Are you ready for some college football?

That was just a rhetorical question. After all, two schools'glorious charge to the BCS title game in New Orleans (and six more teams' pointless march along the road to Boise or Shreveport or Birmingham) will commence in about six weeks.

Plenty will go down in the interim, notably the grind of practices in the scorching summer sun, quarterbacks quandaries galore, inevitable injuries and coaches needlessly using the word "football" as an adjective thousands of times.

There is also the ACC Kickoff event in Pinehurst, N.C., starting Sunday. In this region, at least, it's the closest thing to a launching pad for the season as there is.

Questions will be asked but probably not truly answered, though these are some of the storylines worth thinking about as the ACC churns toward another season that could easily end without a national title contender emerging from its ranks.

* Who will emerge as Maryland's quarterback -- incumbent backup Jordan Steffy, shifty transfer Josh Portis or unheralded darkhorse Chris Turner? And will whoever that is remain upright if a shallow offense line suffers even one serious injury?

* On the defensive side, can the Terrapins improve up front defensively, especially now that cornerback Josh Wilson isn't around to bail them out from time to time? And a corollary: Will defensive tackle Dre Moore emerge as the disruptive monster his athleticism hints he could be?

* In Charlottesville, can Virginia catapult itself back into a bowl game, or will fans unfurl more of those “Groh Must Go” banners that popped up in the middle of last season?

* Down in Blacksburg, is Virginia Tech capable of a sustained national title push, or will its hopes be all but dashed with a loss in the second week of the season at Louisiana State?

And elsewhere in the league. ...

* Are there going to be any impressive quarterbacks beyond perhaps Boston College's Matt Ryan? (For the record, he is the only QB scheduled to be in attendance for Sunday’s interview session at Pinehurst; two players from each school speak with reporters on Sunday, then the head coaches discuss the season Monday).

* Is it possible for Miami to enjoy a quiet season under first-year coach Randy Shannon? Surely, it can’t be much more harrowing than last season, when suspensions, a huge brawl and the shooting death of a defensive lineman defined the Hurricanes as much as a late-December trip to the Smurf Turf.

* Dadgummit, can Bobby Bowden and his revamped coaching staff bounce back after a lackluster 7-6 season?

* Are the coaching changes at North Carolina (Butch Davis) and N.C. State (Tom O’Brien) going to turn out as well as most people would guess. And is O’Brien's departure from Boston College not just the end of an underappreciated, understated era in Chestnut Hill, but also the start of a slide back to the program's 1980s and mid-1990s oblivion of mediocrity?

* Will Wake Forest's combination of undersized players, solid talent without overwhelming athleticism, incredible coaching and a resolute redshirting philosophy continue to pay dividends with another conference title? And will Jim Grobe's approach soon be followed meticulously by copycats?

* Is the loss of wideout Calvin Johnson a bigger minus than the departure of quarterback Reggie Ball is a plus for Georgia Tech?

* Will Clemson coach Tommy Bowden make it through a season without his job security getting mentioned?

* Can Duke win a game? And while on the subject, how many reporters will crowd around Ted Roof on Monday instead of Frank Beamer, Butch Davis or Randy Shannon?

Well, at least that last one will be answered in the next few days.

-- Patrick Stevens

There is something to be said for interviewing football players about two weeks before camp gets under way.

The grind of serious workouts in pads (and later, balancing class, homework, practice, travel and games) has yet to take its toll. There aren't any pesky losses to drag anyone down.

Toss in bringing everyone together at a luxurious golf resort -- as was the case Sunday during the ACC kickoff event in Pinehurst, N.C. -- and just about everyone is in a good mood and the potential for more than a few comical moments remains high.

Take North Carolina wideout Joe Dailey, a converted quarterback who began his career at Nebraska. One reporter floated the possibility of making a few option passes in new coach Butch Davis' offense, perhaps ignoring Dailey's career numbers (26 touchdowns, 31 interceptions).

