TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- When Bobby Bowden finally decides to slip quietly into retirement, he believes Florida State fans will remember the good times -- and not the program's recent slide -- that happened during his storied coaching career. One question: Does his career have any chance at a storybook ending?
FSU's dramatic 29-26 home victory over Maryland Saturday helped an already wounded Seminole Nation avoid further grief, if not slow a potentially uncomfortable showdown with its iconic coach. Instead, the Seminoles (6-5) breathed a collective sigh of relief and became bowl eligible for the 28th straight year.
Another streak is on the line at top-ranked Florida next Saturday.
That's what we may get from the ACC this weekend in terms of divisional winners advancing to the title game in Tampa, Fla., next month.
Clemson could clinch the Atlantic Division Saturday if the Tigers beat North Carolina State and Boston College loses at Virginia. Georgia Tech, meanwhile, can clinch the Coastal Division by beating Duke in its last league game. Of course, keep an eraser handy, just in case.
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.
A solid rivalry has developed between Boston College and Virginia Tech.
While the Eagles have won the last three regular-season games against the Hokies, Virginia Tech has beaten Boston College when its counted most in the past two ACC Championship games. Plenty is at stake again when the two tangle Saturday in Blacksburg, Va.
"These guys are a premier program in the country and they haven't skipped a beat since the last time we saw them," BC coach Frank Spaziani said.
Tom O'Brien teams traditionally get better as the season goes on -- as North Carolina State did in winning four of its last five games last year. With Wake Forest, Duke and Boston College coming up in the next three weeks, the surging Wolfpack could be 6-1 going into its bye week prior to an Atlantic Division showdown at Florida State.
O'Brien, however, isn't about to get caught up in such nonsense. He's a game-at-a-time head coach, and Saturday's meeting at Wake Forest is N.C. State's first ACC game and first road game.
"All I know is what team I got this week against the team I am going to play," O'Brien said. "I don't know who is going to be here next week. We continue to march on and try to be the best we can weekly."
Matt Daniels doesn't even want to think about the repercussions if Duke loses to North Carolina Central University on Saturday.
The two campuses are just five miles apart, and locals in Durham, N.C., have been chatting for months about whether the Eagles can compete against a Blue Devils team that already this season has lost to a Football Championship Subdivision school.
"A lot of heads are going to be turning," said Daniels, Duke's sophomore safety.
Playing consecutive Thursday night games has left Georgia Tech checking its calendar.
The Yellow Jackets relied on dramatics to beat visiting Clemson last Thursday, squandering an early 24-point advantage, only to have Scott Blair save the day with a 36-yard field goal with under a minute to play. After catching its breath, Georgia Tech meets Miami in an ACC Coastal Division showdown Thursday at Land Shark Stadium.
"Like they say, it is a fast turnaround," Tech coach Paul Johnson said. "We are trying to figure out what day it is. It is a huge challenge this week going to Miami, a very talented team. They have a lot of great athletes and a lot of history and tradition."
This was not the way the ACC was hoping to start the 2009 college football season. The conference is still trying to establish that it is on par with the SEC, Big 12 or the Big 10. Instead, it has barely kept itself in front of the Big East. The early returns suggest more of the same this year.
Through the 10 games to start the season, ACC teams went a combined 4-6. That's bad enough, considering that the ACC was a collective 0-4 against teams from the other BCS conferences. With Virginia Tech losing to Alabama in a semi-neutral site, Wake Forest suffering a home loss to Baylor, Cal destroying Maryland, and of course the opening night nationally-broadcast loss by NC State as the harbinger for this lost weekend. When the best win of the weekend is Clemson trouncing a middle-of-the-pack Sun Belt foe in Middle Tennessee State, that is not a good sign.
Every week during college football's endless offseason, The FanHouse Walk will put last week's stories to bed and deliver the essentials to bridge that agonizing space between now and September.
Remember Cal 2004 -- Texas coach Mack Brown, who, aside from last year's Big 12 tiebreaker dustup, has benefited greatly from the BCS, has apparently decided to get off his high horse when it comes to matters of BCS. Brown hilariously brought in experts during the offseason to explain the BCS to him and his coaches, ignoring that he fully understood matters enough in 2004 to politic for Texas' inclusion over a Cal team that had a better season and overall performance to that point than his Longhorns.
He's also enthusiastic about his Maryland Terrapins, too, and their chances in the ACC.
"There's something about this team that says winner," Friedgen said. "Their goals are high and I think they (players) are hungry. I am hungry, too. It has been awhile since we've won this thing and I want to win it again."
NCAA Football 
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- When Bobby Bowden finally decides to slip quietly into retirement, he believes Florida State fans will remember the good times -- and not the program's recent slide -- that happened during his storied coaching career. One question: Does his career have any chance at a storybook ending?
Closure.
It has reached this point at Florida State: panicking Seminole fans are searching for victories.
A solid rivalry has developed between Boston College and Virginia Tech.
Tom O'Brien teams traditionally get better as the season goes on -- as North Carolina State did in winning four of its last five games last year. With Wake Forest, Duke and Boston College coming up in the next three weeks, the surging Wolfpack could be 6-1 going into its bye week prior to an Atlantic Division showdown at Florida State.
Matt Daniels doesn't even want to think about the repercussions if Duke loses to North Carolina Central University on Saturday. 
Playing consecutive Thursday night games has left 
This was not the way the ACC was hoping to start the 2009 college football season. The conference is still trying to establish that it is on par with the SEC, Big 12 or the Big 10. Instead, it has barely kept itself in front of the Big East. The early returns suggest more of the same this year.
Every week during college football's endless offseason, 
