From its rural setting to its background as a land-grant institution that has become increasingly diverse, Clemson is the ACC program with a profile most similar to Virginia Tech's.

That's what struck Clemson football coach Tommy Bowden on Monday when he learned of the shootings that killed 32 people in Blacksburg.

"Had it happened in a campus in a heavily populated area, I don't think it would have sent much of a message to us or to Virginia Tech and maybe a school [like] Auburn or Starkville or Oxford," said Bowden, whose latter two references were to Mississippi State and Mississippi.

"When it happened on that [Virginia Tech] campus, it definitely was a wake-up call. If it hadn't happened in this setting, I'm not sure that schools like ours would have thought as much about intensified security measures. I'm sure our university will be meeting very shortly, as most are.

"If it could happen on that campus, it could happen anywhere."

This past fall, there was a shooting on a much smaller scale but with more of an athletic connection at the University of Miami, where defensive lineman Bryan Pata was murdered Oct. 7.

In a previously scheduled ACC coaches' teleconference Thursday, new Miami coach Randy Shannon spoke to the importance of being able to contact his players on a moment's notice.

"We have a log that's in every coach's office and in our football relations office and [with] all the secretaries," Shannon said. "It's a phone list of every player and we also have their e-mail address and their text-message information. And, we also have all the parents' numbers.

"When we need to contact the players, whether it's a team meeting or crisis or anything, we can all split up and get it done in a manner of two minutes. We have nine assistant coaches; with me, that makes 10. We have four or five people in football relations, then there's three secretaries."

Shannon, previously the Hurricanes' defensive coordinator, said the process has undergone modifications in recent years but that the players have been good about responding.

Virginia Tech assistant athletic director John Ballein said that the Hokies' football office can reach all of the players by e-mail with a single key stroke. Assistant coaches have phone numbers for all of the players in their position groups.

Several of the ACC head coaches have spoken to Tech's Frank Beamer this week, and Maryland's Ralph Friedgen said his wife had spoken to Beamer's wife, Cheryl.

"I'm sure Frank was inundated with calls," said Friedgen, who had seen clips of a convocation Tuesday at Cassell Coliseum. "I saw tears in both his and Cheryl's eyes."

Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey said, "My heart sank for everybody up there. I just can't imagine going through something like that."

Gailey alluded to the weird behavior exhibited by Cho Seung-Hui before he embarked on his massacre.

"It's a great opportunity, in my opinion, to talk about responsibility," Gailey said. "It's a great opportunity to talk about being aware of everything that is around you in life and not looking the other way when you see something wrong or bad happening."

Virginia's Al Groh, one of the coaches who was able to get through to Beamer, objected to the front-page display that some newspapers gave to photos of Cho.

"I just got finished speaking with my wife and she said she picked up the paper and on the front page was a picture of the perpetrator," Groh said. "She said she didn't even bring the paper in; she threw it in the trash can. I think she's kind of correct.

"There should be a lot more written about the positive things that the unfortunate victims had done in their lives and not so much attention [to the shooter]. It's probably the same type of attention that reinforces people who have some of these sick ideas."