Tigers, Carolina's Howell are top choices in ACC football

Jul. 27—NOTES

—Duke is the only program that doesn't have a quarterback with starting experience, either for its current team or with another before transferring.

—Carolina's Mack Brown is the career leader among active coaches with 259 wins, three ahead of Alabama's Nick Saban.

—Clemson's Dabo Swinney is the career leader among active coaches with a winning percentage of .809, just ahead of Saban's .797. Swinney is 140-33, Saban 256-65-1. Brown's .662 percentage, at 259-132-1, is 19th.

—There were no new head coaches named in the ACC during the offseason. Only five coaches are active with national titles, a list that includes Swinney with two at Clemson and Brown with one at Texas.

Clemson has ruled the ACC for six straight years. No reason to think it won't happen again.

The Tigers were the pick of media members attending the ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, garnering 125 of 147 votes asking who will win the football championship game on Dec. 4 at Bank of America Stadium. Clemson has beaten, respectively, Notre Dame, Virginia, Pittsburgh, Miami, Virginia Tech and Carolina.

The Fighting Irish, after playing as a full football member during the COVID-19 pandemic year of 2020, have returned to independent status.

In choosing division winners, only one media member didn't pick head coach Dabo Swinney's squad to win the Atlantic Division. N.C. State got that vote. In the Coastal, Carolina was the favorite and also earned 16 votes to win the league title game.

Carolina quarterback Sam Howell was a dominant preseason choice for top player in the league. He got 114 votes, and Miami quarterback D'Eriq King was second with 11. Clemson players have been chosen the best at seasons' end for each of the last three years, with running back Travis Etienne winning in 2018 and 2019, and quarterback Trevor Lawrence last year.

Lawrence Taylor, in 1980 when seven teams competed for the league championship, is the last Tar Heel to be named Player of the Year after the season.

Howell's 68 career touchdown passes already share the UNC record, and are the most through a sophomore season in ACC history. He threw 30 last year and for 3,586 yards; the yards were fourth-most in the country and TDs were sixth-best. He's arguably an early contender for the Heisman Trophy, with some outlets projecting him next spring's No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.

Big Four players named to the preseason All-ACC team, in addition to Howell, were N.C. State running back Zonovan Knight, Duke running back Mataeo Durant, Wake Forest wide receiver Jaquarii Roberson, N.C. State tackle Ikem Ekwonu, Carolina guard Joshua Ezeudu, N.C. State linebacker Payton Wilson and Carolina cornerback Tony Grimes.

Clemson led the selections with seven: wide receiver Justyn Ross, defensive end Myles Murphy, defensive tackles Bryan Bresee and Tyler Davis, linebacker James Skalski, cornerback Andrew Booth Jr. and safety Nolan Turner. Tigers Bresee and quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei were third and fourth, respectively, in the top player voting.

In the team forecast, the Tigers are followed in the Atlantic Division by the Wolfpack, Boston College, Florida State, Wake Forest, Louisville and Syracuse. Behind the Tar Heels are Miami, Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh, Virginia, Georgia Tech and Duke.

The Coastal's seven teams all won the division once each from 2013 to 2019.

The season opens over Labor Day weekend with games on five consecutive days. Six of them are showcased for major national networks.

—Thursday (Sept. 2): N.C. State hosts South Florida.

—Friday: Carolina at Virginia Tech, Duke at Charlotte, and Wake Forest hosts Old Dominion.

—Saturday: Miami vs. Alabama in Atlanta, Clemson vs. Georgia in Charlotte, Boston College hosts Colgate, Pittsburgh hosts Massachusetts, Syracuse is at Ohio, Virginia hosts William & Mary, and Georgia Tech hosts Northern Illinois.

—Sunday: Florida State hosts Notre Dame.

—Monday: Louisville vs. Ole Miss in Atlanta.

This year's Big Four matchups will include an early meeting of Duke and Carolina, a final-game Thanksgiving Friday meeting between the Tar Heels and Wolfpack, and the Demon Deacons playing all three on consecutive Saturdays. Wake is playing all three teams for the third consecutive year, and this will be the first time since the humbling 1973 season (1-9-1, four shutout losses) that all three are played in consecutive weeks.

The Big Four lineup is:

—Oct. 2: Duke at Carolina.

—Oct. 30: Duke at Wake Forest.

—Nov. 6: Wake Forest at Carolina.

—Nov. 13: N.C. State at Wake Forest.

—Nov. 26: Carolina at N.C. State.

The only other in-state games for the Big Four are the Blue Devils visiting Charlotte on Sept. 3 and hosting N.C. A&T on Sept. 10.

In this year's postseason playoffs, the Capital One Orange and Goodyear Cotton bowls — in Miami Gardens and Dallas — are the semifinals, and the PlayStation Fiesta in Glendale, Arizona, is home of the national championship. The ACC could also land a team in a game of at-large selections, the Chick-fil-A Peach in Atlanta.

When the season ends, the ACC has agreements with the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl; the Fenway Bowl in Boston; Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando; Duke's Mayo Bowl in Charlotte; Military Bowl Presented by Peraton in Annapolis, Maryland; New Era Pinstripe Bowl in New York City; TaxSlayer Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida; and the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.

Additionally, the league will send a team to either the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl in Tampa Bay, the TicketSmarter Birmingham Bowl in Alabama, or the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl on the campus of SMU in Dallas.

Alan Wooten can be reached at 910-247-9132 or awooten@bladenjournal.com. Twitter: @JournalBladen.