Bobby Bowden has no plans to go 8-4 for a second straight year. AP
	1   Florida State 2   N.C. State 3   Maryland 4   Georgia Tech 5   Wake Forest 6   Clemson 7   North Carolina 8   Virginia 9   Duke
	1 Total number of seniors Duke's football program has going into this season, as the Blue Devils attempt to end the nation's longest losing streak, which has stretched to 23 games; linebacker Jamyon Smalls is the only current Devil to participate in a victory during his college career.
	"Last year was the most memorable of my life. It is great to be a Terrapin." -- Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen, discussing his alma mater's ACC football title and NCAA men's basketball championship.

Is the ACC's Fear Factor -- the decade-long intimidation by superpower Florida State -- a thing of the past? Some opponents think the Seminole mystique is gone, after FSU finished second to Maryland in the league standings and managed "only" an 8-4 record.

"It's not going back to the old order," North Carolina senior offensive lineman Jeb Terry said during the ACC's annual Football Kickoff. "I don't think anybody is afraid of them anymore. The cake is gone. They are not the big, bad beast they used to be."

Terry earned his right to say that because the Tar Heels handed the Seminoles their worst beating since joining the ACC in 1992. FSU also lost its first home game to a conference opponent, when N.C. State won 34-28 at Doak Campbell Stadium last November, a loss that ended the Seminoles' domination of the ACC.

But FSU coach Bobby Bowden and his players can only snicker at the comments on their sudden fallibility.

"That's what you would like for them to think," Bowden said. "That's fine, that's good. That makes things a lot more interesting."

Bowden, however, knows the truth.

His team last year was too inexperienced to dominate the league like it had for the nine previous seasons, when it won at least a share of the league championship each time. Last year was the first time since the Seminoles joined the league that someone else -- Maryland, with a 10-1 regular season -- won the title outright.

There were outside factors too: The death of linebacker DeVaughn Darling in an offseason workout lingered over the Seminoles all season; Three prominent wide receivers suffered major injuries in preseason practice; and defensive lineman Eric Powell was shot during a weekend visit home.

Bowden, who turns 73 in November, believes his team can play for the national championship again, as it did in the three years prior to the 2001 season. His players, in fact, practically predicted it during the ACC Football Kickoff, held this year in Pinehurst, N.C.

"They should be scared of us," sophomore quarterback Chris Rix said. "We have been working hard to make sure it doesn’t happen again."

Bowden believes his team can get back in the national championship race, as many preseason publications have predicted.

"I have seen nothing but good signs," Bowden said. "We have an entirely different attitude from what we had a year ago. The difference in attitude wasn't based on confidence or anything like that. It was based on a boy dying. Everybody was distraught. Everybody was torn up. I was torn up. Everybody was cautious, afraid to work them hard because something might happen. That's natural and normal. I hope we learned a lot from it.

"We weren't good enough to overcome it. I hope we are this year."

Bobby Bowden knew that Chris Rix would have a trouble being a leader on last year's Florida State team. The Seminoles had never started a redshirt freshman at quarterback for an entire season during Bowden's tenure at FSU. So it's little surprise that Rix struggled, nearly getting benched after a three-game stretch in which he committed 10 turnovers. Rix became more reliable late in the season, however, passing for at least 300 yards in four of the Seminoles last six games. By season's end, he had compiled more total yards than any freshman in ACC history (3,123) and thrown 24 touchdown passes. Rix staved off a challenge for the starting position in spring practice from Adrian McPherson and Fabian Walker, and seems to be the key player if the Seminoles are indeed going to challenge for the national championship.		HOT: Florida State Seminoles are out to prove last year was a fluke: they're ready to win another ACC title and challenge for a spot in the Fiesta Bowl. NOT: Wake Forest's running backs One, Tarence Williams, broke his foot jumping out of his bunk bed, while the other, Fred Staton, is academically ineligible. HOT: N.C. State-UNC rivalry It isn't just among the fans anymore: Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato, a former wrestling champion and linebacker at N.C. State, may slug it out one day with UNC coach John Bunting, who played linebacker for the Heels and in the NFL. NOT: Duke football Can you get any "Not Hotter" than an NCAA-worst 23 straight losses?
As a part of its golden anniversary celebration, the ACC is announcing its top 50 athletes in every sport it recognizes. The all-time football team was the first to be released, and the league brought in eight of its all-time players, including Maryland's Randy White and N.C. State's Roman Gabriel, to talk about their careers. But half -- OK, almost all -- of the fun of such lists is debating where exactly where players should be ranked. Should former Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward be ahead of White as the greatest player the league ever produced? The 120 voters were asked to rank the players 1-through-50 on their ballots, yet the league decided early to release only alphabetical lists of players. The explanation: It was too hard to compare players of different eras. Way to take the fun out of what could've been a lively debate.		Bobby Bowden, Florida State head coach There are no thoughts of retirement in this old coot's mind.  Philip Rivers, N.C. State quarterback The ACC's most experienced quarterback got married last summer and had his first child this summer; every coach in the league would love to have someone with his maturity under center.  Ralph Friedgen, Maryland football coach Last year's ACC Coach of the Year has dropped 37 pounds in the off-season, raising money for the school from two Maryland alumni who vowed to donate a total of $1,000 for every pound the rotund coach was able to shed.
The October 12 meeting between North Carolina and N.C. State should be vastly entertaining, even not necessarily the most important game of the season for the league race. The school's coaches -- N.C. State's Chuck Amato and UNC's John Bunting, who both played for the schools they now coach -- have taken various swipes at each other during the offseason about recruiting, scheduling, you name it. The Tar Heels have won eight of the last nine meetings in this series, prompting one Tar Heel senior to suggest that this is hardly a rivalry at all. We beg to differ. With the two passionate coaches both protecting the turf of their alma maters, this home-state rivalry might finally work its way into the national spotlight like some of the South's other college football turf wars: Alabama-Auburn, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Clemson-South Carolina, Florida-Florida State, etc.
Four ACC teams play 13-game regular-season schedules because of their participation in NCAA exempt games: Florida State, Maryland, N.C. State and Virginia. This is the last year the NCAA will allow the exempt games. … N.C. State is obviously worried about not having its only two veteran tailbacks for the coming season. Both seniors Cotra Jackson and Carlos Doggett may not be academically eligible. On the first day of practice, Wolfpack coach Chuck Amato moved projected starting cornerback Greg Golden, a sophomore, to tailback to share time with sophomore Josh Brown and freshman T.A. McLendon. None of those three have ever carried the ball in a college game. … Virginia hosts Colorado State in the Jim Thorpe Classic in its opener, a game that was moved to Thursday, Aug. 22, not just for television but because that Saturday is move-in day for students who live in dorms around Scott Stadium. … Just what new head coach Chan Gailey didn't need: Georgia Tech had already lost three starting offensive linemen before tackles John Bennett and Jeremy Phillips suffered injuries that will likely end their college careers. Bennett, a freshman All-America in 2000, has had chronic knee problems and won't return. Phillips tore ligaments in his knee during spring 2001 workouts and has still not fully rehabilitated it. His return is in doubt.