“He’s gotten reps”, Fedora said.
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North Carolina, the reigning champion of the Coastal Division, faces seven teams with first-year coaches, beginning with non-league foe Georgia on September 3.
North Carolina’s senior cornerback was among the dozens of players and coaches who spoke at the ACC Football Kickoff Thursday, but the former Charlotte Christian star made more noise with his clothes than his comments.
Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson might have a different vantage point. In 2014, the Yellow Jackets won the division after likewise being projected to finish fifth, and the projected victor, Miami, tied for fifth.
“Certainly he brings some credibility to their program and to the conference”, Johnson said.
“They have a lot of comedians on the show”, Lawrence said. “We’ve always had guys who are really confident in themselves, but as a group collectively, I think that we really believe that we’re one of the top defenses in the nation, regardless of what the stats may say or what the outsiders may say”.
“You don’t go into a game thinking you’re going to get a concussion or go into a game thinking you’re going to get hurt”.
There wasn’t much of a debate at ACC media days about who the two best teams in the conference are.
“These past five months haven’t been fun”. “I just respect the art of comedy”. I know we are all routing for him.
“I admire DeVon Edwards’ courage and toughness, which is why he does so well”, Cutcliffe said.
KEEP THEM GUESSING: Mendenhall isn’t close to being ready to commit to a starting quarterback for Virginia.
Pitt’s Narduzzi not only thinks a lot of his three new coaching opponents, but said all three are in good situations.
Kurt Benkert joined the competition as a transfer from East Carolina.
In fact, with three new coaches coming into the division, there seems to be more uncertainty.
“I think the ACC won the off-season because the names they brought in were such big names”, said Mark Packer, host of College Sports Today on Sirius XM Radio. “That’s a game-changer play”. Perhaps most encouraging was that he reduced his interceptions to five. Fundamentally, develop the quarterback position, I thought that was critically important for us. Conner, a redshirt junior, tore a ligament in his knee in the team’s season opener a year ago and was later diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin lymphoma.
His return to action should give the Panthers a lift that might be immeasurable.
“It’s only been the summer; we can just work out so far”. “It has been awesome to witness that”. Hennigan debated several audience members who questioned whether the call was actually targeting or whether Gotsis simply got to the quarterback before either could react.
The ACC has taken additional steps to protect the conference’s football players from vicious hits by strengthening its targeting protocol. He suffered a knee injury in the first game of 2015 and later battled the cancer.
“I expect nothing but his best performance”, Narduzzi said.
“The thing that people want to ask: How do you think the team is going to do?”
OVERSEAS TRIP: Georgia Tech starts its season September 3 in Ireland against Boston College, so the trip itself is a major event for the Yellow Jackets.
In-game replay officials may be losing some of their autonomy in video reviews with the inclusion of a satellite official in the process, but they will now have more authority in identifying and reviewing targeting penalties during the game.
The conference is constantly being compared to the SEC, PAC-12, Big 12 and Big 10, with labels such as “soft”, “top heavy” and “second tier” used to put the ACC in its place. Virginia hasn’t won 10 games since 1989.
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North Carolina has been widely cast as the favorite, as the Tar Heels return 14 starters from last season’s 11-3 team.
