NCAA Football virginia Cavaliers

Much of the credit for Clemson's turnaround this season goes to its offense. Let us count the ways.

During Clemson's current five-game winning streak -- the program's longest in three seasons -- the Tigers have scored at least 38 points in each game, a program first. During that span, Clemson has averaged 42 points per game, 425 total yards per game, 6.87 yards per play and 220 passing yards a game.

No wonder the Tigers, who had lost three of their first five games by a total of 10 points, are positioned to clinch their first trip to the ACC title game with a home victory Saturday against struggling Virginia.

Of course, Clemson's success on offense revolves around all-purpose back and Heisman Trophy hopeful C.J. Spiller. Spiller needs 103 all-purpose yards to break the ACC single-season record of 2,054, held by Virginia's Thomas Jones.

In last Saturday's victory over N.C. State, Spiller had a 16-yard touchdown run, caught a 34-yard scoring pass and threw a 17-yard touchdown to Xavier Dye, becoming the first Clemson player to do all three in one game.

Closure.

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.

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.

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."

When it comes to Virginia's unsettled quarterback position in its new spread offense, embattled Cavaliers coach Al Groh doesn't expect to pull a rabbit out of a hat. He's not intentionally being secretive. Of the team's three quarterback options, none could avoid producing multiple turnovers in last weekend's disastrous home defeat to William & Mary. Or was it to Peter, Paul & Mary?

Doesn't matter.

With No. 16 Texas Christian traveling to Charlottesville, Va., Saturday, Groh may need to put together the best coaching job of his career to get the Cavaliers pointed in the right direction. According to Virginia media, if Groh doesn't and the team, which faces one of the country's most challenging schedules, gets off to a poor start, there are already rumors flying that UVa could pull a Clemson from a year ago and replace Groh with one of his assistants during a bye week.

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 Monday 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.

Rejoice! Er, potentially rejoice -- Last week the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported speculation that FOX might extricate itself a year early from its BCS coverage commitments. Besides the rarely disputed notion that FOX's BCS coverage is woeful -- thank you, Thom Brennaman and endless band shots -- the network seems to realize they've been dealt a weak hand for their 2010 games.

Was it tough to see Virginia strike out on Kyle Long the first time around when he was being recruited in 2007? Had to -- this was when Chris Long had possibly the most high-profile season for any Cavalier in history while his famous father looked on.

It would only make sense if Kyle followed in his brother's path, but instead, he chose to play baseball at Florida State. For Virginia fans, it was the equivalent of finding out the girl you were pining for turned out to be a lesbian. Sure, it sucks to a certain extent, but there's a comfort knowing it's not really a reflection on you.

Hey, remember those bizarro rumors about Romeo Crennel being next in line at UVA if and when Al Groh gets the heave-ho? We laughed, we cried, we learned a little about ourselves. Of course, most of us sort of knew it was about as much of a pipe dream as you could imagine, and for the UVA fan, that means "a dream where you get repeatedly bashed with a pipe."

So why is the latest addition to Virginia's coaching staff all kinds of cloak and dagger? Is it because Bob Trott's (above) last job was UNDER ROMEO CRENNEL WITH THE BROWNS!?!?! According to the faculty guide at Virginia, Trott is now, well, part of the faculty. The only problem is that no announcement has been made about a hire by the sports information director.

I think Virginia coach Al Groh gets enough done in 2009 to, at the very least, leave on his own terms. Say what you will, but the usual pattern dictates that Virginia surpass expectations a year after falling flat. Once that happens, the inevitable goes down and Craig Littlepage heads down I-20 to Richmond and meets whatever demands Mike London has.