D6 NOTEBOOK ACC voters give Maryland and Virginia something in common
Teams comprise bottom two spots in ACC media poll
by Steve Yanda and Zach Berman
greensboro, n.c. — The pre- season ACC media poll was re- leased on Monday and Maryland, fresh off a 2-10 season, was picked to finish last in the Atlantic Divi- sion. The only ACC team to re- ceive fewer votes than the Terra- pins (139) was Virginia (126), which will be led by first-year coach Mike London. Virginia Tech (532) was picked to win the conference title de- spite receiving fewer total votes
than Florida State. The Semi- noles, under first-year coach Jim- bo Fisher, garnered 565 votes and were picked to win the Atlantic Division. The Hokies were select- ed on 50 ballots to win the ACC crown, while Florida State earned 26 championship votes. Florida State quarterback
Christian Ponder (45) was the media’s choice as preseason ACC player of the year. Virginia Tech running back
Ryan Williams (16) and quarter- back Tyrod Taylor (11) were the only other ACC players to earn double-digit vote totals.
Reaching the fans
Since London accepted the Vir- ginia head coaching job in De- cember, his life has been a whirl- wind of speaking — whether at
functions to fans and supporters, in interviews with reporters or pitching his program to recruits. “I can’t even begin to tell you how many races I’ve started and different things, chicken dinners and just all that stuff,” London said. “I think it’s necessary given that, when you say we want to be open and be accessible, be avail- able, if you’re going to start down that road, then you better make yourself open, accessible and available and include the fan base.” London said he cannot ask fans to support the team if he does not go and support the fans. That’s why he’s tried to ensure the team is seen, from a uniform un- veiling to a bone marrow drive to a letter-writing contest for season tickets.
But even London admits it will
go only so far. The results on the field will determine just how much U-Va. fans will ultimately buy into the London regime. “Obviously, people want to come to the game and they want to see you compete and see you win,” London said. “We need to be able to compete. That’s the first thing. We need to compete on the field and show that we can hold our own against whoever we’re playing and hopefully surprise some people. This is a process that’s going to take place. This is not an overnight quick fix. . . . From recruiting to the communi- ty to the classroom, all the things we’re talking about . . . this is what’s going on. And hopefully people that are good fans look at it and they see the progress of all
those things I just talked about, and then you have something go- ing in.”
U-Md.’s busy Labor Day The Labor Day game between
Maryland and Navy has been a matchup that Terrapins Coach Ralph Friedgen and former Navy coach Paul Johnson, now at Geor- gia Tech, always wanted to play. “I think it’s great for the state,”
Friedgen said. “I think it’s great for high school football. I think it’s an in-state rivalry we need. Navy plays Army, that’s their big rivalry. But to have an in-state ri- valry is good. The last time we played, we were fortunate to win, but to me it was a tremendous game. Packed house, pageantry was great, sportsmanship was great. . . . Two really great uni-
versities competing against each other. The sportsmanship, com- petitiveness and respect for each other was really what won out the day.”
Said Johnson: “It used to be a
huge rivalry because the two schools are about 20 miles apart.” When the teams last met in 2005, a 23-20 Terrapins victory, Johnson was building Navy’s pro- gram and Maryland was at its apex under Friedgen. Now, the programs have reversed, and Johnson is curious who will be fa- vored. “Hopefully we have the same result, but Navy’s [10-4] and we’re 2-10,” Friedgen said. “Things are a little different than when we started this thing.”
yandas@washpost.com bermanz@washpost.com
ACC’s new coaches face different situations at U-Va., Florida State acc from D1
garnered the fewest total votes of any team in the conference. “My emotions right now?” Fisher said. “It’s excitement, but it’s preparation. You have to pre- pare to be successful. I can’t be happy just to be here. I have the job. Now what are you going to do with it?” After serving two seasons as Florida State’s head-coach-in- waiting, Fisher took over the Seminoles in January after Bob- by Bowden retired following the end of last season’s 7-6 campaign. Led by quarterback Christian Ponder, who was selected the ACC’s preseason player of the year, the Seminoles are expected to challenge Virginia Tech for the conference crown. The Hokies were the overwhelming pick to win the ACC title. London does not have the lux-
ury of inheriting a program poised to compete for champi- onships or stocked with an estab- lished signal caller. Virginia fin- ished last season 3-9 and hired London as soon as he was done leading Richmond to the 1-AA quarterfinals.
lems were going into last year, what they were going to be. We had to work our way through them.” Neither London nor Fisher
shied away from the public per- ception of their respective squads entering training camp, and both acknowledged the chal- lenges in front of them are con- siderable. But as they sat sur- rounded by their new peers, the ACC’s two newest coaches did their best to remain rooted in the reality everyone in their profes- sion shares this time of year. “It’s still kind of surreal a little
GREAT EXPECTATIONS: Florida State Coach Jimbo Fisher takes over a program expected to reach the ACC championship game. Christian Ponder was named the ACC’s preseason player of the year.
