Four-Team Race Is Forecast in Atlantic Coast Conference

In the 1980s two teams dominated the Atlantic Coast Conference in football: Maryland and Clemson won eight of the 10 league championships.

But when the decade ended, there were signs that parity finally had arrived in the form of a four-team race that came down to the last weekend of the season.

The signs are still there as the 1990 season begins.

Though Virginia and Clemson are considered the favorites, and many believe that the victor of their Sept. 8 showdown in Charlottesville, Va., could be the league’s champion, there are at least two other teams that are given a chance to play in the Florida Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day.

“I always felt the league was very balanced,” Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Ross said. “But I think this is the strongest the league has been in my nine years. It could be a six- or seven-team race.”

Ross might be overstating things a bit, but the man who coached Maryland to three straight ACC championships in the mid-80s might not be far off. The much-improved Yellow Jackets, who finished last year by winning seven of their last eight games, likely will be in the hunt. So, too, might Duke, which shared last year’s title with the Virginia Cavaliers.

And for the first time in recent memory, the league is not so top-heavy. Clemson and Duke will need some time adjusting to new coaches Ken Hatfield and Barry Wilson, respectively, and Virginia will no longer be able to sneak up on anybody. Despite the improvements made by the Duke Blue Devils and the Cavaliers, however, the ACC is still not a powerhouse football league.

The quality of ACC football definitely is getting better; the league is not just one step above, say, the Big West.

“When I was at Appalachian State, you’d see some Southern Conference teams beating ACC teams all the time,” North Carolina Coach Mack Brown said. “We beat Wake Forest one year and played North Carolina State very close. But you don’t see that happen anymore. It’s so much stronger than it used to be, and it’s getting stronger every day.”

Brown should know. In his two years coaching at Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels have won only one ACC game (over Georgia Tech in 1988) and have had miserably identical 1-10 seasons. And so should Ross, whose team took its lumps until the middle of last season, before finishing a respectable 7-4. But the downfall of two of the league’s former powers, North Carolina and Maryland, hasn’t helped to improve the ACC’s image on a national basis.

“I don’t think the league gets the respect it should,” Ross said.

That much is clear. Consider this year’s preseason rankings: While Clemson is nearly a consensus Top 10 team and was picked 10th by The Associated Press poll of writers and broadcasters, the lack of respect for Virginia is evident. Although the Cavaliers were selected 15th by the AP, the coaches picked George Welsh’s team 21st. Then again, maybe the always pessimistic Welsh has a lot of friends on the selection committee.

When speaking about Saturday’s season opener at Kansas, Welsh sounded as if his Cavaliers were about to play one of the Big Eight’s top three teams, not one that finished 4-7 last year. Bemoaning the rash of recent injuries, Welsh said, “We’re not as well-prepared as we’d like. I say that every year, but we’ve had a lot of injuries to skill people and that gives you a lot of concerns.”

Injuries and academic problems have all but wiped out North Carolina State’s chances. The Wolfpack, which was in the race last year until closing the season with four straight losses, has been decimated in the offensive backfield. Coach Dick Sheridan, who has done a masterful job of turning the program around, might have to be even more of a magician this season. But that doesn’t mean Sheridan has ruled his team out of this year’s race.

“I never feel like we can or can’t (win),” said Sheridan, whose team opens Saturday against Western Carolina. “But I’ve always approached the season with that goal of winning the ACC championship. That is our focus. We want to be a team capable of playing for a championship.”

What should make this year interesting is the high quality of quarterbacks around the league. Virginia’s Shawn Moore, a senior, is being promoted for the Heisman Trophy, while sophomore Shawn Jones of Georgia Tech was last year’s top ACC freshman. Maryland’s Scott Zolak, a fifth-year senior who has played sparingly, is being greeted with anticipation in College Park.

And, as a new decade begins, there is hope that ACC football will keep improving. There has been much talk about future expansion, with Florida State, Miami and Syracuse mentioned as possibilities. And it seems there is parity -- real, and not merely imagined in the minds of the ACC coaches.