ESPN College Football

It's OK to be a hater -- at least this week.

The theme at ESPN.com is the coaches we love to hate, and your opinion counts. Tell me, which coach in the ACC do you love to hate? From my esteemed colleague Mark Schlabach's column ...

Clemson fans hate Dana Holgorsen for putting up 70.

Clemson fans hate Dabo Swinney for giving up 70.

Wake Forest's opponents hate Jim Grobe for beating them with less.

Florida State fans hate Jimbo Fisher for losing to Wake Forest with more.

Who in the ACC gets your vote for the hate and why? It can be a current coach, or it can be the most hated coach in ACC history. Hmm. Give it some thought and then drop me a line in the mailbag. I'll check them out and on Friday we'll crown the most hated coach in the conference. Consider this your invitation to send me some "hate" mail.

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• Georgia Tech WR Micheal Summers was set on the Jackets from the start.
• Miami running back Mike James has earned his way to the top of the depth chart.
• ESPN Insider Travis Haney took at look at Clemson's BCS chances.
• Miami has made drastic improvements in the weight room this offseason.
• At least two athletic directors in the ACC don't sense any real change in the league anytime soon.
• This just in: ACC football is relevant, and it's paying off.
• Clemson coach Dabo Swinney saw red flags during Mike Bellamy's recruiting process.

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. -- The story of the spring at Clemson was the development of receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who looked like a different player on the field for the Tigers.

All you need for proof is what he did in the first quarter of the spring game -- five catches for 100 yards. Coach Dabo Swinney called him the MVP of the spring, and said during the ACC spring meetings that he could not be prouder of Hopkins' development.

"Part of it goes back to the fact that he hasn’t had an offseason as an athlete," Swinney said. "He’s been a multisport guy. Last year after his freshman year he went into basketball and was sporadic in the spring. We got him, but it was after a long basketball season and he missed all the training in the weight room. Whereas this year, he plugged right into that, he picked up some good muscle mass, and what happens is as a guy gets stronger, his confidence grows. You put that type of confidence with an already good player, you’ve got a chance to have something pretty special. That’s what we saw in the spring.

"He's more physical, faster, more confident. And just him having experience, he’ll be a junior, other competitive players at his position that he’s trying to compete with every day. He’s a young man that really wants to be great. All those things pushed him to have a great spring."

One of those competitive players is freshman stud Sammy Watkins, whom Swinney credits for helping Hopkins get better. Should Hopkins continue his development, and Watkins continue his meteoric rise, the Tigers will have a dynamic duo that will be pretty fearsome for defenses to try to stop.

Here are a few other notes:

• Swinney said he has yet to decide on a punishment for Watkins. Watkins was arrested earlier this month and charged with drug possession.
• As for the transition to new defensive coordinator Brent Venables, Swinney said everything went smoothly. "I thought he brought a lot of energy and enthusiasm right out of the gate. He and the rest of our defensive staff did a really good job of teaching the principles and basics of what we wanted to do this spring. We didn’t get it all done but we went at a pace where we kept our older guys interested and involved but we gave our younger guys an opportunity to compete because we’re a very young team. We only have 11 seniors and 60-plus freshmen and sophomores. There’s just a difference there. I thought that part, they did a good job and as a result of that, instead of one group getting it we had a couple groups getting it and that created the competition we needed to develop our guys on that side of the ball."

Here's a look at those who made names for themselves, those who fine-tuned some strengths and those who burst onto the scene this spring in the ACC.

WR DeAndre Hopkins, Clemson: Hopkins had seven catches for 120 yards and a touchdown in the Tigers' spring game, including five for 100 in the first quarter. Coach Dabo Swinney called him the team's spring MVP, and he and Sammy Watkins could form the top receiver tandem in the nation.

RB Rolandan Finch, Boston College: Finch will have to carry a bigger load with Montel Harris off the team, and he stepped up in the spring game when the three men ahead of him were all banged-up, rushing for 196 yards on 27 carries. He will likely battle with Andre Williams for the top spot this fall, though both figure to see plenty of time.

LT Cameron Erving, FSU: The converted defensive tackle impressed this spring, as the sophomore is one of two new tackles the Seminoles are breaking in on the offensive line, a unit that may just be the deciding factor on whether FSU can return to the national elite this season. Coach Jimbo Fisher has called the 6-foot-5, 304-pound sophomore a future NFL starter.

QB Ryan Williams, Miami: Coach Al Golden said this week that Stephen Morris has been medically cleared, and he will likely enter a full-on quarterback competition with Williams, the Memphis transfer who saw most of the action this spring and played well, despite a sub-par spring game.

TE Jake McGee, Virginia: The converted quarterback caught two passes for 81 yards and figures to be a reliable target this fall after a subpar performance for the Cavaliers' tight ends last season.

