ShareThisBy GREG WALLACE
Friday, November 10, 2006
With just under a month left in the 2006 regular season, one Atlantic Coast Conference coach _ North Carolina's John Bunting _ has already found his way to the unemployment line.
Before long, Larry Coker could slide in right behind him.
At 5-3, 2-2 in ACC play, Coker's Miami team is an unmitigated disaster by program standards. Although the Hurricanes are young, their uneven play, compounded by an ugly brawl with Florida International, has Coker squarely on the hot seat as No. 24 Virginia Tech visits the Orange Bowl Saturday night.
Coker, as always, is staying as positive as possible.
"We're not executing as well as we can," he said. "We've got young players, and they're getting a lot of experience, and they're talented. To say they're young, that's not a good excuse. But we're not coming up with some of the big plays we need to get us over the hump.
"We're not that far away, but in football, one point away at the end of the game is far away. We need to find a way to get over the top."
In its glory days over much of the last 25 years, Miami was a team that rebuilt from within, using its depth to stay at the top of the national heap.
Take tailback, for example. At one point several years ago, the 'Canes had Clinton Portis, Frank Gore and Willis McGahee as their top three tailbacks. Now, freshman Javarris James, who averages 66.1 ypg, seventh in the ACC, is their top back. Tyrone Moss, a speedy back recovering from knee surgery, is his backup.
"Players have become a lot more knowledgeable," Coker said. "They don't want to come where one guy is a premier player. It didn't bother Willis or Frank, but sometimes it discourages players."
For that matter, it didn't seem to discourage Clemson tailback C.J. Spiller, an ACC Rookie of the Year favorite who has meshed nicely with powerful sophomore back James Davis.
_ SEMINOLES HURTING, TOO
Veteran Florida State coach Bobby Bowden was playing the "youth card," too, while trying to explain his team's 4-4 record, and a 2-4 mark that has the Seminoles mired in the Atlantic Division cellar.
All four of FSU's losses have come by seven points or less, with Maryland blocking a potential game-tying field goal with under a minute left to preserve a 27-24 win last week.
"We've lost four games that we could have won as easily as we lost," Bowden said. "All four games came down to the last two minutes where we could have won it, but didn't. There's a difference there between being mauled, blown out, kicked all over the field.
"The conference has gotten so much tougher _ there's no comparison to what it was 15 years ago when we got in it."
Sophomore quarterback Drew Weatherford missed last week's loss with an ankle injury and appears unlikely to play this week; Bowden said backup Xavier Lee, who started at Maryland, would be treated as the starter in practice this week.
Like Miami, FSU has suffered through a talent drain in recent years. Bowden said NFL talent scouts have watched his practices recently; where the Seminoles would normally have "10, 11, 12" potential draft picks, this year "we're looking at four to five," he said.
"Next year, we're going to have a bunch of them," Bowden said. "That's the way this thing goes."
In the meantime, with an ACC title out of the question, Bowden and his staff are readjusting their goals.
"We can't win a conference championship, but one of our goals is a state championship," Bowden said. "It gets down to pride. You say, 'Son, do you have pride enough to want a good year,' and they do. I can tell by the way they practice."
DEACS PLUS EAGLES EQUALS BIG GAME?
This week's biggest ACC tilt is a matchup of ranked teams _ No. 16 Boston College at No. 22 Wake Forest. Yes, that's right.
Both teams are 3-1 in ACC play, with Saturday's winner taking an inside track towards a berth in the ACC title game.
"A game of conference importance like this, this is our first one at Wake Forest," said Wake coach Jim Grobe. "We had a chance at Ohio to be in this position late in the year, but this is the first one at Wake Forest. It's a big game for our players and our program, and we're looking forward to it."
The ACC has eight bowl tie-ins this season, and six teams (BC, Wake, Maryland, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech) are already bowl-eligible. Miami needs one more win to be eligible.