"I haven't been known for throwing touchdowns," Dailey said. "But I have been known for throwing completions. I throw it to our receivers and I throw it to opposing teams. I have a great completion percentage."

Well put, especially for one of the most sought-after players at today's event. (From several glances across the room, it seemed the tables with players from Florida State, North Carolina and Virginia Tech were the most crowded, while Duke, Maryland and arguably Georgia Tech generated the least attention).

Around the conference, there are not many obvious trends. One perhaps is the absence of veteran quarterbacks -- Boston College's Matt Ryan is the only signal-caller in attendance at this senior-heavy event -- and whether that will mean an even more defense-oriented season.

In fact, there weren't many big names representing the 12 schools. Only five first-team all-ACC players from a year ago are at Pinehurst: Ryan, Clemson tackle Barry Richardson, Wake Forest center Steve Justice, Miami defensive end Calais Campbell and N.C. State return man Darrell Blackman.

(Maryland, for what it's worth, has right guard Andrew Crummey and safety Christian Varner down in Pine Tree Alley.)

Another is the passel of new coaches, with Boston College, Miami, North Carolina and N.C. State each making a switch after last season. N.C. State defensive tackle DeMario Pressley -- all 6-foot-3, 295 pounds of him -- admitted to being a bit afraid of new coach Tom O'Brien, a former Marine known for his disciplined teams.

Also worth mentioning: Players from former Sunshine State superpowers Florida State and Miami believe they are ready to bounce back from 7-6 seasons; Wake Forest got a bit more attention than in the past after last year's conference title (though it remains to be seen where the Deacons will be picked this year); and Virginia is eager to atone for a 5-7 season that has left it ready to return to a bowl this year.

"In a sense of boredom, that was tough," defensive end Chris Long said of the aftermath of last season. "I hadn't been away from football that long. It's easy to train angry and a little upset and with a little chip on your shoulder. This has been one of my favorite offseasons."

Oh, and the dominant storyline for Virginia Tech was, will be and might forever be connected with the April campus shootings in Blacksburg. Expect a steady diet from outlets everywhere to emphasize the tragedy in the coming weeks.

There will be more coming tomorrow, when the conference's 12 head coaches take their turn with the media. Seven of them (plus Gloria Friedgen, Ralph's wife) are scheduled to play golf in the morning as part of an ACC-sponsored event.

As for Clemson's Tommy Bowden, Georgia Tech's Chan Gailey, Miami's Randy Shannon, North Carolina's Butch Davis and Virginia's Al Groh, they won't have the excuse of a lousy round to fall back on if they're a tad grouchy to see ink-stained scribes so soon.

The greatest entertainment so far from the ACC kickoff event in Pinehurst, N.C., was watching the annual media guide haul, an exercise that really would be a great replacement for a potato-sack race at company picnics.

It's easy: Take a group of sportswriters (not a group collectively known for their commitment to fitness), have them grab more than a dozen 208-page books printed on high stock paper, and watch them carry them around a resort in search of their hotel room, car or simply a place to sit down to prevent their backs from buckling (replace "sportswriters" with "company executives" as need be).

There is one benefit of partaking in such madness: Nothing provides a bigger early glimpse into what any team -- college or pro -- thinks of itself than what it plops on its media guide cover.

Sure, that seems a little condescending and self-centered, since media guides are ostensibly made for, well, the media. But they're also hawked for 10-to-20 bucks a pop, so fans can more than easily get their hands on a few, too.

They're also a team publication, filled with all the cheery optimism that comes before a fine season (or a 3-9 disaster). As one prominent college lacrosse coach once said of the content not necessarily reflecting reality, "It's a preview, but it's our preview."

The cover, though, can only provide so much spin. A team can opt to emphasize its past, which can be a good thing (as Florida is doing this year with its tribute to last year's national champions), or a single star player.

There's also the new coach gambit, something four ACC teams have this year. And the display of each of the coaches is striking:

Miami: Randy Shannon is the only person featured, with three background photos of his role on three national champions at The U and one big shot of him as he takes his first head coaching gig.