CB Demetrious Nicholson, Virginia: Coach Mike London named him the team's most distinguished freshman this spring, but he will have to grow up fast. After playing almost every snap last fall, he is the veteran of the Cavaliers' secondary in 2012.

DT Luther Maddy, Virginia Tech: Maddy was named the Hokies' defensive MVP of this spring. The rising sophomore has said he has adjusted to the speed of the game after a freshman year that featured seven starts, and he figures to be a key on a line that will anchor Virginia Tech's defense this season.

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. -- The topic of what the ACC has to do to improve its football image has been rehashed over and over, particularly after its BCS bowl losses.

But that did not stop Clemson coach Dabo Swinney from weighing in on the topic during the ACC spring meetings. Swinney came to his league's defense after a reporter wondered how he dealt with the perception that the ACC was not a football conference. Then he gave his own twist on what the future looks like in this league, predicting that a national champion would eventually emerge.

Pretty bold statement. You guys know the BCS record. You guys know what happened to Clemson in the Orange Bowl last season. You guys know Florida State and Miami have been down, and Virginia Tech hasn't quite gotten over the top. So does Swinney, which must give him confidence that teams in this league are ready to turn a corner.

These are his comments, in their entirety:

"The ACC is a tremendous football conference. It’s a tremendous conference as a whole," Swinney said. "We’ve got to do a better job as far as developing a dominant team from within our conference. We’ve had some good teams, but we haven’t produced that 13-0 team yet, that 12-1 team that’s going to get on the national scene. You look at us this year, we got to fifth. We're on our way and we just didn’t quite finish like we need to finish. That’s coming.

"I think we’ve got a lot of good programs. In five years from now, we’ll look back and say this is where it changed. You look at the SEC and some of the traditionally really good teams that maybe haven’t been as good of late. They’ll get back. It’s the same thing in our conference. Heck, it’s been 20 years since we won the ACC. Twenty years. I was still playing 20 years ago. We’re heading in the right direction as a conference. This is a tremendous conference. At some point we’ll produce a national champion again, there’s no doubt in my mind about that."

The ACC could have as many as four teams ranked in the preseason top 25 come August. Expectations are high at Florida State once again, while Clemson and Virginia Tech are near-certainties to be ranked. NC State could very well make the list, too. There no doubt have been opportunities.

We'll see if a different script is written in 2012.

Three strikes and Clemson running back Mike Bellamy is out.

After a short career that was spent mainly in coach Dabo Swinney's doghouse, Bellamy has been ruled academically ineligible and won't return this fall. This is yet another off-field blow for the Tigers, who recently learned that star receiver Sammy Watkins was arrested earlier this month for possession of marijuana and a controlled substance. So far, Swinney hasn't announced any punishment for Watkins, but he has said there will be one.

While it's more negative publicity for the program, it's certainly not the end of the season for the Tigers. Even if Bellamy and Watkins are missing for the season opener against Auburn, Clemson doesn't play its first and arguably most meaningful conference game until Sept. 22 at Florida State. It's also important to remember that Bellamy finished the spring third on the depth chart at running back behind 1,000-yard rusher Andre Ellington and his backup, D.J. Howard.

It's unfortunate and disappointing that Bellamy's career ended this way, especially considering how many times Swinney has insisted that despite Bellamy's troubles, he is a good kid who simply made some poor decisions. When it comes to the good of the team, though, his absence might actually mean one less distraction.

Who doesn't love lists or rankings?

And, to take that one step further, who doesn't love lists that include 124 people?

Steve Greenberg and Matt Hayes over at The Sporting News took the unenviable task of rankings every single FBS coach, Nos. 1-124. It should come as no surprise that Alabama's Nick Saban topped all coaches after winning two of the past three national titles.

Frank Beamer tops the ACC contingent, and is the only coach from the conference cracking the top-10, as Virginia Tech's leader is ranked ninth.

The average ranking of the 12 ACC coaches was 45.6, fourth-best among conferences.

Here's how they stacked up:

9. Frank Beamer, Virginia Tech
19. Paul Johnson, Georgia Tech
27. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
31. Jim Grobe, Wake Forest
34. Al Golden, Miami
38. Jimbo Fisher, FSU
45. Mike London, Virginia
49. Tom O'Brien, NC State
53. Larry Fedora, UNC
65. Randy Edsall, Maryland
67. David Cutcliffe, Duke
110. Frank Spaziani, BC

Spring practice is in the books for the ACC, so let's look back at the best and worst from the conference's dozen teams.

Best spring game performance: It may have come almost four weeks before Sammy Watkins' arrest, but DeAndre Hopkins' performance in Clemson's Orange and White game had to have eased the concerns of Tigers fans wondering if Watkins could be sitting the first week (or weeks) of the season. Hopkins had seven catches for 120 yards and a touchdown. Five of those catches, for 100 yards, came in the first quarter alone. Coach Dabo Swinney labeled Hopkins the team's spring MVP, and the junior was honored for both his spring improvements as a receiver and for his offseason strength training after putting on nearly 20 pounds since 2011.

