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U.Va. mounts a genteel effort for a quiet Heisman hopeful
By ED MILLER, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 18, 2003

The Matt Schaub-for-Heisman campaign will be a bobblehead-free zone. Virginia coach Al Groh decreed as much last winter, and Schaub heartily agreed. “That would be one ugly bobblehead,” the self-effacing quarterback said. But a Web site? That’s standard equipment for Heisman Trophy hopefuls these days, and Schaub, the 2002 ACC Player of the Year, is no exception. Schaub’s Heisman site — www.Schaub4Heisman.com — will be launched at 2 p.m. today. It’s the beginning of what U.Va. hopes will be a tasteful campaign for an understated player who quietly posted some of the biggest numbers in school history last season. Schaub led the ACC and finished sixth nationally in passing efficiency while throwing 28 touchdown passes and just seven interceptions. He set or tied 10 school records. Schaub’s status as the returning Player of the Year in a major conference lands him in the Heisman conversation from the start. Virginia’s job is turn up the volume. Not too loud, not yet. “We’re doing a few things in the beginning to say, 'Yes, we have a candidate,’” said Cathy Bongiovi, assistant director of media relations. “But we’re not going to do our big push until October.” Bongiovi is chairing an eight-person committee that is handling Schaub’s Heisman push. She surveyed other schools that have pumped Heisman hopefuls and was told it’s wise to wait to see how players perform before launching extensive — and expensive — campaigns. Bongiovi also surveyed media members, who told her they don’t like being bombarded with “unnecessary materials.” Schaub’s Web site will include a biography, statistics that will be updated after each game, video highlights, family photos and links to articles, among other things. Virginia will send out brochures to the media in August. The goal, initially, is to introduce Schaub to voters from beyond the ACC region. If Schaub does his part and plays as well as he did last year, Virginia will ramp up its campaign in October. Schaub led the ACC in passing efficiency and touchdown passes (28) a year ago and completed an ACC-best 68.9 percent of his passes. He set or tied 10 school passing records and led the Cavs to three come-from-behind victories in the fourth quarter. Bongiovi says Virginia has some things in mind, but wouldn’t disclose them. She did rule out a couple of possibilities, however. “We don’t have enough money for a billboard in Times Square,” she said. And, of course, no bobbleheads.


 

 

ACC, SEC harmony ... to be seen
GREGG DOYEL
 

People who know, like athletics directors and commissioners and even a former NCAA president, say the same thing: The SEC and ACC can live in peace. Definitely.

And then, after a pause, they throw in a little:

But ...

See, the ACC ought to know better than to consider taking on the SEC.

But ...

But the ACC has turned greedy like George Steinbrenner, who keeps All-Star pitchers in his pantry, because you never know.

That's why the ACC grabbed Miami and Virginia Tech -- because you never know. The Bowl Championship Series contract expires after 2005, so there had better be a Top 25 football program in Commissioner John Swofford's pantry.

Few think the ACC will stay at 11 teams. Its choices for No. 12 are Notre Dame or Penn State, but the Irish are stubbornly independent and the Nittany Lions are irritatingly loyal to the Big Ten. The ACC could scavenge one last meal off the Big East.

But ...

But the SEC is right there. The geography is unique for the BCS, in which the Pac-10 controls the West, the Big Ten owns the Midwest, and the Big 12 has the Southwest. The Big East has the Northeast, dying in privacy.

The ACC adores its geographic footprint, which makes the SEC so galling.

The leagues don't have identical footprints, but with overlaps in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, there's little toe room.

So here's the ACC, looking to grow. And there's the SEC, with all those yummy football schools. It would never happen, right? That's what former NCAA President Gene Corrigan says. Listen closely, though.

"I don't know what the ACC is going to do about a 12th team," says Corrigan, an ex-ACC commissioner who advises Swofford. "The ACC and SEC are both powerful. I don't think either one needs to be worrying about disappearing."

But ...

"Even if one of them did lose a school to the other league," Corrigan says, "it would be a matter of convenience."

South Carolina to the ACC? That would be convenient. How about Florida?

This could have gone the other way, you know. If the ACC hadn't added Miami -- oh, what the heck, throw in Virginia Tech, too -- Florida State and Georgia Tech were going to approach the SEC. What the SEC was going to say would have been anyone's guess, especially to Georgia Tech, but that's the deal.

Now the ACC is bold, invincible. Arkansas athletics director Frank Broyles sees. Two months ago he was asked what ACC expansion would do to the SEC. With his thumb and index finger, Broyles formed a zero.

After the ACC nabbed Miami and Virginia Tech, Broyles wasn't so sure.

"I think they'll go get another team," he told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "I'd say the ACC will try and recruit somebody from the SEC. Maybe Florida, Kentucky or South Carolina."

Nah, says Vanderbilt athletics director Todd Turner, a former athletics director at N.C. State. Listen closely, though.

"I just don't see it," Turner says. "The things that drive the SEC and bind it together are the football rivalries, and it is with great risk that you'd abandon that."

But ...