N.C. State: A glimpse of an intimidating Tom O'Brien (is there any other kind?) dominates the page, though he is flanked by six players. Another 13 appear on the back, but his arrival is clearly important.

Boston College: Any new coach -- even Don Shula or George Halas, and definitely Jeff Jagodzinski -- was going to share top billing with quarterback Matt Ryan this year. But everything else besides the Boston skyline was relegated to the back cover or elsewhere.

North Carolina: The Tar Heels probably made the biggest splash when they hired Butch Davis, but his is one of nine images on the busy Carolina cover. Heck, kicker Connor Barth gets virtually equal billing. I'm almost shuddering at the thought of the number of references to "a team concept" Davis is likely to employ today.

Only two other coaches are listed by name: Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer and Maryland's Ralph Friedgen. The Fridge is joined by action shots of Lance Ball, Andrew Crummey, Isaiah Gardner and Dre Moore, good guys all and superstars none. On the surface, it's a pretty anonymous team.

And as for everybody else, there's mostly balance besides Virginia, where "Chris Long, defensive player of the year candidate" occupies the entire cover. Wake Forest includes a series of photos from its league title last year, as well it should. Between five and six players occupy a spot on the front of the Clemson, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech books.

Florida State stuck four small action shots below a huge photo of Chief Osceola. And Duke might have Carolina trumped on the whole team thing. Mug shots of 10 seniors arc across the top of the cover, while there are action shots of eight underclassmen below "DUKE" in about 100-point type.

Of course, none of this means much of anything once reality intercedes in September. But it's a nice way to pass some time (and fill a blog entry) in the interim.

Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen was probably the last coach to actually talk about football during the ACC kickoff event in Pinehurst, N.C., yesterday.

Instead, he regaled a handful of reporters with his "What I Did During My Summer Vacation" story, a tale that -- long story made very short -- included him stumbling into quicksand-like mud during a trip to Charleston, S.C., and then struggling to make it back onto his boat with a few family members.

When one of them asked if he should get some of his scrapes treated, he grumbled "We came out here to go fishing, so let's go fishing."

It was a little bit of a fishing expedition to prod the Fridge into discussing the annual preseason conference poll, which left Maryland in fifth place in the Atlantic Division.

"That's where they usually pick us," Friedgen said. "Where'd they pick us last year? We end up playing Wake Forest, and if we won that game, who knows? Maybe we would have played in the Orange Bowl, too."

There were some other nuggets to come out of the nearly 80-minute discussion, even stuff outside of the impending quarterback battle in camp (Jordan Steffy is still the No. 1 guy heading into August). Most of the Terrapins' wounded from the spring -- tailbacks Morgan Green and Da'Rel Scott, cornerback Isaiah Gardner and others -- are healthy, although cornerback Richard Taylor (partial left ACL tear) probably won't play in the Sept. 1 opener against Villanova.

In terms of Maryland's ever-shifting roster, defensive end Barrod Heggs is gone, following Jared Gaither into the abyss of academic ineligibility. Heggs, you might remember, started at Georgia Tech last fall before not making the trip to Virginia the next week. When Friedgen was asked if it was an ever-nebulous violation of team rules, he produced a classic Ralph-ism: "Yeah, they're my rules."

Also likely out of the scholarship mix for this year are freshmen Carl Russell and Joe Vellano, who will grayshirt and probably join the Terps for spring practice. By my unofficial (and if not precise, then darn close) count, that leaves the Terps at 87 scholarships. However, freshman tight end Devonte Campbell has yet to qualify, Friedgen hinted a few more freshmen might grayshirt and there's always a few borderline players academically heading into August.

That situation will probably shake itself out, perhaps even enough for Friedgen to fulfill one of his traditions and award scholarships to veteran walk-ons who have served the program well -- in this year's case, perhaps field goal snapper Brendan McDermond and reserve wideout and likely field goal holder Matt Goldberg.

