ACC notes: Teams beef up their schedules

The ACC is doing its part to gain credibility this year.

Forget about the conference’s 2-10 BCS bowl record.

Forget about the fact that no more than one ACC team has ever reached a BCS bowl in the same season.

Forget about 2009, when Richmond beat Duke and William & Mary defeated Virginia.

ACC teams have bulked up their non-conference schedules, booking games against power teams from power conferences, starting with North Carolina’s matchup against LSU in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game at the Georgia Dome on Sept. 4.

Virginia Tech plays Boise State in Landover, Md., on Sept. 6, and five days later, Miami will play at Ohio State, Florida State travels to Oklahoma and Virginia will play at Southern California.

"Ever since they announced the date, it's been the talk of the town," Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor said at the ACC Football Kickoff last month. "Everyone asks you, 'Are you ready for the first game? What are you going to do?'"

North Carolina State will host Cincinnati, which lost to Florida in the Sugar Bowl in January, on Sept. 16. And on Sept. 18, Wake Forest will play at Stanford, Maryland is at West Virginia, Clemson travels to Auburn and Florida State will host BYU.

Even Duke will is doing more than its part. The Blue Devils host defending national champ Alabama that same day.

Then on Sept. 23, Miami plays at Pittsburgh, which is favored to win the Big East after going 10-3 last year and defeating North Carolina in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

"I don't think [the ACC has] fallen behind [the Southeastern Conference]," Duke coach David Cutcliffe told the Associated Press. "I'm going to be real blunt: I don't think we've ever been ahead of the SEC or even with them, to this point. I think it's in reverse. I think the ACC is moving upward in that model.

"The SEC has an older football tradition, a little stronger fan bases. I think you close the gap, you get into intense fan bases, intense growth in the interest in your sport. I think we're headed in the right direction.”

Yates to start again

It appears T.J. Yates, a senior who played at Pope, will start at quarterback when North Carolina opens against LSU at the Georgia Dome.

"Clearly, T.J. Yates is still the starting quarterback," Tar Heels coach Butch Davis told reporters Monday. "I think he's done a very, very good job."

Yates missed part of his sophomore season with an ankle injury, but has 31 career starts and has thrown for 5,959 yards and 39 TD passes, the second highest totals in school history. But he threw 15 interceptions and only 14 TD passes while starting all 13 games in 2009.

He has been pressed this summer by redshirt freshman Bryn Renner, but Davis said Yates' experience is "one distinct advantage that you can't take away from him."

New QB at Wake Forest

Ted Stachitas is running Wake Forest's first-team offense and it appears he will be the starter for the Demon Deacons' opener against Presbyterian.

Stachitas, a sophomore, succeeded Tim Tebow at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra, Fla., but like all four of Wake Forest's QBs, he has never thrown a pass in a collegiate game.

Stachitas is competing against junior Skylar Jones and freshman Tanner Price to replace four-year starter Riley Skinner.

"So we think it's Ted right now, but Ted knows there might be two, three or four in that mix," Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said. "We'll keep working guys. At some point we might start cutting some reps, but right now we're kind of balancing it out."