harper and Morgan at wide receiver.

Harper and Morgan have no chance in a field that includes Wake Forest’s Kenneth Moore (70 receptions, 777 yards and five touchdowns) and Aaron Kelly (67 receptions, 841 yards, 11 TDs).

If they have a beef, Harper and Morgan can blame the voters. But, they can’t have a gripe with coach Frank Beamer. He did what he could for them. He put them on the ballot.

There are 14 Hokies on the ballot, with Royal listed as a wide receiver and return specialist. Eight are off a unit that ranks eighth in Division I-A in total defense: end Chris Ellis, tackles Barry Booker and Carlton Powell, linebackers Xavier Adibi and Vince Hall, cornerbacks Brandon Flowers and Macho Harris, and safety D.J. Parker.

Nominated off the unit that ranks 107th nationally in total offense are the three wide receivers and offensive tackle Duane Brown. Jud Dunlevy was nominated at place-kicker.

It speaks to just how far running back Branden Ore has fallen in that he wasn’t nominated for all-conference this year after beating out ACC rushing champion Tashard Choice for the first team in 2006.

Injuries and an inexperienced offensive line have contributed to Ore’s reduced productivity (593 yards in 10 games, compared to 1,137 yards in 12 games last year), but how many people would have guessed that Ore would be around for his senior year in 2008?

If the Hokies had nominated Ore, that would have given them 15 All-ACC candidates, which would still be fewer than Clemson (17) and Maryland (16) and would match Virginia and North Carolina State.

Virginia has seven nominees off the 20th-ranked defense in Division I-A: ends Chris Long and Jeffrey Fitzgerald, linebackers Jon Copper and Clint Sintim, cornberbacks Chris Cook and Vic Hall, and safety Nate Lyles.

Nominated off the nation’s 95th-ranked offense are quarterback Jameel Sewell, tight ends Tom Santi and Jonathan Stupar, guard Branden Albert, tackle Eugene Monroe and center Jordy Lipsey.

Nominated off the Cavaliers special teams were place-kicker Chris Gould and cover man Josh Zidenberg.

Most conspicuous by his absence is senior punter Ryan Weigand, whose 45.9-yard average leads the ACC and ranks fourth in Division I-A. However, Weigand only punts from the Cavaliers’ end of the field and has been susceptible to long runbacks because he doesn’t get great hang time.

Virginia didn’t have a single first-team All-ACC selection last year and may not have deserved one based on its 5-7 finish, although the Cavaliers won more conference games, four, than some teams that were more highly represented.

At 9-2 going into the season’s final week, the Cavaliers can count on Long making the first team for the first time in his college career and he would have to be the favorite for ACC defensive player of the year, a 15-year-old award that has been won only once previously by a UVa player, former safety and current assistant coach Anthony Poindexter in 1998.

You would think Virginia would merit more than one first-team All-ACC selection, but who would it be? Tom Santi was a preseason choice at tight end but Stupar has more receptions (34) and Santi (30) does, although Santi missed one full game and all but one play of another.

Albert, who has played guard and tackle this season with no dropoff, probably is Virginia’s second most-worthy All-ACC candidate but how many of the voters know that?

If Virginia Tech failed to get both of its outstanding linebackers on the first team last year, what are the chances that both Hall and Adibi will get it this year. Hall was a first-team choice last year and Adibi made the second team; this year, Adibi has had a superior year and Hall has been injured, but will the voters know that?

Flowers was a first-team choice last year and could make it again as a junior, but, for those of you who have seen Tech on a regular basis, has Flowers had a better year than Harris? Nappy King, venerable Tech beat man for The Roanoke Times, said Flowers has been terrific.

See, I wouldn’t have known that and I don’t know how many other voters will go to the trouble to find out (not that I’m calling around to the Clemson and Florida State writers for inside information). There is a way that the coaches could help us with the voting, but that’s not going to happen.

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