“Interview With:” Jim Young (ACC Sports)
"Interview With:"
I am once again looking for a good interview to let my readers hear/read from other people besides me. And man o man did I get a good one in this edition “Interview With:”. Jim Young has been the editor of ACCSports.com, the companion website to the ACC Sports Journal, since its relaunch in October, 2008. Prior to that he was a sports reporter for nine years at the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record, where he covered everything from cricket to the Final Four. You can follow Jim Young on twitter as well. So without further ado, let’s get it going with this interview…
(I am so humbled that this interview was also put up on ACCSports.com and wish to thank Jim Young for doing that)
A.E.M.: Let’s hit the interview running, and ask a hard question straight off the bat. Give me the team that surprised you the most this past season.
Jim Young: Gotta be Boston College. Of course the Eagles exceed expectations every season in the ACC, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. Still, BC lost the core of its defense (Raji, Brace and Herzlich) and had to start a true freshman quarterback who had been playing baseball for the last six years. Yet somehow the Eagles cobbled together an eight-win season. It’s a testament to Frank Spaziani, the importance of having a good offensive line and how little most of the ACC media – including me – really appreciates the program up in Chestnut Hill.
A.E.M.: Staying on the surprises, tell me the player (one on offense and one on defense) that surprised you the most this season.
Jim Young: On defense, that’s easy. It’s Luke Kuechly. He was a solid recruit when he committed to BC just after Frank Spaziani took over, but he wasn’t exactly a hot commodity – choosing the Eagles over Stanford, Duke and UVa. All Kuechly did was make 142 tackles and win ACC freshman defensive player of the year. And he did it all while looking like Clark Kent.
On offense, I’d go with Duke wide receiver Donavan Varner. He got playing time as a freshman (21 catches, 164 yards, 1 TD) but did anyone see him morphing into a first-team All-ACC wideout this season? (66 catches, 1,047 yards 8 TDs) Certainly no one did in my ACC fantasy league. He was taken in the 10th round, after about 20 other receivers.
A.E.M.: Now, let me slow down a bit and ask an easy one. Bobby Bowden is now gone at FSU, what do you think the impact of this will be? What do you think of how it was done? And lastly, what are you thoughts on the Ga Bowl/FSU hook-up and how it affected the rest of the conference?
Jim Young: The short-term impact – which we’re already seeing – is that recruiting will pick up for FSU. The Seminoles were getting killed on the trail because of all the uncertainty about their future. Now that things have been settled we’re seeing that top talent still wants to come to Tallahassee.
I’m not assuming though, that FSU will immediately return to its national power status. While Jimbo Fisher has proven he can run an offense and recruit, it remains to be seen how he’ll do now that he’s in charge. He needs to start quickly, because the FSU brand has faded a bit in recent seasons.
As for how it was done, it was messy to be sure. I think both sides are to blame. It never looks good to push a legend out the door, but it’s also unfortunate when a great coach can no longer recognize that his time has passed – as Bowden’s surely had. My biggest beef was that the president and the AD ducked the media on the day of the big announcement, sending out two players instead to field questions.
Finally, the Gator Bowl. I have no problem with the Gator Bowl finding a way to make this happen. I have no problem with FSU taking the invite. The issues I had were with the ACC. I wasn’t crazy about replacing the Gator Bowl with the Sun Bowl for future ACC bowl tie-ins. While I understand some of the reasons, the Gator Bowl clearly no longer felt the need to play nice with a conference office it would not be dealing with in the future. Also, the ACC should have closed the loophole in the contract language before the Gator Bowl could exploit it.
A.E.M.: Switching it up a bit again, time to talk awards, and that means time to talk about C.J. Spiller. What do you make of his absence from the Heisman finalists?
Jim Young: Unfortunate, but hardly surprising. McCoy and Tebow were lifetime achievement guys. Gerhart and Suh were certainly deserving and Ingram was a big-time player on the nation’s best team.
I can’t help but wonder though, what might have happened if Spiller’s huge ACC title game performance hadn’t gone head-to-head with the Big 12 title game on television. I was on Twitter during much of the game and I can tell you that all of the national college football opinion makers were tweeting about Texas-Nebraska and ignoring Clemson-Georgia Tech. That’s a small sample size, but I think it was a reflection of the national media as a whole.
A.E.M.: Now, still staying with this season, give me your thoughts on how the teams will do in their bowl games. And of course, since I don’t want to put you in a spot, if you could only choose one game with an ACC team in it, which one would it be?
Jim Young: Good lord, you want me to predict bowl games? Might as well pick team names out of a hat.
Seriously, it’s so hard to know which teams are going to be motivated in these games and how they’ll play after not having played for nearly a month.
That said, I’ll give it a shot.
I like UNC over Pitt. It’s hard to imagine that the Panthers are fully recovered from their heartbreaking loss to Cincinnati.
I like Southern Cal over BC. I know I’m always underestimating the Eagles, but I have to go with the Trojans’ talent and track record in bowls. Plus, since I’m always wrong about BC, I’m really doing the Eagles a favor.
Kentucky over Clemson. I’m just not getting a sense that the Tigers really want to be playing in Nashville.
