As Matt Ryan has gone, so has Boston College. Both started off the season as dark horse candidates to win the biggest prize of 'em all. As the season progressed, it looked like more of a reasonable possibility. Then a pretty bad bender took them off the national radar, and put them around where most reasonable predictions had them at before the year began. But after coming up big late in the season, there's a chance that they can wrap up some nice consolation prizes; for BC, their first ever BCS bid. For Ryan, a solidification of his status as the best QB prospect in the draft.In the meantime, being named the ACC Player of the Year will have to do. This doesn't come as much of a surprise, seeing as how he began the season as the Preseason POY (sort of a dubiously named honor if you really think about it). The bigger surprise is the margin by which he won it- Virginia DE (and ACC DPOY) Chris Long finished with 18 of the 71 first-place votes, about a third of Ryan's tally (50). No one else received more than one, among them Tashard Choice and Clemson QB Cullen Harper, who, loss to BC aside, may have statistically outplayed Ryan, at least until the two clashed for the ACC Atlantic title. Ryan set the BC single-season record this year with 28 TD passes, and provided he gets drafted by the Ravens (a likely possibility if previews are to be believed), he can expect to tally that in about four years time, flat.
