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Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer is on the phone, talking about today's huge season opener between his Hokies and Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff in Atlanta.
“I know this one is important,” Beamer says. “It's very big, and we're treating it that way. We're going to try like heck to represent our conference well.”
That's what the ACC needs today – some good representation as No.7 Virginia Tech faces the No.5 Crimson Tide at the Georgia Dome. The ACC is still smarting at what happened in this very game last season, when then-No.9 Clemson got drummed by then-No.24 Alabama, 34-10.
The Tigers, thought to be a national championship contender, went into a tailspin that eventually led to the end of the Tommy Bowden era. Alabama bullied the Tigers that whole game – allowing Clemson's vaunted rushing attack exactly zero yards – just like the SEC so often has bullied the ACC in college football.
The SEC plays big brother to the ACC's little brother.
If there's not an SEC team in the national championship game at the end of the season, that's an upset. ACC teams generally watch those title games on TV. The ACC has even seen its big expansion plan to become a perennial football power short-circuited, managing to lure Miami into its league just in time to see the Hurricanes turn average.
Virginia Tech, though, is not average. Virginia Tech has been the ACC's football flagbearer during recent years. Only three teams have won at least 10 games in college football during each of the past three seasons – Virginia Tech, Texas and Southern Cal. The Hokies also have won the ACC title three times during the past five years.
“We've been proud of what we've been able to accomplish,” Beamer says. “I don't think there was a great team in the ACC last year, but we had a lot of good ones. We took turns beating each other, and at the end of the year we sort of got hot. This year should be better for the league.”
Maybe. The depth seems better, and most schools return starting quarterbacks.
But the ACC just hasn't gotten it done on a national stage very often during the past 10 years. Tonight will provide another chance, against an Alabama team with a very stingy defense.
“Our kids understand we have to have great preparation if we have any shot of beating this crowd,” Beamer says.
Virginia Tech has played a number of high-profile openers under Beamer, and the results have been mixed. The Hokies opened the 2008 season in Charlotte and got upset by East Carolina.
Beamer recently lost his best tailback, Darren Evans, for the season because of a torn-up knee. His quarterback, Tyrod Taylor, is a great runner but an average passer. His defense and special teams should be very good, as usual. But Beamer really doesn't know what he has as kickoff against Alabama approaches.
“In college football, it's just so different than high school or in the NFL,” Beamer says. “The first time you play against someone else, you keep score for real. That's the tough part.”
For fans, it's also the great part. The games count, right away, making today's blockbuster at the Georgia Dome sizzle.
Or, for Virginia Tech and the ACC, will it just fizzle?
“We're going to get better either way,” Beamer says. “This one game is not going to make us or break us.”
That's true, of course. But the ACC too often has faltered during the past decade under these sorts of bright lights. It's important for the league to make it tonight, instead of getting broken once again.
Scott Fowler: 704-358-5140; sfowler@charlotteobserver.com; twitter.com/scott_fowler
