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Big East Coast BiACC - ACC Title game - Virginia Tech vs. Florida State

December 4, 2010  |  By Benjamin Miraski

All hail King Ralph!

Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen won the ACC coach of the year award as chosen by the media. All for going from 2-10 to 8-4 this season.

Forget that the Terps barely survived against Navy. Or that they went 1-2 against ranked teams, and that they blew their chance to win the ACC Atlantic.

But Ralph was the best of the 12 because he used an easy non-conference slate, plus a cake walk of a conference schedule to get to eight wins.

If Maryland had actually been that good, maybe they would have ended up higher than No. 44 in the MRI rankings.

The real winner should have been Jimbo Fisher who had all the weight of a rabid fan base against him, and yet managed to get nine wins, including wins of in-state rivals Miami and Florida.

But that would put me in the minority of the voting apparently.

The one good thing that did come out of Friedgen’s win was a quote by Gary Williams, who got to take a shot at former Maryland athletic director Debbie Yow.

Yow had tried her darnedest to push Williams out the door, despite a national championship, despite being the most successful coach in the history of the school. Yow did the unthinkable.

And then she went to North Carolina State to take the same job (Look out Tom O’Brien). Doesn’t anyone making these decision pay attention?

And here is what Williams said:

“It’s just nice to see. It’s nice he got his eighth win against N.C. State, too.”

Gary Williams = Elephant.

On to the game!

Virginia Tech vs. Florida State (+4) at Charlotte - No matter what you want to say about the state of the ACC, at least the two teams playing for the championship of the conference have at least some skill this year. Both finished in the MRI top 25, and although Virginia Tech finished lower down than they normally do in those rankings, they had to come from a long way back after two season-opening losses.

How can you go against the Hokies on a 10-game winning streak? They had every reason in the world to roll over. And yet they fought back to finish with 10 wins, continuing their nation’s best streak of double digit finishes in that column.

So I have to believe that with ACC player of the year Tyrod Taylor (should have been North Carolina State’s Russell Wilson), Virginia Tech will win this one with ease.

The computer… well, it thinks this one will be a little closer. It only gives Virginia Tech a 59.60 percent chance to win.

But the human knows better on this one (I hope). Take the Hokies, lay the four and book your tickets for the Orange Bowl.

The experiment went 4-5 last week to move to 20-16 on the season.

Posted December 4, 2010 8:00 AM

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