Friday, October 24, 2008
ACC offensive poverty is being recognized nationally
Tahj Boyd takes official visit to UT
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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In case you missed it, prolific publisher Phil Steele has come up with his midseason All-America and All-ACC teams, going three-deep with each one.
What does it say for ACC offenses, recently panned in this column, when Virginia tackle Eugene Monroe is the only ACC offensive player to make any of the three All-America teams?
Moreover, Monroe is a third-team selection. I don't know what that means, considering that ESPN's Mel Kiper has projected Monroe as the No. 1 choice in the NFL Draft.
ACC defenses got a little more respect from Steele's group, but Wake Forest cornerback Alphonso Smith was the only ACC player on Steele's first team. North Carolina safety Trimane Goddard made the second team and Georgia Tech defensive lineman Michael Johnson and Virginia linebacker Clint Sintim were third-team choices.
Monroe, Sintim and cornerback Ras-I Dowling were named to Steele's All-ACC first team. Cavalier wide receiver Kevin Ogletree and tight end John Phillips were second-team choices, and running back Cedric Peerman and freshman defensive end Matt Conrath made the third team.
Virginia Tech's only first-team choice was center Ryan Shuman. Second-team choices for the Hokies were offensive linemen Nick Marshman and Sergio Render, cornerback Macho Harris (who also made the second team as a punt returner), cornerback Stephan Virgil and place-kicker Dustin Keys.
Third-team choices from Tech were running back Darren Evans and defensive ends Jason Worridls.
I don't cover the Hokies full-time, but I'd have to say that Harris is a first-team All-ACC performer. Not to knock Dowling, a likely NFL cornerback of the future, but he's missed one full game, most of two other games and the second half at Duke.
The only question about Dowling to this point is his durability, but he did not show up on the Cavaliers' injury report leading into their game Saturday at Georgia Tech.
One more thought: With all the fingers that have been pointed at Tech's offensive line, is it possible that the Hokies have three first- or second-team offensive linemen?
SPEAKING OF KIPER's BIG BOARD, it was updated Thursday and Monroe had dropped to fourth behind Texas sophomore defensive end Brian Orakpo, Mississippi offensive tackle Michael Oher and Georgia Tech defensive end Michael Johnson.
Johnson (6-7, 260) will line up opposite Monroe on Saturday in a match-up that has attracted scouting requests from the Atlanta Falcons (two), Baltimore, Cleveland, Houston, New England, Seattle, Washington and Arizona.
UVa's Sintim is now listed 18th by Kiper, which is testimony to the kind of year that Sintim was having because he certainly wasn't first-round material following the 2007 season, or else he would have thought more seriously about coming out.
Wake has two first-round draft picks, according to Kiper, Smith (rated 14th) and linebacker Aaron Curry (rated sixth). Boston College defensive tackle B.J. Raji is projected as the 13th pick.
The speculative nature of these projections came into play when Kiper's ESPN co-hort, Todd McShay, rated Clemson's Cullen Harper as the No. 1 senior quarterback prospect for the NFL Draft.
By the end of September, Harper had dropped, but only to No. 2 behind Purdue's Curtis Painter. By the third week of October, Harper was no longer starting, having lost his starting job to redshirt freshman Willie Korn as part of a mid-season purge surrounding the ouster of coach Tommy Bowden.
LAST WEEK'S COLUMN dealt with the newly proclaimed availability of the state's No. 1-ranked prospect, Hampton Phoebus quarterback Tahj Boyd, who has decommitted from West Virginia and essentially has removed the Mountaineers from his recruiting picture.
Phoebus coach Bill Dee said at the time that Boyd was planning a trip to Charlottesville for the Cavaliers' game Saturday with North Carolina, but that did not come off.
"The weather was bad," Dee said. "He was going up for the game, nothing [official]. He's still interested, but he's visiting Tennessee this weekend. I know that."
Boyd, who also has Virginia Tech on his list, will be taking an official visit to Tennessee.
The weather might have been bad in Hampton, but it was OK in Charlottesville.
"It wasn't a great day, weather-wise," Dee said. "It wasn't that he wasn't interested in going up [to UVa]. He was going up with his parents and something happened with his family. The mother had said something. It's no indication, saying they aren't interested."
How interested is Virginia?
"They're real interested," Dee said.
LOOK FOR an expanded Notebook Plus and poll question. A drive to Atlanta awaits.
