ACC looking up to the midmajors
After another lackluster weekend of ACC football - Maryland beat Florida International 14-10, for those who missed out on one of the lowlights - I decided to try to make myself feel better by looking at how some of the also-rans who have given our teams all they could handle are doing at this waypoint in the season.
It ain't any better than I thought it would be, for those keeping score at home.
Take, for instance, the case of Middle Tennessee State, another midmajor that gave Maryland a game before falling 24-10 earlier this month. MTSU is now 2-2 after a 59-0 loss at Oklahoma last week.
Yikes.
Troy, for its part, which nearly upset Florida State and Georgia Tech before losing by scores of 24-17 and 35-20, respectively, went out and got pummeled by another Big 12 power, Nebraska, by a 56-0 count.
Virginia fans might, surprisingly, have the reason to feel the best about themselves. Pittsburgh and Western Michigan are both 3-1 a third of the way through the 2006 season - with losses only to Big 10 schools Michigan State (38-23 winners over Pitt) and Indiana (39-20 winners over Western Michigan).
Of course, Indiana has since lost to a I-AA team, Southern Illinois, so take that for what you will.
And Wyoming, which lost 13-12 at Virginia a few weeks back, is 1-3 - albeit with close losses to Boise State (17-10) and Air Force (31-24) included therein.
The aforementioned Florida International, incidentally, is 0-4 - with nailbiter losses to Middle Tennessee State, South Florida and Bowling Green added to its down-to-the-wire defeat at the hands of Maryland in '06.
- Chris Graham