Miami Leads the ACC in NFL Numbers

The ACC can claim 259 spots on NFL rosters this season, led by 41 from Miami.

Even if you subtract the 34 Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College players who never took a snap in the ACC, that's still a healthy number of professionals flowing from the conference.

Why that doesn't translate to national success for the ACC arguably can be attributed to the quality of coaching and the positions of the talent. There are 42 ACC linebackers in the NFL, and 25 tackles, but only eight quarterbacks (and three of those were pre-expansion).

Miami's total actually shrunk by five players this year, but the 'Canes expanded their lead over Florida State to a net of 11. The Seminoles, while still second in the conference, dropped from 39 to 30 players who are either on an active 53-man NFL roster, listed as injured reserve or under league suspension. The breakdown by school:



Among the interesting notes:

Five ACC quarterbacks start in the NFL. Even if you rightfully count Boston College's Matt Hasselbeck in the Big East's total, the ACC's four starters – N.C. State's Philip Rivers (San Diego), Virginia's Matt Schaub (Houston), Maryland's Shaun Hill (San Francisco) and Boston College's Matt Ryan (Atlanta) – compare favorably with those from the SEC (six, with those blasted Manning boys skewing the curve), Pac-10 (five, including three from Southern California) and the Big Ten (four).

Surprisingly, the Big 12, the so-called conference of quarterbacks which has produced three Heisman-winning quarterbacks this decade, does not have a single starter this year.

The pipeline from Florida State to the NFL has sprung a leak. The Seminoles had an ACC-best 45 alumni in the NFL in 2006, one more than Miami, but has subsequently dropped to 43 (in '07), then 39 last season and 30 today.
The 'Noles have seen stalwarts such as linebacker Derrick Brooks, running back Warrick Dunn, defensive tackle Corey Simon and quarterback Brad Johnson leave the NFL in the past three years, while adding only two players – DE Everette Brown and WR Michael Ray Garvin – to this rookie crop.

It's no coincidence that FSU's record has fallen with less NFL-caliber talent on campus.

The list of 259 NFL players from the ACC breaks down this way: 129 on defense, 118 on offense and 12 on special teams. Linebacker (42) is the most populated position, followed by receiver (28), tackle (25) and safety (24).

There are almost as many long-snappers (six) as quarterbacks.

On offense, 47 of the 118 players' primary role is to block, while 21 of the 71 skill-position players came through Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College before they joined the ACC, which again accentuates some of the ACC's competition problems. They've got the plumbers, but not the playmakers.

North Carolina wins the race of the Carolinas with 24 pros. Take away the Tar Heels' two long-snappers, and they still beat N.C. State (19), Wake Forest (14), Clemson (14) and Duke (3).

Incredibly, Mack Brown left UNC in 1997 but recruited nine of UNC's current NFLers.

This rookie class appears cursed. Five of them begin the season on injured reserve and three, N.C. State tailback Andre Brown (N.Y. Giants), Wake Forest safety Chip Vaughn (New Orleans) and Wake Forest linebacker Stanley Arnoux (New Orleans) are out for the season.

Brown tore his Achilles' tendon early in August training camp, and Vaughn suffered a knee injury in training camp. They both had longer seasons than Arnoux, who tore his Achilles' tendon in May, on the first day of rookie mini-camp.

Being injured is not all bad. NFL teams aren't allowed to cut players on injured reserve, so as long as they're on IR, they're collecting an NFL paycheck (as opposed to the five-digit deals for the practice-squad players).

Three feel-good stories from the list of 259:

N.C State kicker Steven Hauschka (Baltimore): It's a long way from Middlebury College's neuroscience program to the NFL, but Hauschka made it. Hauschka finished his undergraduate career at Middlebury in Vermont, then followed Tom O'Brien from Boston College to N.C. State, where he kicked one season (2007) for the Wolfpack. After getting cut by Minnesota, he found a spot on Baltimore's practice squad and eventually on the main roster as the kickoff and long field-goal specialist. He beat out Florida State's Graham Gano in training camp for the full-time gig with the Ravens this season.

Virginia linebacker Isaiah Ekejiuba (Oakland): The Nigerian enters his fifth NFL season as special-teams specialist, not bad for someone who skipped high school football and who was a walk-on at Virginia.

Miami tight end Buck Ortega (New Orleans): An accomplished high school quarterback, Ortega switched to tight end at Miami, only to be stuck behind Kellen Winslow and Greg Olsen. He found a niche on special teams with the Saints, after three different practice-squad stops.



(charlottebserver.com)