ACC Notebook: FSU Needs Victories

It has reached this point at Florida State: panicking Seminole fans are searching for victories.

At 2-4, FSU and head coach Bobby Bowden need to find four more victories in their remaining six games to become bowl eligible. That challenge starts Thursday night in a nationally-televised game at North Carolina. The Seminoles close October against North Carolina State and tangle with Clemson, Wake Forest, Maryland and Florida in November.

FSU has played in 27 consecutive bowl games dating back to 1981, when the Seminoles went 6-5.

With all that's going on at FSU surrounding its porous defense, injuries and the emotional debate surrounding Bowden's future, the Seminoles' best-case scenario might be the program's second 6-6 regular season in four years. FSU beat UCLA in the 2006 Emerald Bowl to avoid its first losing season since 1976, Bowden's first in Tallahassee.

Bowden says FSU's struggles are not a secret.

"We'll go out there and stop a team, and stop a team, and stop a team and then whoop," Bowden said in reference to the Seminoles' defensive lapses.

"So if they ever get that squared away we'll be a pretty good ballclub. Another thing is, nobody's crushed us. We haven't been blown out. We've been right down to the wire with everybody, which maybe with one play less for them or one play more for us, we could be up at the top."

Both the Seminoles (2-4, 0-3 ACC) and Tar Heels (4-2, 0-2) are looking for their first ACC victories of the season. It's actually an intriguing matchup, considering FSU is No. 1 in the conference in offense and last in defense, while UNC is No. 1 in defense and last in offense.

The Thursday night game is also the first of its kind at Kenan Stadium.

"It's a big challenge for us and we have to execute and play as well as we can if we want to be successful," FSU quarterback Christian Ponder said. "It's a heck of a challenge and it's something that we can show up and shock the world and make a statement because it's a Thursday night game and it's the only game on. So we have an opportunity but a heck of a challenge."

Bowden, who has indicated he'd like to return to coach in 2010, believes FSU's season-opening defeat to Miami has haunted the Seminoles. The game wasn't decided until the final play, when Seminoles receiver Jarmon Fortson was unable to catch a low pass in the end zone for the win.

"I think the old expression that Lombardi said, that winning breeds winning and losing breeds losing and once you've lost, you have got to get your kids to have a positive attitude," Bowden said.

"With us, we've been in every ball game. Every game we've been in has come down to the last three or four minutes. If we score, we win. If we don't score, we lose. Against Miami, we're on the two yard line with a first down but the time caught us and we couldn't get in anything but two plays. Then we missed a touchdown in the end zone that would have won it.

"That might have changed our whole season if could have won that darn ball game."

And if you are wondering about Bowden's retirement plans, he continues to drop hints. The latest one Bowden gave that he will not slip quietly away after this season came in a radio interview he gave Wednesday to an AM station in Raleigh, N.C.

Bowden also told host David Glenn of Sports Radio 850 "The Buzz" that he will not discuss his exit strategy because he doesn't want a highly publicized countdown to the end.

"I know I am in the last years - I say plural - of my career," said Bowden in a transcript of the interview available on ACC Sports Journal.

"My days are numbered. I did not want to say, 'Well, I'm going to leave at this time.' I already know when I'm going to leave. And [coach-in-waiting] Jimbo Fisher knows when I'm going to leave. He and I have talked about it."

ON THE ROAD

Boston College has Notre Dame's number.

The Eagles have won six straight against the Irish, including the last three at storied Notre Dame Stadium. If Boston College prevails, the senior class will graduate having gone undefeated against the Irish.

The bad news is BC is 0-2 on the road this season, falling behind early and never recovering at Clemson (25-7) and Virginia Tech (48-14).

"It is very complicated," BC coach Frank Spaziani said in at attempt to explain the Eagles' road struggles.

"Early in the year we weren't where we are now so that attributes to it. It also depends on the opposition and how they play against us can also factor in. Everything is new to this team because we are so young so we have to learn from it and move
on."

YOUNG GUNS

The two youngest head coaches in the ACC will meet Saturday, when Clemson plays Miami.

Clemson's Dabo Swinney is the youngest head coach in the ACC at 39. He will turn 40 on Nov. 20, the day before Clemson meets Virginia in the final home game of the year. Miami's Randy Shannon is the second youngest head coach at 43. He won't turn 44 until Feb. 24.

If history is any indication, the showdown could generate some gray hairs. The last two games between the teams were decided in overtime. Clemson won at Miami in one overtime in 2004, while the Hurricanes won at Clemson in triple overtime in 2005.

UM is in the driver's seat in the ACC Coastal Division, while the Tigers continue to search for consistency. A win over the eighth-ranked Hurricanes would represent the highest-ranked team Clemson has defeated since the 2004 (end of 2003 season) Chick-Fil-A Bowl, where Clemson defeated No. 6 Tennessee.

"We are in the middle of a division race so at this point it is like a playoff every week in this conference," Swinney said. "We are trying to just stay in the hunt and get better as a football team. We have our hands full. This is a good team we are getting ready to play."

HISTORY LESSON

The Duke Blue Devils, off last week, will try to put together back-to-back ACC wins for the first time since 1994 when they face visiting Maryland on Saturday.

Duke, 3-3 overall and 1-1 in the ACC, says it hasn't lost any momentum from its biggest win of the season, a 49-28 victory over North Carolina State nearly two weeks ago. Thaddeus Lewis completed 40 of 50 passes and finished with a career high 459 yards. Meanwhile, the Blue Devils defense held the Wolfpack offense scoreless in the second half.

Duke and Maryland haven't met in five years.

"Kids don't see much past now, past today, so all they know is that Maryland's had a difficult start," Duke coach David Cutcliffe said.

"But when you put on the tape, they see that Maryland's a good football team. You really don't have to convince kids once they see tape. They've seen enough tape to know what a good team looks like and what a bad team looks like. Maryland is a good team."