ACC spring football review: Part 2

With the last of the ACC's 12 football teams completing spring drills last weekend, here's the second installment in a three-part look at the conference heading into the offseason, with preseason practice just three months away.

These four programs are coming off losing seasons but have a realistic chance at bowl games, in part because of the lack of dominating teams in the conference this year.

North Carolina
Coach: Butch Davis, second year
2007 Record: 4-8, 3-5 ACC.
Offensive Starters Returning (9): QB T.J. Yates, HB Zack Pianalto, WR Hakeem Nicks, WR Brandon Tate, TE Richard Quinn, LT Kyle Jolly, OC/LG Aaron Stahl, RG Calvin Darity, RT Garrett Reynolds.
Defensive Starters Returning (7): DE E.J. Wilson, LB Bruce Carter, LB Quan Sturdivant, SS Trimane Goddard, FS Deunta Williams, CB Charles Brown, CB Kendric Burney.
Specialists Returning (1): P Terrence Brown.

Butch Davis is coming off a 4-8 campaign, and his roster doesn’t look dramatically different from the ACC's other non-bowl teams overall. But a combination of quality coaching and strong recruiting may be re-branding UNC as a competitive program. The Tar Heels appear to be poised for a few steps up the conference ladder, and some even see them as the most likely challenger to Virginia Tech in the league's less powerful Coastal Division.

Few teams in America will have more returning starters than the Tar Heels (17 of 24, including kickers) this fall, and that number doesn’t include up-and-coming players and projected 2008 first-teamers such as tailback Greg Little and defensive tackle Marvin Austin. Wide receiver Hakeem Nicks, return man Brandon Tate and safety Deunta Williams are among the best players at their positions in the conference. If the Heels can survive a difficult opening month (including games at Rutgers and versus Virginia Tech), the rest of their schedule is far less imposing.

N.C. State
Coach: Tom O'Brien, second year
2007 Record: 5-7, 3-5 ACC.
Offensive Starters Returning (5): QB Daniel Evans, RB Jamelle Eugene, LT Julian Williams, OL Meares Green, RG Curtis Crouch.
Defensive Starters Returning (4): DT Alan-Michael Cash, DE Willie Young, CB Jeremy Gray, CB DeAndre Morgan.
Specialists Returning (1): P Bradley Pierson.

Tom O'Brien understands this rebuilding thing well. As an assistant under George Welsh at Virginia in the early 1980s, O'Brien helped turn an embarrassing program into a winner by the coaches' second year, and soon thereafter the Cavaliers became one of the most consistently successful teams in the nation. As the head coach at Boston College, O'Brien took over a program damaged by a gambling scandal, but he posted a winning record by his third season, took the Eagles to eight consecutive bowl games, and averaged 8.5 victories per season after two rebuilding campaigns.

If O'Brien's breakthrough season at N.C. State is going to come during his second year in Raleigh, he'll have to do it with the second-fewest number of returning starters (10 of 24) in the ACC. Historically, that's a difficult task. However, those numbers don't include productive players such as tailback Toney Baker, tailback Andre Brown and tight end Anthony Hill, former starters who missed much or all of last season with injuries. The Wolfpack's primary focus this spring was on getting tougher at the point of attack, and that will have to happen for the team to earn a bowl invitation this fall.

Maryland
Coach: Ralph Friedgen, eighth year
2007 Record: 6-7, 3-5 ACC, Emerald Bowl loss to Oregon State.
Offensive Starters Returning (9): QB Chris Turner, FB Cory Jackson, WR Darrius Heyward-Bey, WR LaQuan Williams, TE Dan Gronkowski, LT Scott Burley, LG Jaimie Thomas, OC Edwin Williams, RT Dane Randolph.
Defensive Starters Returning (5): DT Jeremy Navarre, DE Trey Covington, LB Moise Fokou, LB Dave Philistin, CB Kevin Barnes.
Specialists Returning (2): PK Obi Egekeze, P Travis Baltz.

It’s been feast or famine at Maryland through seven years of the Ralph Friedgen era. The Terrapins’ thrilling three-year run from 2001-03, which included a 31-8 record and the program’s first ACC title since coach Bobby Ross won three straight from 1983-85, is now a distant memory. Three of the past four campaigns have ended with losing records.

The Terps’ projected 2008 lineup does not appear to be quite as imposing from top to bottom as those of the ACC’s top contenders, but there is reason for hope in College Park. Friedgen initially made a name for himself as an offensive innovator, and this fall he’ll have the luxury of three battle-tested quarterbacks (led by projected starter Chris Turner), a couple of exciting young tailbacks, a star receiver in Darrius Heyward-Bey, and the most experienced group of blockers in the conference.

Miami
Coach: Randy Shannon, second year
2007 Record: 5-7, 2-6 ACC
Offensive Starters Returning (4): RB Javarris James, TE Chris Zellner, LT Jason Fox, RT Reggie Youngblood.
Defensive Starters Returning (6): DT Joe Joseph, DE Eric Moncur, LB Spencer Adkins, LB Colin McCarthy, CB Bruce Johnson, CB DeMarcus Van Dyke.
Specialists Returning (1): P Matt Bosher.

Since capturing the national championship under coach Larry Coker in 2001, one year after Butch Davis left behind the No. 2-ranked team in the nation  to take a job in the NFL, Miami has been on a downward spiral. The Hurricanes' records under Coker would have been celebrated in most places, but the team's unmistakable trend on his watch — 12-0, 12-1, 11-2, 9-3, 9-3 and finally 7-6 — ultimately cost him his job. The slide continued under Randy Shannon in 2007, when UM (a proud program with five national titles) missed the postseason for the first time since 1997.

A slew of transfers, dismissals, graduations and early NFL departures in recent months took a bite out of Miami's talent pool. The Hurricanes will have to rely on a freshman quarterback (perhaps redshirt Robert Marve) this fall, and they need and expect some production out of the whopping eight members of their most recent recruiting class who enrolled in January, enabling them to participate in spring practice. For UM to take a leap up the conference ladder in 2008, its next generation of stars must emerge quickly.