DUKE-FLORIDA STATE PREVIEW

The straw poll’s runner-up, Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch, was to play against Bowling Green on Friday night in the MAC Championship game.

Following Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel in 2012, Winston would be the second consecutive freshman to win the coveted award after no freshman won the award in its first 77 years. He would be the third FSU player, following Charlie Ward (1993) and Chris Weinke (2000), to win it. Starting with Weinke, 11 of the past 13 winners have been quarterbacks. Winston also would be the first winner from the ACC since Weinke in 2000. Weinke and Ward are the only players to win the Heisman at a school that was in the ACC at the time they won it.

The trophy will be awarded Dec. 14.

TURNOVER SINCE PITT LOSS

Without having played a snap in the game, Duke already has claimed something of a dubious first for Saturday.

The Blue Devils are the first team to allow more than 50 points in a game and make the ACC title game in the same season, having lost 58-55 to Pittsburgh on Sept. 21, a game in which Panthers quarterback Tom Savage tied an ACC record with six touchdown passes. Georgia Tech set the standard, such as it is, with its 68-50 win over North Carolina last year before going to the title game.

Duke, though, has won its eight games since the Pittsburgh loss. A big difference is turnovers. The Blue Devils forced five turnovers in the first four games — the last being the Pittsburgh loss — but have taken the ball away 18 times in the past eight. Turnover margin was minus-3 in the first four games and plus-6 in the past eight.

“We have a lot of good football players over there that have played a lot of snaps, and I really think it embarrassed them,” coach David Cutcliffe said of the poor start. “There has just been a determination, and I think we’ve prepared better than we have since I’ve been here.”

A statistic that might be noteworthy against high-powered Florida State. In three of the past four ACC Championship games, the loser set or tied its season high for points allowed to a conference opponent.

A COACH WITH A PLAN

Duke coach David Cutcliffe is an inveterate planner, and a little more than two years ago he made a plan for the next three years of his life.

One of his goals was to lead the Blue Devils to the ACC Championship game. The year that he made the plan, 2011, Duke finished 3-9 overall and 1-7 in the ACC. Since the ACC split into two divisions in 2005, Duke’s Coastal finishes were: last, last, last, last, second to last, tied for last and, in the year of Cutcliffe’s plan, last. The Blue Devils rose to second to last in 2012.

Some might have described the objective not so much a goal as a far-fetched dream.

On Saturday, Cutcliffe can check it off the list. The Blue Devils, outright winners of the ACC Coastal Division, will play Florida State on Saturday for the ACC championship in Charlotte, N.C. Duke last won a share of the ACC in 1989, when Steve Spurrier was coach.

Duke, picked to finish last in the preseason media poll, has a chance demonstrate to the nation that eight consecutive wins and a No. 20 BCS ranking haven’t happened by accident.

“These guys deserve more respect than what people have given them, really overall, because we’re not just fortunate,” Cutcliffe said. “We’re a good football team. We wouldn’t be where we were if we weren’t good.”

The website atomicfootball.com gives Duke a 2.7 percent chance of upsetting FSU. The Blue Devils are a 29 1/2-point underdog.

Duke guard Dave Harding said, “we know we have a great challenge this Saturday, playing the No. 1 team in the country, and we know that nobody is giving us a chance to win. Really, that’s just business as usual for Duke football.”

3-STAR HEROES

The recruiting rankings for both teams’ players would indicate the game won’t be worth watching. There is no comparing Duke and Florida State.

Dating to 2009, each FSU class has been ranked in the top 10 by Rivals, and the Seminoles have outranked the Blue Devils by an average of 57 places. The FSU haul has included 11 five-star players to none for Duke, 50 four stars to Duke’s three. The Blue Devils actually have recruited more three-star players, 55 to 49, if only because that’s likely not where FSU’s focus has been.

The NFL draft output tells the same story. FSU has had 10 players drafted in the past three seasons, including two first-rounders. Duke last had a player drafted in 2004. The Seminoles have had 36 players drafted since then.

That said, Duke put 11 players on the first, second or third All-ACC teams, including tight end Braxton Deaver and offensive tackle Perry Simmons, both two-star prospects. FSU led with 17. Duke, though, does have 237 ACC academic honor-roll selections since 2009, while FSU has 69.

A GOAL AT A TIME

Florida State center Bryan Stork has tried to avoid watching ESPN lately. There’s a lot of talk about his Seminoles playing for the BCS championship, which isn’t terribly helpful for him or anyone else preparing for the step before that, Saturday’s ACC title game vs. Duke.

With a win, FSU will play for the BCS championship for the first time since the 2000 season. The Seminoles rose to the top spot in the BCS rankings after Alabama was stunned by Auburn last week.

“That’s something on our team that we do a great job of, is just taking it day by day, not getting ahead of ourselves,” Stork said.

Safety Lamarcus Joyner said Saturday’s game doesn’t have a different feel than last year, when the Seminoles played Georgia Tech for the ACC title coming off a loss to Florida that dashed any slim hopes of a BCS championship.

“It’s about the power of preparation, prepare for these guys the right way, and we understand what’s at stake, but we understood all year,” he said. “I mean, it’s business as usual.”

BOWL PICTURE

The conference’s bowl lineup won’t be settled until Sunday, when the eight bowls affiliated with the ACC make their selections.

Assuming Florida State beats Duke, the Seminoles will go to the BCS Championship game. The next domino will be the Orange Bowl. The Orange could take Clemson as an at-large team, so long as it remains in the top 14 in BCS rankings. The bowl’s tie with the ACC — it has taken the ACC champion since the 2006 season and has a similar 12-year arrangement starting next year — may influence the decision, although Clemson athletic director Dan Radakovich urged Tigers fans this week to show their interest in buying tickets for the Orange Bowl.

If Clemson goes to the Orange, Miami appears to be the likely next pick, by the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Duke and Virginia Tech likely would split the Russell Athletic (Orlando, Fla.) and Sun (El Paso, Texas). The Belk (Charlotte, N.C.) would probably choose between North Carolina and Georgia Tech, with the Music City (Nashville, Tenn.) taking the other.

The AdvoCare V100 (Shreveport, La.) reportedly has Maryland, Boston College, Syracuse and Pittsburgh as options. The bowl reportedly has interest in Notre Dame on the other side, since the SEC can’t supply a bowl-eligible team, and could try to set up a Boston College-Notre Dame game. The Military (Annapolis, Md.), the last bowl in the ACC lineup, could go for Maryland before it departs for the Big Ten.

ODDS AND ENDS