Best overall unit: Virginia Tech's offensive line may have its question marks, but going against the defensive line it has faced every day this spring can only help it once live game action begins. The Hokies are stacked up front, and a unit that led the conference in sacks a year ago should be able to go eight- or nine-deep to stay fresh come fall. NC State's secondary, which returns interception king David Amerson and three other starters, gives the Hokies' line a good challenge for this distinction.

Best quarterback battle: There can only really be one, right? Miami's Stephen Morris sat this spring to recover from back surgery and is technically the incumbent, but Memphis transfer Ryan Williams made some strides toward getting on the field in his first eligible season with the Hurricanes, dominating in the team's first spring scrimmage before coming back down to earth a little bit in the team's next scrimmage and subsequent spring game. If Alabama transfer Phillip Sims is granted immediate eligibility, things could get interesting at Virginia between Sims and Mike Rocco.

Biggest surprise: Whenever a potential record-breaking player is booted from his team, it's big shocking (and big) news. Boston College coach Frank Spaziani dismissed Montel Harris from the team for a repeated violation of team rules. Harris is the school's all-time leading rusher and would have entered 2012 less than 1,000 yards away from breaking the ACC career record.

Biggest relief: North Carolina received its NCAA sanctions March 12, two days before the Tar Heels kicked off their first spring practice under new coach Larry Fedora. For a roster that has largely dealt with a cloud of uncertainty for two years, the timing couldn't have been better. Yes, it's rough for the seniors to know that their college careers will end Nov. 24 no matter how they fare this season, but the relief of having this chapter of the program's history in the rearview mirror is invaluable, especially for a new coach installing a new system.

Clemson wide receiver Sammy Watkins was arrested early Friday and charged with possession of a controlled substance and simple possession of marijuana, both misdemeanors.

After being arrested and taken to the Clemson City Jail, Watkins was released on a $1,620 personal recognizance bond.

"I made a mistake last night and I am truly sorry for my actions," Watkins said in a news release. "I let the team down, the coaches down and this university down. I will learn from this. I will accept any discipline coach [Dabo] Swinney and the university issues."

Discipline is likely on the way, though whether Watkins misses a game (or games) remains to be seen.

"I am aware of the arrest last night," Swinney said in a release. "I am mad and hurt by the poor decision that Sammy Watkins made. He is a good young man who has been a model student, citizen, player and teammate. This is a reminder that good people make poor decisions. But, there are consequences for your actions ... and there will be in this case.

"I am in the process of gathering the facts and discipline will be determined when I have completed that process."

It goes without saying what Watkins means to Clemson. He was the ACC's Rookie of the Year and, as we have stated in this space before, is primed to be the conference's next big national star.

A suspension would definitely hurt the Tigers offensively, especially if it were to come in Week 1 against Auburn. The spotlight may grow a little larger on DeAndre Hopkins, whom Swinney labeled the team's spring MVP. Having 1,604 career receiving yards and nine touchdowns under his belt doesn't hurt, either.

The "GameDay" site has had trouble handling all of your responses. Awesome job, everyone.

• The guys over at AthlonSports debate whether Clemson or Florida State will win the Atlantic crown this year.
• The Charleston Post and Courier's Gene Sapakoff delves further into Dabo Swinney's spring plan.
• Duke's Matt Daniels received the University Scholar-Athlete award from the National Football Foundation.
• The Virginia-Pilot's Andy Bitter re-visits five questions posed at the the start of the Hokies' spring.
• The Daily Progress' Jerry Ratcliffe says Virginia's secondary has a long way to go.

Do we really have to wait five months for more football?

• Could Dabo Swinney's spring idea gain traction?
• A number of ACC schools are in play for the top ESPN 150 uncommitted running backs.
• The guys at AthlonSports look at potential challengers to Virginia Tech in the Coastal division.
• Rex Ryan was an honorary tackle against UNC's Quinton Coples last month, and he just might be doing the same soon with the Jets, Brian Costello writes in the New York Post.
• Clemson's receivers may be the best in the country, but the Charleston Post & Courier's Travis Sawchik wonders if the Tigers' depth is lopsided toward the skill players.

A tip of the cap to Pat Summitt ...

• Dabo Swinney hopes an ACC title leads to more for Clemson, Wayne Staats writes in the Augusta Chronicle.
• A QB controversy at FSU? No chance, says the Orlando Sentinel's Coley Harvey.
• Georgia Tech is making tweaks to its defense, Ken Sugiura writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
• David Cutcliffe likes QBs so much that he'll use three this fall at Duke, W.E. Warnock writes in the Raleigh News & Observer.
• Virginia Tech's secondary shuffle appears to be working out, Andy Bitter writes in The Virginian-Pilot.