The favorite to start for the
Cavaliers at quarterback is sen- ior Marc Verica, who started nine games in 2008 but only once in 2009. With true freshman Mi- chael Strauss and redshirt fresh- man Ross Metheny competing on the depth chart behind him, Verica is the only quarterback on Virginia’s roster to have taken a snap in a collegiate game.
“If I was told I was going to get
good quarterback play, I’d sleep at night,” London said. “But the reality of it is, you’ve got to go out there and he’s got to play, wheth- er it’s Marc Verica or whoever it is, the quarterback position, as everyone knows, you get the ball 100 percent of the time, and he has to make decisions to distrib- ute it to the right players. . . .
ASKING FOR LESS: Virginia Coach Mike London leads a team that finished 3-9 last year and is expected to finish last in its division this fall. Marc Verica will probably start at quarterback.
There’s a concern at backup, and there’s a concern of: ‘who?’ ” And not just at quarterback. Virginia’s lineup is littered with question marks, from the run- ning backs to the offensive line- men to the linebackers. And those are just the ones London and his staff are aware of. As Boston College Coach Frank Spaziani — who is entering his
PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL Former players say nose tackle is an acquired taste nose tackle from D1
ances and realized its critical im- portance to the operation of the defensive scheme. Washington, who retired in
2007 after making four Pro Bowl squads during his 16-year career, offered to tutor Haynesworth personally if Redskins owner Daniel Snyder were to summon him. Baumhower, a five-time Pro Bowler during his career with the Miami Dolphins from 1977-86, said he’d come out of retirement — or, at least he’d like to (he is 54) — if Haynesworth wouldn’t line up where he was told. “There are several things you
have to realize,” Washington said. “No. 1, you’re not going to be get- ting all the glory. No. 2, you’re go- ing to be double- and triple- teamed at least 85 percent of the time.
“But it’s fun. When you get
good at it, you can make it fun.” In the beginning, the foursome agreed, it seemed like a cross be- tween drudgery and torture. Lin- ing up eyeball to eyeball with the opposing team’s center appeared to represent an end to the good times they’d had in college or ear- ly in their careers. The 4-3 de- fense that all played previously features four down lineman in- stead of three, with two defensive tackles posted a few steps to the side of the center, between a pair of defensive ends. The transition to playing nose tackle in a 3-4 defense meant they could no longer expect to blast unblocked into the back- field. No longer could they plan to swing around the outside or slip past a slow-footed guard to threaten the quarterback. It would be a struggle to make headlines and highlights. Instead, they would face fre- quent double teams, brutal beat- ings, possibly meager statistics and obscurity, as the linebackers behind them made most of the tackles and reaped the glory. “I’ve always been told being double-teamed was the highest form of flattery,” said Rubin Car- ter, a star nose tackle with the University of Miami and Denver Broncos (1975-86) who is also the father of Redskins defensive line- man Andre Carter. “I was prob- ably brain washed.” The highest ranked nose tackle in the league last year, based on number of tackles, was Balti- more’s Kelly Gregg, who placed
JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST “You’re not going to be getting all the glory,” said former nose tackle Ted Washington of the role that Albert Haynesworth (92) will shift to.
141st. No other nose tackle made the top 275.
Smerlas, who made five Pro Bowls with the Buffalo Bills from 1979-92, said he would “come out of a game and have no tackles and no assists and I’d be the play- er of the game. The press doesn’t understand that concept. “If [Haynesworth] is used to being the hero and they’re going to put him at nose tackle, it’s go- ing to be difficult for him.” Perhaps it is not surprising
that the NFL’s Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, does not include a single nose tackle. The place is populated with defensive ends and defensive tackles from four- man fronts, including stars Bob Lilly, Alan Page, Joe Greene and Reggie White. Joe Horrigan, the Hall of Fame’s vice president of communications and exhibits, at-
tributed the absence of noses partly to the fact that the 3-4 de- fense did not become a scheme of choice until recently. But while the 3-4 is on the rise, with about 15 teams expected to employ it this season, it’s hardly newfangled. Its popularity has gone in cycles since the early 1970s. Nose tackle “is a tough position
to play, but with [Haynesworth’s] size and everything, there are a lot of centers that wouldn’t want him there,” said Bill Arnsparger, who implemented the 3-4 as a de- fensive coordinator with the Dol- phins in the 1970s. Haynesworth “should be able to control the center and make the play on ei- ther side. Because it’s something he’s never done before, he prob- ably doesn’t understand the posi- tion.”
