Atlantic Coast Conference Atlantic Division Football Midseason Awards – Roundtable #2
It’s Atlantic Division midseason awards time and we are happy to have our Twitter panel back. @KilroyFSU, and @BCMike22, will give their thoughts who the winners. @HokieGuru is the moderator here today at @TalkinACCSports for this wonderful panel.
First up is @KilroyFSU. He attended Florida State for undergrad, though he transferred to the University of Akron as a sophomore before returning for law school. He currently works as an attorney in state government.
Next is @BCMike22: He is one half of BCDraft.com (he says he is arguably the lesser half lol), a BC blog that is dedicated to “drafting” all things BC related. www.BCDraft.com. He enjoys home brewing, blogging sports over working, and talking about himself in the third person.
HERE WE GO!!
Who is the ACC Atlantic Division Midseason Most Valuable Defensive Player?
@KilroyFSU: Florida State’s defensive line is dominating, but Brandon Jenkins may not even be the best defensive lineman, due to Bjorn Werner’s incredible offseason improvement. But at this point, you just can’t ignore Luke Keuchly’s production. I said during the preseason that Keuchly would lead the world in tackles, yet I didn’t have him as my preseason defensive MVP. Allow me to provide a mea culpa here. Luke Keuchly is the ACC player of the year on defense, no question.
@BCMike22: John Swofford. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense, and he did just that raising the exit fees to 125% of the media contract (currently $20M) and poaching two of the worthwhile programs left in the cesspool that is the BigLeast.
Who is the ACC Atlantic Division Midseason Most Valuable Offensive Player?
@KilroyFSU: I was high on Danny O’Brien coming into the season, but he hasn’t been impressive. Not sure if it’s the chan
ge of coaching staff or a typical sophomore regression after an outstanding freshman season or what, but O’Brien can’t be the offensive player of the midseason, for obvious reasons. It’s gotta be Clemson’s super freshman wide receiver Sammy Watkins, who has been electric.
@BCMike22: My brain just came to a screeching halt talking “offense” and “valuable” when paired with “ACC” and “Atlantic”. You know what—I’m just going to abstain. Honestly, no one has been that great, and those in the conference as a whole worthy of talking about are in the Coastal. So I’ll say this award is “vacated”.
Who wins the ACC Atlantic Division Midseason Coaching Award?
@KilroyFSU: As much as I’d love to say Dabo Sweeney, it has to be Jim Grobe, who has Wake Forest back to old form after an awful year last season, with much, much less talent than Swinney has at his disposal.
@BCMike22: Frank Spaziani, for finding new and creative ways to throw his players under a bus. Go ahead, try to tell me another coach who is willing to stick to his game plan that it’s 100% the player’s faults and that they need to condition themselves better in the offseason. That’s leadership, friends. That’s coaching.
Who is the ACC Atlantic Division’s surprise team?
@KilroyFSU: Wake Forest. Everybody, myself included, thought that Wake Forest would be the last place team in the Atlantic, but they’ve already knocked off North Carolina State, Boston College, and Florida State.
@BCMike22: Gotta be Wake Forest, who if not for a bad call up in the Carrier Dome would be undefeated and nationally ranked. All of those folks who said the bloom was off the rose with Jim Grobe better take another gander.
Runner up is Boston College for being an unfathomable 1-5 before starting the 2nd half of the schedule which includes stops at Lane Stadium and South Bend, and hosting FSU and Miami. We’re looking at a possible 1-11 here folks.
Who is the ACC Atlantic Division’s most disappointing team?
@KilroyFSU: Call this a tossup between Florida State and Boston College. BC has been dreadful, but Florida State had much higher preseason expectations. If I have to pick one based on my expectation for how the rest of the season will unfold, I’d pick Boston College because they’re going to have a hard time finding another win this season. 1-11 is a realistic possibility. Now, I expect they’ll win another game or two, but if BC goes 1-11 or 2-10, they’ve got to be the most disappointing team, unless Florida State somehow fails to become bowl eligible.
@BCMike22: I’m almost tempted to say Florida State, but since I told you that they wouldn’t live up to expectations, I’m personally not that disappointed. I am thoroughly disappointed and disgusted with my 1-5 Boston College Eagles.
To close, here’s your chance to change your ACC Atlantic Division preseason pick. Who is going to win the ACC Atlantic Division?
@KilroyFSU: Uh, yeah, about that. It looks like it’s going to be Clemson, but if Wake Forest can pick off Virginia Tech next week, then it should be the winner of Wake Forest-Clemson. While everybody is still technically in the race, nobody else really has a realistic path at this point.
@BCMike22: I went with Florida State by default before the season started despite calling them out as pretenders and giving the nod to VT to be conference champs, but clearly the new favorite is the Clemson Tigers. They’re anything but polished—more like a drunken woodsmen with a chainsaw at this point. They’re cutting through everything and everyone, but it’s not always pretty and leaves you with a bit of “how did that happen?” Only Wake Forest has a legit shot of taking them down, and despite my unwavering affection for Grobe; I don’t think he’s got the ponies to play with Dabo this year.
We thank our panelists for another great roundtable at All Sports Discussion!!
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