As the football season fast approaches, there are a few stories I'm tired of hearing about when it comes to the ACC.
The ACC doesn't have a national championship contender.
Yeah, well neither does the Big East. And right now I'd say Virginia Tech has just as good a shot at the title as Ohio State, which is the team from the Big Ten everyone is touting. The power the last year and this year has been with the Big 12 and SEC. But everything goes in cycles in the college football. The ACC will field very good teams and possibly title contenders in 2010 and 2011.
There are no good offenses in the ACC.
Last year there were some exceptional offensive players in the conference. The problem was there were some really bad offensive lines in the league. And the one team with an exceptional offensive line, Virginia, didn't have the players to take advantage of it. That's changing. Florida State and Clemson will have good lines this year and the Hokies will have one as well if there are no injuries. Plus, a lot of defensive talent left the league after last season (most of it from Wake Forest). The balance of power is slowly shifting to the offenses in the ACC.
NC State will continue its momentum from 2008 and contend for the Atlantic title.
Maybe if it finds a defense. The Pack has one of the better defensive players in the ACC in Nate Irving, but their defense was still pretty bad last year. I won't buy into the hype surrounding the Pack until they prove they can stop somebody. Until then, I won't consider them for anything higher than third in the their division.
Tyrod Taylor isn't a good passing quarterback.
You wouldn't be very good either if you had (in my opinion) the worst pass-blocking offensive line in the conference and receiving corps that had one returning member who had caught a pass at the college level in 2008. The line's better and the receivers actually run the correct route now. Tyrod will be fine. He wasn't an awful passer in 2007 and he won't be awful this year, either.
Georgia Tech won't be as successful this year because teams have seen the flexbone.
No, Georgia Tech won't be as successful this year because it lost a bunch of key starters on defense. The Jacket offense will be better in 2009 because their players actually understand how to run it now. Jonathan Dwyer and company will still roll up huge numbers. But I have a feeling the Jackets are going to be on the wrong end of a couple of shootouts this year.
Add your own storylines you're sick of in the comments. Next week I'll give you a few underplayed storylines I wish were getting more attention around the league.