• How low can the ACC go?
• Boston College and Clemson
• Florida State and Maryland
• N.C. State and Wake Forest
• Va. Tech and UVa
• UNC and Duke
2007 record: 7-6, 4-4 ACC
Returning starters: Offense 4, Defense 4.
Quarterback?: No. Taylor Bennett (7 TDs, 9 INTs) transferred to Louisiana Tech.
Avoid in the ACC: N.C. State, Maryland, Wake Forest
Coaching situation: After winning seven games for the fifth time in six seasons, Chan Gailey got the boot. He was replaced by Navy's Paul Johnson. At Navy, Johnson turned one of the worst programs in the country into a consistent winner (45-29 in six seasons). Plan B in the coaching searches at both UNC and N.C. State in 2006, Johnson was Plan A for both Georgia Tech and Duke in 2007. He chose to return to the state of Georgia, where he coached I-AA power Georgia Southern for five seasons in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
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Spring issues: Georgia Tech hit the restart button after six seasons of mediocrity under Gailey. Gone is Gailey's pro-style offense and Jon Tenuta's hyper-blitzing defense.
Johnson's Navy teams ran the triple-option and led the NCAA in rushing for three straight seasons from 2005 to 2007. He's being coy about how much Georgia Tech's offense will look like Navy's. The Jackets will almost certainly throw more than Navy did last season — 804 running plays to 136 passing — and they'll do it with a new quarterback.
Senior Taylor Bennett didn't fit Johnson's system so he graduated and transferred to Louisiana Tech, where he'll be eligible to play this season, thanks to an NCAA waiver.
Not that Bennett was great. Hardly. He was almost as productive in the Gator Bowl, with Calvin Johnson, as he was in an entire season without the stud receiver.
Sophomore Josh Nesbitt would be a more logical choice than Calvin Booker, a senior, to start at quarterback because if Nesbitt works out, Johnson wouldn't have to repeat the process next spring.
Three of the returning starters are on the offensive line, which gives Johnson hope that a running game can be established. The major missing piece of the offense is Tashard Choice (fourth-round pick), who led the ACC with 1,379 rushing yards.
Johnson's offense uses three running backs — a fullback, or B-Back, and two slots, or A-Backs. Jonathan Dwyer (B-Back) and Jamaal Evans and Roddy Jones will get plenty of chances to run the ball in Johnson's offense.
Defensively, Dave Wommack, most recently of Southern Miss but also coached at South Carolina and Arkansas, inherits a group with just four starters. Junior linebacker Shane Bowen is in line to pick up for tackling machine Philip Wheeler.
Fall outlook: Johnson is an excellent coach who knows how to prepare and motivate his players. He deserves full credit for taking Navy from 1-20, in the two seasons before he got there, to 17-8 in his final two seasons.
But ...
Navy annually played the easiest schedule in college football. And by the looks of GT's 2008 schedule, not a lot has changed for Johnson. There aren't seven wins in Johnson's future but there's at least four, half against I-AA teams Jacksonville State and Gardner-Webb, and both Duke and Virginia visit Atlanta.
The rest of the schedule is uphill, especially the season-ender against Georgia, who would have to forfeit not to extend their seven-game winning streak in the series.
2007 record: 5-7, 2-6 ACC
Returning starters: Offense 4, Defense 6.
Quarterback?: No. Kyle Wright (12 TDs, 14 INTs) exhausted his eligibility.
Avoid in the ACC: BC, Maryland, Clemson
Coaching situation: Miami expects more than 5-7 and Randy Shannon understands that better than anyone. The problem for Shannon is it could take more time than he has to fix Miami's free-falling program.
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Spring issues: For once, the Canes aren't dealing with a mass exodus to the NFL. In fact, eight freshmen enrolled in January to give The U an influx of talent.
When, or will, that group get The U get back to being The U? When they find a quarterback. For whatever reasons — injuries, lack of confidence, lack of coaching — highly-touted Kyle Wright and Kirby Freeman never lived up to their potential.
Robert Mavre, a redshirt freshman and another highly-touted recruit, attempts to replace Wright and Freeman, who tag-teamed the starting spot the past two seasons to the tune of a 12-13 record.
Miami was an unbelievably awful 110th in total offense in 2007 and 101st in scoring offense. This from a program that once didn't have room on its depth chart for Willis McGahee.
The Canes will improvement when the offensive line does. Both tackles return, which is a start, but the group needs an attitude adjustment.
Fall outlook: For some reason, Miami fans are optimistic for Randy Shannon's second season and first out of the Orange Bowl and at Dolphin Stadium. Maybe it's because it can't get much worse than 2007, when Miami — freakin' Miami! — went 2-6 against the ACC.
Or maybe it's the new recruiting class, but every Miami recruiting class is considered great. What Shannon needs is for the Canes to feel the embarrassment from last season, especially the disaster against Virginia in the final game of the Orange Bowl, and start walking the walk instead of just talking the talk.
Given Miami's schedule — with consecutive September road dates to Florida and Texas A&M — a quick fix is not forthcoming. Unless Ray Lewis, Jeremy Shockey, Ed Reed, Bernie Kosar and Andre Johnson are among the eight freshmen, the Canes are staring at another 5-7 season.
