No surprise here. Punter Travis Baltz and linebacker Alex Wujciak were the two Terps named to the ACC’s Preseason All-ACC Team yesterday.

The only other Terp with a shot was likely running back Da’Rel Scott, who finished 2008 as a first-teamer. Georgia Tech’s Jonathan Dwyer, the preseason player of the year, was a lock for one of the running back spots. Clemson’s C.J. Spiller took the other.

Clemson is putting on one of those Heisman public relations campaigns for Spiller. While Spiller is deserving of the first team selection over Scott and Virginia Tech’s Darren Evans, the hype machine surrounding him is becoming too much.

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I do hate to interrupt the on-going Kraut-a-thon that has been taking charge of the blog since he headed down to Greensboro for the weekend. But there has also been a lot going on in the Terrapin baseball team’s world.

The most important of which is the recent hiring of former Pepperdine pitching coach Sean Kenny to fill the same position in College Park. Kenny has spent the last six seasons with the Waves, a perennial NCAA Tournament contender and represents another coup for the program.

Although the Athletics Department deserves obvious credit for helping bring Kenny into the fold, head coach Erik Bakich also did a lot of work in finding and luring Kenny, who Bakich called “his first choice from the very beginning.”

In 2009 the Waves pitching staff produced a 4.52 ERA under Kenny and the team’s ERA was 4.82 the year before that, but Bakich said he wasn’t concerned with the statistics. He said Kenny came heavily recommended and is a huge hire going forward for the team.

“He is a terrific coach and is one of the most well-respected pitching coach’s on the West Coast,” Bakich said. “When I spoke with [UCLA coach] John Savage he told me hiring Sean would be a no-brainer, and we are really excited to have him on board for the next year.”

Bakich said that Kenny is also an excellent recruiter and pointed to the consistent level of talent at Pepperdine as an example of this. However, while recruiting is always important, the Terps’ current pitching staff has a lot of potential for improvement and Kenny’s ability to help that process will be crucial.

Returnees Brett Harman, Ian Schwalenberg, and Matt Fullerton all showed flashes of potential last season, and if reliever Adam Kolarek continues to pitch the way he has this summer, he could join with closer Dan Gentzler to form a potent back end of the bullpen.

Kenny will have even more to work with if last season’s ace, Scott Swinson, returns for his senior season as expected. And according to an Athletics Department source, Bakich is in the process of securing commitments from some other highly-touted prospects.

Development should be a top priority and although Bakich told me it is hard for any of the coaching staff to get started before school starts, he also said he had no doubts about Kenny’s coaching prowess.

“Just look at the success he has had as a pitching coach over his career, he has helped out a lot of really good pitchers,” Bakich said. “Once we get on campus and get situated in the offices and meet the players the process of evaluating our team will be immediate.”

Michael Lemaire was the Terrapin baseball beat writer for the 2009 season. He can be reached at lemairedbk@gmail.com

GREENSBORO, N.C. – No major news from Friedgen during his roughly hour and 15 minute session with the media today. Around 7 p.m., as thunderstorms roared outside, we lost power in the conference room. That pretty much ended things.

Among the topics discussed (and there were many, many topics believe me) were Friedgen’s diet, Friedgen’s philosophical musings on today’s generation of youth and finally some football!

Follow me to the jump for some key tidbits.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – It starts with a Labor Day matchup against hated rival and ACC Atlantic Division favorite Florida State.

Then comes a visit from Georgia Tech. You know, the same Yellow Jacket team that beat Miami 41-23 last season, running for an astounding 472 yards in the process.

If that wasn’t enough, the Hurricanes then travel to Blacksburg to face the conference favorite Hokies, who could be a top-10 team if they beat Alabama in their season-opener.

Oh, and just for kicks, the ‘Canes are gonna round out the first month of their season not with a nice, leisurely contest against a Florida International or Florida Atlantic type. No, in the fourth game of their season Miami will welcome Oklahoma, one of the three best teams in the nation.

Hey, at least two of those games come at home. Right Randy Shannon?

The thing of it is, many are predicting this year’s team as Miami’s best squad in some time. If they can get through those first four with two wins, they could be in for a big second half.

Aaron Kraut is The Diamondback’s sports editor. He can be reached at akrautdbk@gmail.com.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – The good thing about this event (for the journalists anyway) is we get to ask a lot of questions of players and coaches on the other teams.

