ACC spring football review, Part 3

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

These four programs include two that are breaking in new head coaches, and two that are facing major transitions of a different kind.

Boston College
Coach: Jeff Jagodzinski, second year
2007 Record: 11-3, 6-2 ACC, Champs Sports Bowl win over Michigan State.
Offensive Starters Returning (6): FB James McCluskey, WR Brandon Robinson, TE Ryan Purvis, LT Anthony Castonzo, LG Clif Ramsey, OC Matt Tennant.
Defensive Starters Returning (4): DT Ron Brace, DE Alex Albright, LB Mark Herzlich, SS Paul Anderson.
Specialists Returning (1): PK Steve Aponavicius.

With each passing season, the Boston College program will become more of a reflection of Jeff Jagodzinski and less a testament to his predecessor, Tom O'Brien. The team's success last year, Jagodzinski's first as the head coach of the Eagles, was built on the shoulders of one of the largest senior classes in all of college football, a group recruited and developed for three years (four in the case of redshirts) by O'Brien and his staff. The centerpiece in 2007, senior quarterback Matt Ryan, was an O'Brien signee who recently became the highest draft pick (No. 3 overall) in the history of BC football.

Jagodzinski and offensive coordinator Steve Logan will have to break in new faces at several crucial positions this fall, including fifth-year senior Chris Crane at quarterback and true freshman Josh Haden at tailback. The Eagles also have some major question marks on special teams. Defensively, BC's low number of returning starters (four) is misleading. Tackle B.J. Raji (academics) and linebacker Brian Toal (injury) missed all of last season but are expected to be All-ACC candidates this fall. Defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani has plenty of quality depth on his side of the ball as well.

Georgia Tech
Coach: Paul Johnson, first year
2007 Record: 7-6, 4-4 ACC, Humanitarian Bowl loss to Fresno State.
Offensive Starters Returning (3): A-Back Greg Smith, LT Andrew Gardner, RT A.J. Smith.
Defensive Starters Returning (4): DT Darryl Richard, DT Vance Walker, LB Shane Bowen, CB Jahi Word-Daniels.
Specialists Returning (0): none.

This one will be fascinating to watch and difficult to predict. George O'Leary and Chan Gailey turned Georgia Tech into a consistently successful program (11 straight winning seasons from 1997-2007), and the Yellow Jackets haven't had a truly bad season since the Bill Lewis disaster (1-10) of 1994, but this year's team has by far the fewest returning starters (only seven of 24 overall) in the ACC. Meanwhile, first-year coach Paul Johnson has installed at Tech the triple-option offense, which worked wonders for him at Georgia Southern and Navy but still has plenty of skeptics at the BCS level.

Defensively, the 2008 Yellow Jackets have a chance to be very good, especially along the line, but everything else is a guessing game. Will the departures of a large senior class and a number of transfers (all connected to Johnson's new offense) leave Tech too shorthanded? Can players recruited for Gailey's pro-style attack execute Johnson's triple option? (The Jackets fumbled 14 times in one spring scrimmage.) How will a program that often struggles on special teams react to the graduations of All-American punter Durant Brooks and productive placekicker Travis Bell?

Virginia
Coach: Al Groh, eighth year
2007 Record: 9-4, 6-2 ACC, Gator Bowl loss to Texas Tech.
Offensive Starters Returning (6): RB Cedric Peerman, WR Maurice Covington, WR Staton Jobe, TE John Phillips, LT Eugene Monroe, RT Will Barker.
Defensive Starters Returning (5): LB Antonio Appleby, LB Jon Copper, LB Clint Sintim, S Byron Glaspy, CB Vic Hall.
Specialists Returning (0): none.

Oddly, a program once famous for its consistency and stability has in recent months appeared to be coming apart at the seams. Al Groh's first seven seasons made him look like a poor man's version of his predecessor George Welsh, the patron saint of consistent success. There were no top-20 finishes or ACC titles for Groh, but there were no disasters, either. Since the Cavaliers posted an impressive 9-4 record last fall, however, they have lost not only a strong senior class (led by No. 2 NFL pick Chris Long), but a slew of key contributors to academic or disciplinary problems as well.

Starting quarterback Jameel Sewell was among UVa's academic casualties, so Groh will need an unproven player (Peter Lalich, Marc Verica or Scott Deke) to come through at the most important position on the field. In addition to Long and Sewell, the Cavaliers lost a bunch of their other most productive players, including offensive guard Branden Albert (early NFL departure), defensive end Jeffrey Fitzgerald (academics), tight end Tom Santi (senior) and punter/kicker Chris Gould (senior). Either another generation of stars is about to shine, or this team is headed for a big fall.

Duke
Coach: David Cutcliffe, first year
2007 Record: 1-11, 0-8 ACC.
Offensive Starters Returning (5): QB Thaddeus Lewis, RB Re'quan Boyette, WR Eron Riley, RG Rob Schirmann, RT Fred Roland.
Defensive Starters Returning (9): NG Ayanga Okpokowuruk, DT Vince Oghobaase, DE Wesley Oglesby, LB Vincent Rey, LB Michael Tauiliili, LB Marcus Jones, SS Adrian Aye-Darko, CB Glenn Williams, CB Leon Wright.
Specialists Returning (2): P Kevin Jones, PK Nick Maggio.

There's no nice way to put it: This program has been an absolute embarrassment for a long time. Duke has won more than four games in a season only once (an 8-4 Fred Goldsmith team in 1994) since Steve Spurrier left for Florida in 1989. In six of the last eight seasons, including the last three, the Blue Devils have been winless in the ACC. The ugly tenures of Carl Franks (1999-2003) and Ted Roof (2003-07), both first-time head coaches, reinforced a notion that most people in college football figured out long ago: The Duke football job is no place for training wheels.

In stark contrast to his immediate predecessors, new coach David Cutcliffe actually has some things in his background that justify some long-term optimism. He not only had previous experience as a head coach, at Mississippi, he had successful experience (44-29) as a head coach. Even better, as the man who mentored Peyton and Eli Manning during their college days, Cutcliffe has a hook for his recruiting pitch. The Blue Devils still don't have many All-ACC candidates on their roster, but credit them for this: Collectively, upon their coach's request, they've lost about 400 pounds since his hiring.