Told you we'd be back. Here's a look at what went down this weekend in Chapel Hill, N.C., and Clemson, S.C.

NORTH CAROLINA
The Blue team beat the White team 44-21, but it actually led by a 44-7 margin, as the White team was spotted 14 points at halftime to make the contest a bit more competitive. Got it? K, good.

Bryn Renner looks to have adapted to coach Larry Fedora's up-tempo pace well, completing 23 of 28 passes for 295 yards and two scores for the Blue team. Fedora has said that every position is up for grabs, but Renner certainly has the inside track at this point. Marquise Williams went 17-for-32 for 123 yards and a touchdown.

"For me, it was awful slow out there and sluggish in between the plays," Fedora said. "We've still got a ways to go in understanding the tempo. But it's not hard to see the stress you can put on the defense when you start moving the chains a few times and you've got tempo going."

A.J. Blue led the ground attack with 98 yards on 15 carries, and three different receivers had at least five receptions for 50 or more yards. Romar Morris totaled 75 yards rushing and receiving, scoring three times in the first half (two receiving, one rushing).

The Tar Heels actually finish their spring practice season Monday.

CLEMSON
Dabo Swinney, as you might have guessed by now, would like to see teams get more out of spring ball. That includes his Tigers squad, which ended regulation deadlocked at 20.

So, like the other football, Swinney had his kickers decide the game, which ended with the Orange team posting a 23-20, double-overtime win against the White squad thanks to a 45-yard field goal from Chandler Catanzaro.

"It was one of those deals where I really didn't want to play more, but I certainly did not want to walk off the field with a tie," said Swinney, who had each team kick from 50 yards out in the first overtime, with neither side connecting.

A record 28,000 turned out for the spring game, which doubled as DeAndre Hopkins' coming-out party. The junior-to-be had seven catches for 120 yards and a touchdown. Hopkins has added roughly 20 pounds since last season, and Swinney has labeled him as the squad's MVP of the spring season. Hopkins caught five passes for 100 yards in the first quarter alone Saturday.

Hopkins took home a pair of spring awards, all of which can be found here.

Paul Johnson and Jon Barry will be looking to defend their crown later this month, as the Georgia Tech duo will be one of 10 ACC teams competing in the 16-team Chick-fil-A Bowl Challenge charity golf tournament, with the hope of winning a share of the $520,000 scholarship purse for their respective schools.

The sixth annual tournament will be held April 29 - May 1 at the Reynolds Plantation resort on Lake Oconee outside Atlanta. Florida State's Jimbo Fisher and Terrell Buckley, the 2010 winners, will be competing as well, along with the 2007 winners from Virginia Tech, Frank Beamer and Dell Curry.

Clemson (Dabo Swinney/Steve Fuller), Maryland (Randy Edsall/Stan Gelbaugh), Miami (Al Golden/Gino Torretta), North Carolina (Larry Fedora/Roy Williams), North Carolina State (Tom O'Brien/Tom Gugliotta), Virginia (Mike London/Jim Dombrowski) and Wake Forest (Jim Grobe/Riley Skinner) are the other seven ACC teams participating in the tournament.

The Yellow Jackets' duo of Johnson and Barry won the event last year with an 11-under par, four strokes better than the Seminoles' win from 2010. South Carolina's Steve Spurrier and Sterling Sharpe, who won the 2009 and 2008 tournaments with 12-unders, will be participating again this season.

Alabama, Mississippi State, Ohio State, Ole Miss and Tennessee are the other schools competing.

ESPN is taping the event for broadcast in the fall.

Despite a nine-game ACC schedule that will likely accompany the arrivals of Syracuse and Pitt in 2013, Clemson still plans to play its scheduled two-game series with Georgia.

Tigers athletic director Terry Don Phillips said as much last week to reporters, meaning, because of its rivalry with South Carolina, Clemson will find itself with 11 games against BCS-conference schools in 2013-14.

The Bulldogs are scheduled to visit Death Valley in 2013, with Clemson returning the favor the next season. That would likely mean just six home games for the Tigers in 2014.

Clemson coach Dabo Swinney acknowledged the obstacle this could mean for his team on the field, but he is nonetheless excited to renew (or is it keep?) a rivalry.

"I ain't fired up about playing one of the top teams in the country, and we've got plenty of tough opponents, and certainly it's a game that could go either way," Swinney said, according to OrangeandWhite.com. "But that's a game that I grew up watching. I've heard so many stories about Clemson-Georgia, and I'd love to be a part of it and have a chapter of that history.

"It's exciting for our fans and our staff and our players to play one of the best teams in the country, and a school that we're obviously close to, proximity-wise.