The players might not enjoy that as much. For an hour and 45 minutes they have to answer the same questions repeatedly, and pretend to care about the players on rival teams by giving funny and “blogable” anecdotes.

Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner was one of the best talkers in the room yesterday. Here he discusses the competitiveness within the conference and what the Demon Deacons need to do to have a successful season.

While most would pencil in Wake ahead of the Terps this season, they are still two teams more or less on the same level as programs, so what they’re doing always interests me.

Aaron Kraut is The Diamondback’s sports editor. He can be reached at akrautdbk@gmail.com.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Whatever individual storylines came out of Day One of the ACC’s media gathering here in Greensboro, they all pretty much fell under the same general theme: How strong (or weak) is the ACC as a football conference?

When Commissioner John Swofford put together plans for ACC expansion more than five years ago, grabbing Miami, Virginia Tech and later Boston College out of the Big East, his vision wasn’t just to create a cash-generating conference championship game. Swofford wanted to solidify the ACC, long known for its basketball tradition, as one of the top football conferences in the nation.

So when you read about the prevalence of quarterbacks at yesterday’s media day or the supposed Heisman-level talents of backs Jonathan Dwyer and C.J. Spiller, what you are reading is a referendum of sorts on the league’s overall performance.

Returning starting quarterbacks signal stability for a program at the game’s most valuable position. Talented skill players on a national scale reflect, well, talent.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – As the Terps struggled down the stretch in 2008, much of the blame was directed at Defensive Coordinator Chris Cosh.

Often a pet peeve of message board enthusiasts and Terp loyalists, Cosh’s zone coverage, absorb pressure rather than create pressure way of doing things wasn’t working. It even got to the point where Cosh’s wife was defending him in the media.

Ralph Friedgen pledged his support, but the writing was on the wall. After the regular season and before the Terps’ bowl game in Boise, it was announced Cosh was off to Kansas State.

Enter Don Brown.

Brown’s basic, 4-3 attack-oriented system drew praise from the players during the spring. So it’s no surprise that senior cornerback Nolan Carroll said he preferred the new system over the old during today’s 2009 ACC Football Kickoff. Here he talks about the specific changes facing him and the rest of his teammates in the Terps’ secondary.

Aaron Kraut is The Diamondback’s sports editor. He can be reached at akrautdbk@gmail.com.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – It’s not often that you’ll see a 6-foot-4, 220 pound ACC quarterback walking through the halls of Congress, answering phones and getting coffee for a member of the House of Representatives.

But besides being the Terps’ signal-caller, senior Chris Turner is also a government and politics major. So that means doing the Capitol Hill internship thing like everybody else. Turner is interning this summer for Congressman Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland’s 5th District and the House Majority Leader.

Turner’s intense interest in politics is well-known at this point. During last year’s election, he talked about how he, as a Barack Obama supporter, often debated the issues with fellow quarterback Jordan Steffy, a backer of John McCain. Ironic when you think about it.

Now, Turner is doing it for real, or kind of. Like most interns, he’s assigned to the grunt work: which includes the phone, coffee and mail duties. And the beautiful thing is he said he’s such a political junkie that he loves every second of it.

“It’s funny to compare how serious politics is and how serious football is,” Turner said. “Depending on who you talk to, they’re both pretty big deals.”

Later, Turner said of his experience, “there’s more to life than football.” Great perspective from the Terps’ QB. And don’t worry, he said he’s still getting enough time in on the offseason training front. After all, his boss graduated from the university. It’s safe to say he understands the importance of Turner getting to those summer 7-on-7 workouts in time.

Aaron Kraut is the The Diamondback’s sports editor. He can be reached at akrautdbk@gmail.com.

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GREENSBORO, N.C. – Hello from hot and muggy Greensboro and the Grandover Resort & Conference Center, home of the 2009 ACC Football Kickoff, or simply, ACC media days.

I hope to grab some good content today and tomorrow, not just from the Terps but from around the league. Chris Turner and cornerback Nolan Carroll will be speaking to the media today starting at 2:30 p.m. Coach Ralph Friedgen’s turn is tomorrow a little later in the evening.

I’ll get their thoughts on the upcoming season and see how much they pay attention to the preseason hype, or lack thereof, surrounding them so far. Follow us on Twitter at for more updates.

Aaron Kraut is The Diamondback’s sports editor. He can be reached at akrautdbk@gmail.com.