One guy not on scholarship this year is lineman Donnie Woods, who left a year early to pursue a military career. Friedgen didn't join in the hoopla last December, cautioning that he wanted Woods to earn a degree. And sure enough, Friedgen stunned a reporter from Tampa trying to follow up on Woods' attempt to go to officer training school with some surprising news.

"He didn't pass ROTC," Friedgen grumbled. "He didn't pass anything this spring, so he's out of school."

As for some other nuggets around the conference:

* Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer is doing away with two-a-days this August, preferring instead to not rush through analysis of practice film at any point. The Hokies better not be tired when East Carolina comes calling on Sept. 1.

* Miami coach Randy Shannon has a "No Calls After Midnight" rule as part of his emphasis on discipline. The gist: News about a player arriving in the wee hours of the night will likely earn that player a game off.

* Georgia Tech's Chan Gailey was especially fired up toward the end of his session with the print media. When someone brought up the glamour of former Yellow Jacket wideout Calvin Johnson, Gailey had a quick reply.

"Y'all blew him up and made him as big as can be," Gailey drawled. "I don't coach glamour. I'm not a glamour guy."

* Predictably, three of the league's new coaches -- Butch Davis, Tom O'Brien and Shannon -- were surrounded with reporters, as were Beamer and Florida State's Bobby Bowden. Getting a seat around Gailey ... not quite so difficult.

* The finest moment of unintentional comedy came when someone asked Duke's Ted Roof about possibly recruiting via Facebook if other avenues (like text messaging) remain restricted. Roof looked a bit frightened, then said he didn't want his picture anywhere near a Facebook page.

* And finally ... for anyone wondering how long it would take Friedgen this season to begin carrying the flag anew for promoting five years of eligibility, the answer was a little under 42 minutes. The over/under on unprovoked rants this season concerning the NCAA's reluctance to go in that direction is eight.

-- Patrick Stevens

True story: At the end of one of the media sessions on Monday, a writer asked Georgia Tech coach Chan Gailey if punter Durant Brooks was injured or AWOL or something else undesirable.

Gailey couldn’t think of any reason, then understandably asked why such a question would be asked.

Turns out Brooks, last year’s first-team All-ACC punter and a legit Ray Guy Award candidate this year, was omitted from the nominees list for the preseason all-conference team.

“Somebody start a write-in campaign for him,” the understated Gailey said of a player who produced better numbers last year that Maryland’s Adam Podlesh, who wound up a fourth-round selection of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Well, that didn’t work, at least not for now. Despite his fine record last year, Brooks wasn’t among the preseason picks released on Wednesday by the conference.

(For the record, Maryland was represented by electrifying wideout Darrius Heyward-Bey and sturdy right guard Andrew Crummey; Boston College QB Matt Ryan was the preseason player of the year.)

In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn’t participate in this exercise. But it’s also interesting to point out 14 of the 24 players listed were also in attendance at the ACC kickoff event -- including ALL NINE of the offensive and defensive linemen.

There was one particularly discouraging aspect of the balloting. Only four quarterbacks were nominated, including Ryan. The others: Virginia Tech’s Sean Glennon and Wake Forest’s Riley Skinner, a pair of second-year starters coming off solid (but not dominant) seasons, and Duke’s Thaddeus Lewis, a great kid who survived his baptism by fire as a true freshman but still has to earn the job in camp.

Still, for the sake of entertainment, a handful of those guys or even someone else needs to emerge (Jameel Sewell? Taylor Bennett? Kyle Wright? Drew Weatherford?) to make the offensive side interesting in the conference this season.

-- Patrick Stevens

The death of Wake Forest basketball coach Skip Prosser today at age 56 of an apparent heart attack is a harsh blow for anyone who got to know the man even a little.

