INSIDE THE ACC

By J.P. Giglio and Ken Tysiac

It's November and the divisions are wide open. Florida State can take a step closer in the Atlantic, while Georgia Tech and Virginia hope to make statements in the Coastal, which gets murkier by the week.

Gano FSU's unlikely MVP

Bobby Bowden spent the better part of 20 years looking for a kicker, and likely would have won another two national titles with just a competent one.

Flash forward to 2008 and Florida State's most valuable player is … the kicker, senior Graham Gano. After missing the first two games of the season with a knee injury, Gano has made 13 of 14 field-goal attempts in five games, including four of five from 50-plus.

Boston College is 3-0 against Clemson since joining the ACC. The Eagles could just as easily be 0-3. They won the 2005 game by three points, the 2006 game by a point and last year's game by three. That's three wins by seven total points, and two went into overtime.

There is one guarantee for today's game: Look for interceptions.

Chris Crane leads the ACC with 12 picks. He threw three against North Carolina.

After a miserable start, the ACC has improved to 11-7 against nonconference Bowl Championship Series opponents (including Notre Dame). Included in that record is a 4-0 mark against the Big 12.

Before you get too fired up, remember the Big 12 wins came against Baylor, Nebraska, Texas A&M and Colorado.

10 ACC teams with a winning record, the most among BCS conferences.

plus-10 North Carolina's ACC-leading turnover margin, up from minus-6 in 2007.

4 Duke's win total, matching its combined total from '04 to '07.

Florida State's aggressive defense is guilty of overpursuing at times and should be vulnerable to shifty Nesbitt and Georgia Tech's option.

Davis and the running game need to take the lead against Boston College because quarterbacks Cullen Harper and Willy Korn are battling shoulder injuries.

Riley will meet Wake Forest cornerback Alphonso Smith, who leads the nation with 16 passes defended (three interceptions, 13 deflections). With nine catches for 83 yards last week against Vanderbilt, Riley showed no ill effects from a thumb injured the previous week against Miami.

1

SEMINOLE REVIVAL. The ACC's tie-breaker scenarios will make your head spin but we know this: If Florida State wins out, the Noles win the Atlantic. Georgia Tech is the latest test for Florida State.

2

COUNTDOWN FOR DUKE. At 4-3, Duke has five chances to win two more games and become bowl eligible. The Devils have had two close calls with Wake Forest, losing by five points in 2007 and one in 2006.

3

ORANGE BOWL PAYBACK. Virginia closed the Orange Bowl, (the stadium, not the game) with a 48-0 win against Miami. Will the Hurricanes return the favor today?

INSIDE THE SEC

By Ron Green Jr.

VANDERBILT COMMODORES: Suddenly they're turning into the old Vanderbilt again. DOWN

LOUISIANA STATE: Tigers can't win the national championship with two losses this year. DOWN

KNOWSHON MORENO: Georgia running back keeps piling up big numbers and opening eyes. UP

After all of the furor over Georgia's end-zone celebration after its first touchdown against Florida last year, there's bound to be an edge to this meeting. Aside from the usual emotion, the winner remains squarely in the national championship picture.

It's interesting that Alabama is the second-ranked team, but there's a sense the Crimson Tide's national title hopes would evaporate with one loss, while the winner of the Georgia-Florida game still would be in the chase with one loss. With no college football playoff, it matters more when you lose than if you lose.

Who'd have thought LSU, the defending national champion, would surrender more than 50 points twice this season? Strange, but true.

83

Points allowed by the Florida defense in seven games this season, 27 fewer than any other SEC team

250

Florida's consecutive-game streak of avoiding a shutout, second only to Michigan's 296 games

79,430

Average attendance at SEC games

This is a big opportunity for Ole Miss, which can play its way into a nice bowl bid with a strong finish. After Auburn, the Rebels get Louisiana-Monroe, LSU and Mississippi State.

They don't get much bigger than this one. The Bulldogs thumped LSU in Baton Rouge a week ago and will put pressure on the Gators' defense to contain the league's top-ranked offense.

The Gamecocks have had two weeks to prepare for this game, which gave them time to get more comfortable with Stephen Garcia as their starting quarterback.

AROUND THE NATION

By Ken Tysiac

No. 1 Texas' murderous October schedule extends to the first day of November as the Longhorns visit No.6 Texas Tech and coach Mike Leach's high-octane offense. Florida-Georgia (SEC), Oregon at California (Pac-10) and West Virginia at Connecticut (Big East) are key games, too.

7.4 Yards per carry for Noel Devine, who could put West Virginia (5-2, 2-0) in great shape in the Big East with a big game at UConn (6-2, 2-1).

4 Times Joe Paterno's Penn State teams have finished undefeated but failed to win the national title (1968, 1969, 1973 and 1994).

4 Consecutive weeks in which Texas has faced an opponent ranked No.11 or better in the AP poll (Oklahoma, Missouri, Oklahoma State and now No.6 Texas Tech).

If Penn State were to get into the BCS title game, would its results be different from those of fellow Big Ten member Ohio State? Perhaps not. But Paterno has a good track record in big games.

Firing Tyrone Willingham with five games to play (and a 0-7 record) made sense for one reason at Washington. The Huskies can get a head start wooing former Oakland Raiders coach Lane Kiffin in the way North Carolina pursued Butch Davis in 2006.

Here's hoping billionaire booster T. Boone Pickens is enjoying Oklahoma State's revival, because he's not enjoying the economy. A fund he managed for the Cowboys with money he donated that once was worth $407 million has taken a $282million loss.

1 TEXAS QB TUSSLE. Colt McCoy of No. 1 Texas leads the nation in completion percentage (.818) and might be the Heisman front-runner. Graham Harrell of No.6 Texas Tech leads the nation with 3,147 passing yards. It's not often you see two quarterbacks this good on the same field.

2 OREGON AT CALIFORNIA. Both teams have one conference loss and theoretically have a shot at the Pac-10 title. California has won 26 of its past 30 home games, and Oregon averages a Pac-10-best 278.8 rushing yards per game.

3 IRISH TO GATOR? The next two weeks will be pivotal for Notre Dame's hopes of meeting an ACC team in the Gator Bowl. The Irish (5-2) will host Pittsburgh today and visit Boston College next week. They probably need to be 9-3 to have a good shot at the Gator Bowl – and they must visit Southern Cal in the season finale.

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