Fear not, Maryland fans who are upset at the loss of quarterback Josh Portis to an academic issue. Your lot in life could be much worse. Just look around the ACC:
* Virginia was a D1scourse sleeper heading into the season. Instead, the Cavaliers are hibernating. Lord Groh of Hooville can't be happy with a little more than 100 yards offense at Wyoming. Already disgruntled Virginia fans can't be happy with Lord Groh. Fortunately, Duke is up next, but there aren't many major college teams besides Michigan that should be as disappointed as Virginia.
* N.C. State, already hurting from a 25-23 loss to Central Florida, found out today tailback Toney Baker suffered a season-ending knee injury. So the running back tandem of Baker and Andre Brown -- arguably State's greatest strength -- has been halved, and the Wolfpack have a quarterback brouhaha on their hands after Harrison Beck played well in relief of Daniel Evans.
* Wake Forest, shredded for five touchdowns by Boston College's Matt Ryan, lost quarterback Riley Skinner for an indefinite period with a separated right shoulder. For those scoring at home, that's two straight years the Demon Deacons lost their starting QB to injury in the opener.
Brett Hodges was 17-for-23 for 130 yards, a touchdown and an interception in relief.
* Duke is ... well, Duke, unfortunately. The Blue Devils were thrashed 45-14 by Connecticut to drop their 21st straight game. Coming up: A four-game road trip, including a couple chances to avoid tying and breaking the school record losing streak of 23 games set from 1999 to 2001.
* The ACC overall can't feel too great about the opening weekend. Central Florida, Connecticut and Wyoming were a combined 14-22 last year, and all managed to poach victories. Virginia Tech was lackluster overall and shaky in the running game against East Carolina. Maryland and North Carolina won easily as the conference claimed the ACC-CAA Showdown.
The best news for the league was Georgia Tech's walloping of Notre Dame. It's no secret the Yellow Jackets' defense is superb, and they throttled the quarterback rotation of the overmatched Irish. So while Chan Gailey's bunch should feel good, there's a decent chance that beating Notre Dame won't look quite as good down the road as in most seasons.