I always thought of him as a professor on the sideline, a guy whose sharp analysis of any subject was worth considering. There is a tendency to be skeptical of most coaches who spout cliches, and for good reason. With Prosser it was different; you knew he’d worked his mind around a topic and given it a lot of thought. If his assessment was different than yours, well, it was probably worth re-examining your position.

He was also quite a successful coach. Loyola athletic director Joe Boylan remembered Prosser for “working a miracle" in his one year at the Baltimore school and taking it to its only NCAA tournament appearance a year after going 2-25.

His record at Xavier was superb, and he seemed to elevate Wake Forest into the upper echelon nationally in his first four seasons in Winston-Salem. The last two years didn’t turn out quite so well, but Prosser just collected the commitments of Al-Faouq Aminu and Tony Woods -- a pair of top-20 recruits according to rivals.com -- for the class of 2008.

Prosser also brought excitement to Joel Coliseum, a place that never seemed so energetic even when Tim Duncan was playing in the 1990s. He encouraged students to wear tie-dye shirts, and the difference in energy was notable to me when I visited Joel in February, the first time I'd been there since 2001.

From a reporter's viewpoint, it was a virtual necessity to ask Prosser about any overarching issue in the league. You could make a case you weren't doing your job if you didn't. There weren't any canned replies, no scripts, just keen insight from a guy who probably didn't seem as pre-ordained to become a college coach as so many others.

I asked several coaches during last October's ACC media day about their collective decision to further promote the conference after it earned four NCAA berths a year. It was a popular topic, and certainly Maryland's Gary Williams beat the drum on the subject for months. But Prosser -- in his own, inimitable way -- gave easily the most thoughtful reply:

"It seems unfortunate, but that seems to be a reality. The huckstering that goes on starting now seems to bear fruit in March. Or not. I think it's an abomination in some ways that you can have teams that win nine games in this league and don't make the tournament. The 16 games you play here and the level of players in this conference and the venues where every place you go is packed and the tradition is incredible, I find it hard to imagine those schools would not be in the national tournament. There is some value to that promotion and tub-thumping. It shouldn’t be like that, but it seems that way ...

Selection Sunday [in 2006] was sort of a slap in the face to the ACC and caused great consternation. People who were in the league a lot longer than I have remember when 6-10 ACC teams went to the tournament. When 9-7 doesn't, that is a clarion call to 'Hey, maybe we need to get more involved in promotion.' "

Huckstering. Abomination. Tub-thumping. Consternation. Clarion call. Hardly the typical imagery for anyone to conjure.

If talking with people today who knew him well has done anything, it was cement my belief that Skip Prosser was one of a kind.

-- Patrick Stevens

It seems like a wise use of this space to let some of Wake Forest basketball coach Skip Prosser's many friends to extensively remember the man who died today of an apparent heart attack.

Some snippets about the Pittsburgh native that you might not see elsewhere:

- Joe Boylan, Loyola athletic director and the man who gave Prosser his first Division I head coaching gig:

"He was a unique person. He was a renaissance man coaching college basketball. He was just unique. We’re not going to see his likes again. He just had a special gift. He could be tough, but it was all about his voice. He didn’t swear ..."

"We were horrible the year before and won two games and he came in and took a disparate group of people and performed a miracle. He was just special. I have been around a lot of people, and he was just a special guy.”

"He coached in high school in Wheeling, W. Va. ... When you coach high school, you do everything, drive the bus. He never lost that touch. It was always 'This is amazing, what's happening to me.' He loved what he was doing. Being here, I remember when we were in the process of hiring and you have all these committees, and they wanted someone else. I went to the school president and said 'This is the guy we should get. There is something about him that will be really special.' They saw it too. It was like we're not going to get a better coach no matter what his record is..."

"He touched so many lives and he really cared and at the end of the day, he was one of the better basketball coaches. But he was just unique and he was real. There was nothing phony. You never knew what he was going to say. Sometimes you kind of looked at yourself, and when [Wake] was going through a tough stretch this year I said 'You're not very good.' and he said 'Yeah, but you know we're not that bad. I understand we’re not playing well.' He always tended to see things as 'if this happened and that happened, who knows what can happen.' He believed in his players."