"I think it's improbable," Turner says, "but I wouldn't say it's impossible for there to be some crossing of lines."

Lines smudge. Virginia Tech sues the ACC, then joins it. Syracuse creates the Big East, tries to leave it, then asks Miami to stay. Pencils have erasers, right?

Today the ACC and SEC co-exist peacefully, if warily. Maybe they will rule college sports together. Maybe they have other destinies, one of them a cobra, the other a mongoose.

Ex-Big 8 Commissioner Chuck Neinas, an adviser to Conference USA during this conference realignment, says the ACC and SEC will get along. Listen closely, though.

"I don't anticipate a donnybrook between them for members," Neinas says. "I know the ACC wants 12 teams, but the SEC is pretty well established."

But ...

"But," says Neinas, "never say never."

 

 

 

Canes coach goes with the flow
Move to ACC OK with Coker
By CHIP ALEXANDER, Staff Writer

GREENSBORO -- Larry Coker didn't pay much attention to the talk about possible Atlantic Coast Conference expansion -- at first. The University of Miami football coach said he had heard it all before.
"There have been overtures [by the ACC] to us in the past, so I didn't take it seriously," Coker said Wednesday.

"But as it got going, I started thinking, 'You know what, this is pretty serious.' "

The ACC seriously wanted Miami as a member, and in the end Miami wanted to be in the ACC more than in the Big East Conference. A year from now, the Hurricanes will join Virginia Tech in leaving the Big East and making the ACC an 11-team league.

But Coker, a guest speaker at the N.C. Coaches Association clinic at the Greensboro Coliseum, doesn't seem fazed by the university's decision to jump leagues. He barely mentioned it during his two 50-minute lectures to about 1,200 coaches other than to say "everyone seems excited" about the move.

"I knew we were going to be fine either direction the university decided to go," Coker said in an interview. " I've been eight years in the Big East [and] there are a lot of friendships, relationships, competition, those kind of things. I hated to leave some of that.

"But it's not an emotional decision. It was a business decision. It was not a football decision. It was a University of Miami decision."

Miami and Virginia Tech won't compete in the ACC until the 2004 football season. For the Hurricanes and Hokies, that means one more season in the Big East. It means going to Pittsburgh and Morgantown, W.Va., and other Big East stops and being treated like conference deserters.

The Big East still is pursuing a lawsuit against the ACC and Miami, so the Hurricanes could be defending more than their Big East football championship this year.

"It is a somewhat awkward situation," Coker said. "But our approach is going to be that we're still in the Big East, we'll do the best we can and we have a lot to play for. Nothing has changed in what we're trying to accomplish.

"I was a little concerned about our players and possible distractions. But the response from them is, 'We just want to play.' They don't care about which league."

Miami was the national champion in 2001, Coker's first season as head coach, and was on the brink of winning another national championship last season. But in the title game against Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl the Hurricanes were called for a controversial pass-interference penalty late in regulation. The Buckeyes eventually won 31-24 after two overtimes.

In the national championship game after the 1999 season, Virginia Tech was beaten by Florida State and has been a perennial Big East contender. Coker figured he might have seen the last of the Hokies when the ACC began to focus on Miami, Boston College and Syracuse during the expansion process this spring.

But the ACC ultimately voted to invite Miami ... and Virginia Tech.

"I think that caught everybody a little off-guard," Coker said. "I was like the novice fan. I'm reading Boston College and Syracuse and Miami. All of a sudden Virginia Tech is in the mix and [BC and Syracuse] are gone.

"All that does is really strengthens the ACC. Virginia Tech is a great program. They still [don't] get the respect they deserve. LSU and Texas A&M and the people who have played them -- they understand that.

"Now, you look at the ACC and the teams that have won national championships in fairly recent times: Clemson, Georgia Tech, Florida State. We won it. Virginia Tech played for the national championship against Florida State. Then you look at what Maryland has done. N.C. State. It's going to be quite a league."

Coker said he has heard some of his younger players talking about 2004, about the ACC, about facing new opponents, going new places.

"There already is some excitement about going to the ACC -- I have detected that," he said. "I've also gotten response from some [former] players who have gone on who say, 'Coach, that's going to be great.' "

Coker, 55, said he wasn't concerned about the configuration of the new ACC. He once was an assistant coach at Ohio State, in an 11-team league. That format, he said, has worked well.

The ACC has petitioned the NCAA to be allowed to hold a football championship game with 11 teams. If that request is approved, the league would be split into divisions. Coker said he expected Miami and FSU would be placed in different divisions.

"What I do know is we'll play Florida State every year," he said. "My concern is winning football games."

Few have done it better. In two seasons, Coker is 24-1 as a head coach and has alleviated the anxiety that was felt by some Miami fans when former coach Butch Davis left for the NFL early in 2001 and Davis, a career assistant, was given the job.

"He's a good man and good coach," N.C. State coach Chuck Amato said of Coker. "He's soft-spoken but a very smart person. He's very knowledgeable.

"Miami and Virginia Tech will be two great additions. No one will have to go out of the conference to play the best anymore. They'll be right here in our league."