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.

Earlier this week in Greensboro, N.C., for the ACC Football Kickoff, Spiller was the center of attention.

Reporters were two, sometimes three-deep at the Clemson table to talk to him throughout the roughly two hour media session. He even became something of a spokesman for the quality of the entire conference. His comments have been featured in papers and websites up and down the east coast.

Let’s not forget about Dwyer (and I realize ACC writers didn’t when they pegged him POY) but while Spiller gets extra attention because of his versatility, coach Paul Johnson’s guy is truly great.

In a triple-option offense against ACC defensive lines and linebackers, Dwyer ran for 1,395 yards with 12 touchdowns at a 7.0 yard per carry clip.

Now that’s production worthy of Heisman talk.

It’d also be prudent to pay attention to Evans and Scott. That’s a dangerous quartet capable of rivaling the top group of backs from any conference.

Add in Miami’s Javarris James and Wake Forest’s Josh Adams, both coming back from injuries in 2008, and the ACC should clearly be the best conference for running backs in the country.

That’s something you haven’t been able to say about the league in quite some time. And it’s not just because of Spiller.

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

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.