"He was funny. He was placed on some rules committees and I called him and said 'Hey, Skip, they finally woke up.' He said 'I don’t know why I'm on this committee.' I told him 'Those are the committees you should be on because you have a perspective.' The way things are with the money, you have coaches who tend to think 'How’s it going to affect me?' I think he could always step back and look out what’s best for the game."

"He would always challenge you and challenge his players on a lot of different levels. He believed it was important. That was the thing when he got Chris Paul. Talking to Chris years later, he said something to the effect of 'You meet Coach Prosser and you know what, it's going to be great. I can tell that to all my friends. They might not all come here, but it will be great.' "

Dave Cottle, Maryland lacrosse coach who met Prosser when both worked at Loyola:

“He was very well-read, or he'd like you to think that. I never saw him open a book but he carried a lot with him. He was just so good at whatever he did. He got a lot out of people, got a lot out of his staff and got a lot out of kids."

"At the time Skip took over, [Loyola was] going to be the Bad News Bears. [Instead], they won the conference tournament and things went well at the end of the year."

"He liked a lot of different people. Coach Bob Huggins, when he was at Cincinnati, coaches came before Skip and after Skip, but I'm not sure Huggins appreciated them as much as he appreciated Skip. People liked him whether you played against him or played for him."

"He used to come talk to our team. He was just an incredible guy. He was a good storyteller, a horrible golfer and he didn't even attempt to be. He was just fun to be around. When he had that good team at Wake [in 2004], I can remember him calling up and saying 'How much did coach [Gary] Williams do in practice when they won the national championship.' He was always trying to find out a better way to do things. I’m going to tell you, he was a good man."

Gary Williams, Maryland basketball coach:

"He was one of the good guys. It was amazing. I'm sitting up in the gym up in New Jersey about 3:15 and one of the assistants gets a text message from a friend of his that Skip Prosser had a heart attack and about 10 minutes later someone got a text message that he’s died in the hospital. It's amazing."

"I think he always took everything as whatever came along, he could handle it. He won the league regular season championship three years ago and last year they struggled a little bit. He was the same. He was never any different in terms of how he was. That's important in coaching. He always seemed to be able to come down after a tough loss or a great win."

"That became a tough place to play during Skip's time. Before that, Duncan was there for four years and they drew well. He got the crowd energized, and whatever he did, he did make Wake Forest a tougher place to play."

"When we won in 2002, he dropped me a nice note saying that our type of team was the type of team we he would like to coach. He was very happy for us. We were friends. When everything was said and done with the games, we could have a beer together."

“We had both coached high school, and when you coach in high school you are really coaching because you love the game, because you're working with kids -- because there’s no money involved. We both started at the high school level. When you do that, you never think you'll coach in college. You hope, you don’t go out assuming someone is going to come along and give you a college job. You have to work hard just to get on someone's staff.

"I'm just like everybody else, just shaking my head."

Between football and basketball, the last few years have featured more than a few health-related episodes for coaches. The death of Wake Forest basketball coach Skip Prosser after a heart attack is just the latest.

The Big Ten has lost two football coaches in just more than a year -- Northwestern's Randy Walker (heart attack) and Indiana's Terry Hoeppner (brain tumor). There were also well-publicized health issues for Georgia Tech's Chan Gailey and former St. Louis Rams coach Mike Martz.

Maryland's Gary Williams touched on the subject of the pressures of coaching when we talked last night about Prosser's passing.

"I think with Skip, I was probably more demonstrative than Skip," Williams said. “Maybe that's a good thing. At the moment, I don't know. I’m not a doctor. ...