Miami over Wisconsin. Memories of what FSU did to Wisconsin in last year’s Champs Bowl are still fresh for me.
Virginia Tech over Tennessee. I think this one will be really close. The Vols and their QB, Jonathan Crompton, are better than you think. The tiebreaker? I can’t pick Lane Kiffin to win.
West Virginia over Florida State. I’d love to go with FSU for sentimental reasons, but it’s hard get all warm and fuzzy about the Seminoles’ defense.
Iowa over Georgia Tech. My disdain for Iowa QB Ricky Stanzi has been well-publicized. But I’m nervous about giving Kirk Ferentz and that tough Iowa defense a month to prepare for Paul Johnson’s option.
That’s a prediction of a 3-4 bowl record for the ACC. Sounds about right.
The Orange Bowl, by the way, is the one game I would choose. It has less to do with the fact that it’s a BCS bowl and more to do with the great contrast (Iowa’s D vs. Georgia Tech’s O) in strengths and the great coaching minds (Ferentz vs. Paul Johnson) on the sidelines.
A.E.M.: Now let’s take go into time traveling mode. If none of the underclassmen were to leave for the NFL, which two programs do you see in the ACC Championship in the 2010 season?
Jim Young: In the Coastal I’ll go with Georgia Tech narrowly over Miami. Those should be the two best teams in the ACC.
In the Atlantic, I’m going to stop doubting BC. The Eagles will have 8 starters back on both sides of the ball and that number doesn’t include Mark Herzlich, who would provide a huge boost if he can complete his comeback from cancer. That being said, it’s the Atlantic. I could see Clemson, Florida State and even N.C. State all being a factor.
A.E.M.: And while the last question was a nice thought we all know that there will be early entries to the National Football League draft, give me a couple you think will go and how well they will fare at the next level.
Jim Young: Georgia Tech defensive end Derrick Morgan is the guy who’s highest on draft boards. I’m not the greatest judge of how defensive lineman talent translates to the NFL, but I liked that he looked strong both as a pass rusher and a run-stopper.
Jonathan Dwyer would also go high in the draft if he leaves a season early. He’s got a great combination of power and speed. But he’ll have to answer questions about how much of his production was a result of Georgia Tech’s system.
It’s kind of hard for me to fathom, given how bad its offensive line was this season, but Maryland tackle Bruce Campbell is projected to be a high pick. Clearly the Terps’ troubles weren’t his fault. He’s supposed to be a workout warrior, which is always a red flag to me. That usually means a player is getting drafted high off of 40 times and bench press reps and not on-field performance (see Heyward-Bey, Darrius).
UNC’s Bruce Carter says he’s staying, but a lot of folks think the junior linebacker could be a first-round pick. That might be hard to pass up. Carter’s teammate, Marvin Austin is also seen as a potential first-round pick. Defensive tackle performance is one of the hardest areas for laymen to judge, but I just haven’t seen him dominate the way you would think a first-round NFL pick should.
A.E.M.: Lastly, as you know (I hope) I have a UNC blog and so I have to ask a something about my school. Second season with an 8-4 regular season, what do you think is most needed (both on offense and defense) in order for the Heels to get to double figure wins and be on top of its conference?
Jim Young: There’s not much to fix on defense. Just keep Austin and Carter and Sturdivant around for another season, wash, rinse and repeat.
On offense, there are all sorts of issues. Hopefully a healthier offensive line and a year of experience for the wideouts will help. I’d also like to see UNC continue to give the ball to Ryan Houston more, even when Shaun Draughn returns to health.
All of that won’t mean much if the Tar Heels don’t get better quarterback play. I wondered before this season whether T.J. Yates was product of having great receivers and this season did little to quell those doubts. He was inconsistent enough to make me wonder whether UNC might be better served by going with Bryn Renner next season. That may be hard to believe considering Yates is a three-year starter, but it has to be at least be considered.
A.E.M.: Each and every season since he has been at UNC it seems that Butch Davis’ name comes up when a pretty big school is looking for a new head coach. So far it seems that the program (and the money and whatever else) has kept him in Chapel Hill. Do you see any job being able to lure the head coach from UNC or do you think he is here for the “long run”?
Jim Young: I think Butch likes his situation in Chapel Hill, but he’s not wedded to it. Translation: He’d take another job if he thought it was a good enough upgrade.
The good news for UNC is that there aren’t that many “upgrades” out there, year to year. I don’t think he’ll get another NFL head job. And while UNC isn’t a national power in football, Davis is smart enough to know that it’s better than a lot of other jobs simply because of the resources and the fact that the ACC isn’t a murderers’ row of competition.
So I see him staying for a while unless something like the Oklahoma job pops up. Even then, I’m not sure winning eight games at UNC will make him a “sexy” enough hire. So in a strange way, the Tar Heels benefit from having been good but not great so far during Davis’ tenure.
What can you say after an interview like this one? All I can do is to thank Jim Young once again for taking time out of his busy schedule and doing this. Make sure to follow Mr. Young on ACCSports.com, on twitter, or if you have a question for him email him at this addy. I know I will be following Young’s predictions on the bowl games and making sure to see if he has any comments on them once they are played out!
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