A tip o' the hat to the ACC

Just got the list of attendees for the ACC's football kickoff event later this month --- something that typically doesn't draw a lot of quarterbacks.

In 2007, Boston College's Matt Ryan was there. That was it.

Last year, Clemson's Cullen Harper, Florida State's Drew Weatherford and Virginia Tech's Sean Glennon made the trip. Two of those guys weren't starting by the second week of the season.

But this year? A whopping half-dozen QBs are expected to be in attendance --- Duke's Thaddeus Lewis, Florida State's Christian Ponder, Maryland's Chris Turner, North Carolina's T.J. Yates, Virginia's Vic Hall and Wake Forest's Riley Skinner.

Given that two programs are in serious QB flux (Boston College and Clemson) and couldn't be expected to send someone from that position, that makes the presence of six signal-callers even more impressive.

(Cornerback Nolan Carroll, by the way, is Maryland's defensive rep).

Just with the QBs alone, there are some great storylines. It's just a shame they'll all probably be subjected to the same line of "why isn't there a juggernaut in the ACC" line of questioning Kickoff attendees have faced since league expansion in 2004.

The full rundown of players for the July 26-27 event, courtesy of the ACC office:

Boston College: C Matt Tennant, DE Jim Ramella

Clemson: TB C. J. Spiller, DE Ricky Sapp

Duke: QB Thaddeus Lewis, DT Vince Oghobaase

Florida State: QB Christian Ponder, LB Dekoda Watson

Georgia Tech: RB  Jonathan Dwyer, DE Derrick Morgan

Maryland: QB Chris Turner, CB Nolan Carroll

Miami: T Jason Fox, S Randy Phillips

North Carolina: QB T.J. Yates, DE E.J. Wilson

N.C. State: RB Jamelle Eugene, DE Willie Young

Virginia: T Will Barker, QB Vic Hall

Virginia Tech: TE Greg Boone, FS Kam Chancellor

Wake Forest: QB Riley Skinner, DT John Russell

--- Patrick Stevens