Smerlas admitted he didn’t un- derstand the nose when Buffalo Bills Coach Chuck Knox forced him to play there after selecting him in the second round of the 1979 draft. The object of his new job, and the terminology used to describe it, Smerlas said, con- fused him. And his play early in the year apparently reflected that. A few games into the season, Smerlas recalled, Knox called him out in the locker room in front of the entire team. “I wasted a draft pick!” Knox yelled, according to Smerlas. “You’re a big, big, strong [tough] piece of garbage. You [stink]!” The tirade had a huge impact on Smerlas, who began spending hours in the film room after prac- tice, determined to master his job. He noted the importance of hitting the center quickly and us-
ing his hands and feet strategical- ly. He learned to anticipate the other team’s play call to figure out which guard was poised to clob- ber him, an intuition Carter said he also developed. He called it a “sixth sense” that never failed him. As time went on, Smerlas’s goal became to absorb as much pun- ishment from as many burly line- men as he could to free up the linebackers behind him. Current Redskins defensive coordinator Jim Haslett was among them. “Nobody hit the linebackers when I played,” Smerlas said. “If the center gets by me, I would pull him down so Haslett could make all the tackles . . . You got to be a ballerina dancer, a boxer, an MMA fighter and a weightlifter all in one.”
Smerlas still has plenty of me-
mentos from his playing days; most are in the form of physical ailments. He’s had 18 surgeries. His fingers still point in strange directions, and his right ankle is distorted by a broken bone he never bothered to fix. He lost much of the use of his right arm, which now, he says, looks like a boomerang, half-bent all of the time. Culp, who along with Smer- las played before chop blocks were banned, earned the dis- tinction of being, “the godfather of nose tackles,” according to Smerlas, and was, in Baumhow- er’s estimation, “the first bona fide nose guard.” Culp’s first stint playing the nose came after he left Kansas City in 1974 and land- ed on the Houston Oilers team where Bum Phillips was defen- sive coordinator. Baumhower knew the Dol- phins played a 3-4 when he was drafted in 1977 out of the Univer- sity of Alabama, but he never ex- pected to be pushed into the cen- ter of it. “When I was drafted, I thought I was a defensive end or defensive tackle,” he said. “They put me at nose guard and I was none too happy about it. I had other guys telling me, ‘You poor SOB, I wouldn’t play in the middle for nothing.’ ” In training camp, Baumhower lined up against an offensive line that included legendary players Jim Langer, Larry Little and Bob Kuechenberg. “After about two weeks of practice in training camp, I was firmly convinced I couldn’t play in the NFL,” he said. Yet Baumhower ended up shar-
ing Defensive Rookie of the Year honors that year, and Arnsparger developed so much confidence in him he designed schemes that freed him to make tackles and sacks into the 1980s. “Maybe I’m a little goofy — that might be be- cause I got my bell rung so often — but I grew to love the position,” Baumhower said. Washington, who dominated the nose in the 1990s and early 2000s, also enjoyed his art after learning the trade from former San Francisco 49ers Pro Bowler Michael Carter. With his size (6-5, 350 pounds) and strength, he was considered the prototypical mod- ern nose tackle. “It’s a grown man’s position,”
Washington said. “You got to be ready to anchor and take a beat- ing.”
shipleya@washpost.com
second year in charge of the Ea- gles — can attest, surprises should be expected during the first year of a new regime. “We understand a little bit more what our problems are, and we have a little better handle on it,” Spaziani said of his team, which was picked to finish third in the Atlantic Division. “We kind of surmised what the prob-
bit,” London said. “There’s a lot of respect, but there’s also a measured amount of, you know, I have a job to do also. I’m going to do the best job I can with recruit- ing the players, with developing the players, anything to do with the players. . . . You get over it real quick, that there’s [coaches] that you’ve seen on TV and peo- ple talk about reverently — and rightfully so. But now you’re in- cluded in the circle, and I’ve got to get my team ready just like they’ve got to get their team ready.”
yandas@washpost.com
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KLMNO COLLEGE FOOTBALL
TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2010
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