Collegiate Times

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By the way, the MSU had held formerly No. 10 ranked Auburn to three points the week prior. The SEC has produced the last two national championships and has been widely considered the country's best conference over the past few years, while the ACC has taken a relative beating from fellow major college football conferences.

Virginia Tech head football coach Frank Beamer feels that much of the media's criticism against his conference was not even warranted in the first place.

"I say people that want to write about how bad a conference is over one weekend or one season (it's) probably good material," Beamer said, "but I don't think you can judge like that ... This game (against Nebraska), we're not only playing for Virginia Tech -- we're playing for the ACC, too."

This conference came under heavy media scrutiny after the first week saw it only scoring one victory against another Bowl Championship Series conference. This was not even the original source of criticism, however, as the ACC has had to face the music of a 1-9 BCS bowl record and the worst mark in 2008 postseason games among BCS conferences.

But on Saturday, the current appeared to show a distinct change.

"I feel like each school is getting better as a unit and each team had a rebuilding period," said Hokies running back Kenny Lewis.

Conference pride seems to be getting contagious.

"Even though when we play each other, we want to beat each other," Lewis said, "When they're playing teams from other conferences we're pulling for the ACC."

In a weekend when a mid-range ACC team clobbers a formidable SEC foe, followed by the AFC's basement squad taking its defending champion to the woodshed -- poetic justice tasted very sweet for both the hapless and maligned.

A wall of televised football showered my brain with stimuli Sunday afternoon as I tried to wrap my head around the small, speedy slot receiver in a No. 83 jersey who was knifing through the New England Patriot defense.

Did Miami clone Wes Welker before they traded him?

On a weekend like this one, I wasn't going to rule out the existence of a bizarro-Welker. Though, nor will I dismiss this weekend as merely an extreme anomaly -- this could well prove a turning point and a trend upward for both the Dolphins and the ACC ...

... as Miami fans across town vilify the sports writer who just jinxed them.

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