Frank Spaziani already knew the ins and outs of Boston College's program, and Dabo Swinney certainly didn't need any help finding his way around Clemson.
Both longtime assistants and former interim coaches were promoted to head jobs this offseason, and among their top priorities during spring practice were taking lead roles and injecting their personalities into the programs.
"I've had an opportunity to put a staff together and give the staff direction as far as how information is disseminated in meeting rooms, on the practice field, and try to create the climate that I wanted here," Swinney said Wednesday during the ACC's teleconference wrapping up spring practice. "Certainly I would hope that I've been able to put a little bit more of a stamp on the program."
Swinney was midway through his sixth season at Clemson and was coaching wide receivers when Tommy Bowden was fired and the school elevated him to interim coach. The interim tag was dropped a month before Clemson's 26-21 loss to Nebraska in the Gator Bowl.
Spaziani was in Boston twice as long and briefly was the Eagles' interim coach for the Meineke Bowl victory in 2006 after Tom O'Brien left for North Carolina State. He remained on the staff for two seasons and when Jeff Jagodzinski was fired in January, Spaziani was named the full-time head coach and began making subtle tweaks to the program.
"I'm energized by what needs to be done and where we have to go moving this program forward," he said.
-- BOSTON COLLEGE: Spaziani may be a familiar face in Boston, but his players are getting used to new offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill. The former Navy coach and veteran assistant came out of retirement and is installing a new offense that is starting to come into shape for a young team that returns seven starters on each side of the ball.
"We have young players on offense - we basically have a young team - so the learning curve has been pretty steep," Spaziani said.
-- CLEMSON: Having C.J. Spiller in the backfield makes it easier for the Tigers to sort out a blurry quarterback picture. The all-ACC return man who had a team-best 1,770 all-purpose yards last season is one of the fastest players in college football.
"I think C.J. is the best player in this conference, and probably the best player in the country," Sweeney said. "Even more important than the quarterback situation is, we're going to be better up front, because it really doesn't matter, if you can't block anybody."
-- DUKE: The Blue Devils quadrupled their 2007 win total in '08, but coach David Cutcliffe was far from satisfied with that. They lost 12 starters from last year's 4-8 team, and while the numbers are down, the remaining players have a clearer idea how to play Cutcliffe's way.
"We have less bodies and more football players," Cutcliffe said. "At this time a year ago, eight players were ready to play defense to some degree of effectiveness in the ACC, and on offense we had seven. We are in double digits in both categories. ... Everybody was patting our kids on the back because we had a better year. Well, we didn't have a better year, because we didn't win some games we should have."
-- FLORIDA STATE: Bobby Bowden wasn't installing any new systems this spring. He just wanted to improve the one the Seminoles already run.
The only injury of significance was suffered by backup quarterback E.J. Manuel, who broke a finger when his follow-through struck a defensive player's helmet. And a top priority was grooming a receiving corps that graduated wideouts Greg Carr and Preston Parker.
"We're thin as far as experience ... but not ability," Bowden said. "The whole key to this thing is not, 'Do they have talent?' It's, 'Can they play up to their potential this early?'"
-- GEORGIA TECH: Paul Johnson's option-oriented offense took the ACC by storm in his first year, averaging nearly 100 yards rushing more than any other team and producing the league's top runner - offensive player of the year Jonathan Dwyer.
As he enters Year 2, he isn't worried about the rest of the conference catching up to his unique system. After all, it didn't happen when he made Georgia Southern into a Southern Conference power.
"We played the same teams for five years, (and) we won the league every year," Johnson said. "People will get better at defending it. We will get better at running it. ... It'll be move, countermove. That's what football is."
-- MARYLAND: Ralph Friedgen wants to turn up the pressure on a Terrapins defense that returns only four starters - and only three who have at least 10 career starts. New coordinator Don Brown came in after five seasons as head coach at Massachusetts to replace Chris Cosh, who left for Kansas State.
"A lot of people play 'quarters' coverage, and (Brown) is more of a half-field guy, a man guy, a lot more pressure," Friedgen said. "Cutting-edge type stuff."
-- MIAMI: Randy Shannon is hoping that new offensive coordinator Mark Whipple can keep bringing along Jacory Harris, who has the starting quarterback job all to himself after Robert Marve's rocky split with the Hurricanes.
"The first week or two of practice was instrumental in the development of Jacory," Shannon said, adding that he told his quarterback, "'You're the guy who controls what we do offensively. You can get it into the playmakers' hands.'"
-- NORTH CAROLINA: The top priority for Butch Davis was finding some bodies to complete a receiving corps that lost record-setting junior Hakeem Nicks and seniors Brooks Foster and Brandon Tate. His next concern was finding more players to fill out the rest of the depth chart.
"One of the major issues (remains) trying to get enough depth," Davis said. "In 2007 (his first season at North Carolina), we were paper-thin. We were one injury away at almost every position. ... Last year, we had some depth at some positions, but certainly not all of them."
-- NORTH CAROLINA STATE: All eyes were on Russell Wilson after the ACC rookie of the year and all-league quarterback worked his way back from a knee injury and doubled as an infielder on the school's baseball team.
"We went in with some things that he had to get better at," coach Tom O'Brien said. "A major concern was that he ran too much last year. That's not an unnatural reaction, especially from a first-year quarterback. ... We didn't want to discourage him from running, but we didn't want it to be the first resort all the time."
-- VIRGINIA: Al Groh brought in one of the gurus of the spread offense to continue teaching his Cavaliers how to run it. New coordinator Gregg Brandon, fired after six seasons at Bowling Green, arrived in Charlottesville to keep installing the scheme - a plan that was short-circuited last year when Jameel Sewell was declared academically ineligible last season, turning the position into a question mark.
He's back, and so is the spread.
"This is a system that has been successful at many other places. By the same token, it's not 'Star Wars,'" Groh said. Brandon "is a bright coach, but he's not the tooth fairy. He's not, all of a sudden, going to make (Virginia into) a 70-point-per-game offense. It's still up to player execution."
-- VIRGINIA TECH: With 16 starters back and Tyrod Taylor cemented as the offense's leader, things are looking bright for the defending ACC and Orange Bowl champions. But the Hokies aren't about to start planning for their high-profile season opener against Alabama yet.
"Any time you play a national program, a quality program like Alabama, our players are excited, and I know our fans are," coach Frank Beamer said. "We know what a challenge we've got, but right now, we're concentrating on trying to get Virginia Tech better."
-- WAKE FOREST: Jim Grobe lost three standout linebackers, including possibly the No. 1 overall NFL draft pick in Aaron Curry, but is optimistic the Demon Deacons will find strength in another number - the nine starters that return on defense.
"This is probably the deepest we've been at linebacker since I've been here," Grobe said. "We're losing a lot, but I like the intensity. I like the depth we've got. Probably five or six kids right now are really fighting hard, where they're in a situation where they get a lot of playing time.
"We don't have a superstar like Aaron Curry, but I like the mix," he added.
Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney
http://accesswdun.com/article/2009/4/219602