"Everybody is always saying in coaching there's a great deal of stress, but there's a lot of stress in other jobs. You have stress with a deadline to get in a story. People see coaches stress a little more, but what about a guy on Wall Street on a day like [Thursday] and the market goes down 300 points. There’s stress in every part of life. The thing for coaches is the different areas where stress comes from. Now the Internet has taken it to a whole other level because so many people can express themselves. Sports talk shows have been a relatively recent phenomenon. On television, there's all the talking heads that give their opinions of coaches. There is more stress than there was in the past."

-- Patrick Stevens

Even if recruiting coverage ranks somewhere around a trip to the dentist in terms of personal appeal -- nearly all real news related to a program should be and is connected to someone actually eligible to contribute to the on-field product -- there's no reason not to pass along some nuggets as they pop up.

Offensive tackle R.J. Dill committed to Maryland last night according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News.

Rivals.com lists him as the No. 61 offensive tackle in his class, whatever that means. While basketball rankings are fairly easy to construct -- after all, the guys play against each other in AAU tournaments all summer and can be evaluated head-to-head -- football rankings require a lot more guesswork and are probably as much a fine way to separate a man from his money than an accurate assessment of talent. But since this America and Barnum's axiom on suckers remains valid, God bless the profiteers.

The reality of the situation is to check back in on Dill at least two years down the road. Most college teams try to redshirt linemen en masse so they're bigger and stronger when they hit the field and get to use a year of eligibility as a 23-year-old rather than an 18-year-old. It appears Dill falls into that vast category.

So assuming everything goes right and you don't frequent fan message boards where middle-aged men obsess over the decisions of high schoolers before moving on to their next man-crush, you might hear about Dill on signing day in February and then again when camp starts in 2009.

-- Patrick Stevens

Navy opens camp today -- yes, a college football team is underway in July -- and that means all the usual mundane things that camp brings.

It also means coach Paul Johnson will be holding court in his own droll way, and that was enough to get me down I-97 to Annapolis yesterday afternoon for the program's media day and -- coupled with the promise of a stop at artery-clogging Pat’s King of Steaks -- Navy’s opener at Temple exactly a month from today is penciled into my calendar.

Johnson, of course, did not disappoint as he assessed a team that lost nine starters from last year's 9-4 team.

One of those taking a new starting spot could be sophomore Nate Frazier, who is listed atop the depth chart at nose guard.

"Nate hasn’t ever played a down," Johnson said. "I don't want everybody to be building him up like Deacon Jones. Let's watch him play. He may get beat out before the season starts."

Well, he did play in three games last year. But garbage time against Duke and Eastern Michigan isn't exactly a strong indicator of future success.

Some other Johnson witticisms:

* A reporter asked about so many starters at "key spots" -- read: skill positions — returning this fall, then dropped in the loss of three starters on the offensive line. "That might be a key spot," Johnson observed.

* Apparently, Temple is trying desperately to drum up interest in its opener against the Mids at Lincoln Financial Field ... not that such chicanery will mean much to the visitors. "If you're not ready to play your opening game, you're in real trouble. It's going to be a long year," Johnson said.

* It might be mildly surprising Johnson has yet to parlay his success at Navy into a bigger gig, but he seems genuinely amused by all the attention.

"As long as I beat Army, they'll let me stay another year. A lot of that stuff you guys just drum up in the press. I get chuckles out of it. I jokingly told somebody it's better to be talked about for other jobs than for them to be talking about who's going to take your job."

Even with the issue of rebuilding the defense, Johnson could hear those murmurs again after this season. The quirky schedule -- with two Friday games at the start and a Wednesday trip to Pittsburgh -- sets up decently, with meetings against only four bowl teams from a year ago.

Actual news was relatively sparse yesterday -- cornerback Rashawn King might not make it back for the opener after undergoing offseason shoulder surgery -- but Johnson was already counting on being overlooked (as usual) again this fall.

"When teams see us get off the bus, nobody’s going to run for cover," Johnson said. "I guarantee everybody we play has us circled on the schedule as a win. They all think they should beat us. That's not going to change no matter who’s playing us."

-- Patrick Stevens