Ever want to torture a college football die-hard (rhetorical question)? Tel him or her that one of their school's prized recruits decommitted and then watch their heart sink. It's brutal.

So imagine how things must be for recently hired Nebraska coach Bo Pelini and his staff to have been witness to 15 decommits within their upcoming recruiting class. That's soul-crushing stuff. Their task was never easy to begin with, as Pelini wasn't hired until Dec. 9 with the program in disarray. Throw in Nebraska's wintery weather rounding into form just as the new staff came aboard and you start to see the difficult recruiting task they faced with less than three months to build their first recruiting class.

At present, Nebraska has 24 non-binding commitments and one player already enrolled, as the Huskers' class ranks 27th nationally in the most recent Rivals.com recruiting rankings.

Granted, one could use the word "inconsistent" to accurately describe the play of both Maryland and NC State this season, but looking at Saturday's tilt between the two, NC State had three things going for them: momentum, homefield advantage and, most likely, a better working relationship between their QB and head coach. Seemingly healthy for the first time all season, the Terps made good on Ralph Friedgen's reputation with a frighteningly balanced offensive attack that shut things down rather early for the Wolfpack en route to a 37-0 decimation. Led by a Cerberus attack of Da'Rel Scott (Plymouth-Whitemarsh stand up!), Lance Ball and Keon Lattimore, MD racked up 249 yards on the ground compared to NC State's 10 and Chris Turner an almost mistake-free game, throwing for 206 yards on 19-24 passing.

For Maryland, this puts them back at 6-6, indicative of their up and down year. Fortunately for them, they've become the eighth bowl eligible team for the ACC, which has eight bowl tie-ins...meaning that they're the best bet to play in the Roady's Humanitarian bowl, provided there's no funny business with the selection process. They'll most likely get a crack at Boise State (though the Aloha Bowl might come calling for them) or Nevada.

ACC official Ron Cherry is the Shakespeare of our time, inventing jargon at his whim. I mean, giving someone the business is common enough but not as applied to officiating.

Enjoy a fourth quarter moment of levity from yesterday's Maryland - North Carolina State game.

For far too long, the Roady's Humanitarian(that's the new name)/MPC Computers Bowl has been seen as the college football equivalent of community service. I mean, it's a good thing and all, but more often than not, you have to take a big picture view to derive any pleasure and for the most part, it doubles as punishment. This was a rep that got cemented after the 2004-2005 stretch where Virginia and Boston College lugged their Top 25 rankings into no-win situations due to the mishegas of the ACC bowl selection process. In fact, thanks to Virginia, the ACC instituted a rule where bowl selection committees can no longer pass over a team for another one with two fewer conference wins.

But if you want to find a squad that would have no problem shuffling off to Boise (possibly to the chagrin of their fanbase), look no further than Raleigh, where 55th-year senior Darrell Blackman has given typically backhanded praise for their postseason home, should they triumph over Maryland.

"If the opportunity comes, yeah, I'd like to go," a smiling Blackman said Monday. "If it's for another football game, yeah."

So to make that clear- as long as NC State isn't there for a team-building ski trip or attempt to visit the boyhood home of Doug Martsch, Blackman's cool with it. As Dirk Diggler once said, feel my heat. Of course, there's also the matter of Tom O'Brien continuing his streak of bowl bids, but if you can remember anywhere near half of BC's postseason results under TOB, just know that everyone is sick of hearing about your Beantown pride. However, there stands a possibility that the Roady's Humanitarian Bowl (you should always call it by its proper name) could land a marquee name after all. After all, where is the loser of the Hawaii/Boise State game going to end up?

So yeah, I'm as guilty as anyone of wondering whether NC State had surpassed Wake Forest as the predominant football team in the state of North Carolina (dear lord, that feels weird to write...until you realize that ECU had played better than any other team in the state except Appalachian). The Demon Deacons were coming off a two-game losing streak that pretty much ran the gamut from heartbreaker to backbreaker, falling in the last seconds to Virginia and getting utterly decimated by Clemson, whereas NC State had righted the ship with four straight wins.

With Humanitarian and Meineke Bowl reps in attendance, Wake sent an emphatic corrective to the doubters (guilty as charged) with a convincing win over the Wolfpack, who play Maryland next week in what will most likely be a bowl elimination game. As for Wake, even with a loss against Vandy next week, the Meineke Bowl seems like a reasonable destination for a 7-5 team. Since Virginia went to the initial two (back when it was called the Continental Tire Bowl), they've selected teams in a manner that have led it to be called (by me and likely few else) the Carolina Invitational. Besides the fact that they bring a better team to the table than either Maryland or NC State (the winner likely headed to Boise), Wake won't have to worry about mobilizing their relatively tiny alumni base to put on a reasonably good show in Charlotte.

At one point, we had to wonder whether East Carolina deserved to be an ACC team more than a good portion of actual ACC teams. And as far as NC State...although you could usually rely on Tom O'Brien for the most joyless 7-9 win seasons possibly, the Wolfpack looked to regress even further from the Chuck Amato teams that seemed to embody the worst aspects of Florida State teams of the '90s.

But you have to wonder if the Pack are turning things around way faster than expected. Following a convincing win against ECU, they managed to beat Virginia at their own game by scoring a late touchdown to seal a close win. And now, even though the Orange Bowl isn't the forbidding Miami enclave it used to be, beating them in OT would have to constitute a huge leap forward for the Pack. Well, it wasn't pretty, but NC State is now putting themselves in position for an unthinkable bowl bid, moving to 4-5 with a win against Miami, due in no small part to Kyle Freeman's astounding 1-14, 3 INT performance at QB.

Granted, they were outgained by Miami and needed a flubbed 27-yard field goal in OT to get it done, but you can't argue with a +3 turnover margin on the road. Better yet, look at the remaining schedule: a homer against the promising, but inconsistent UNC, a trip to nearby Wake Forest and closing out against the reeling Maryland Terrapins. 6-6 is probable, but 7-5 is even possible, resulting in likely the most appreciated trip to Boise we've seen in some time.

Miami lost to NC State in OT. Final score: 19-16.

It was an ugly game start to finish, but notable mainly for the fact that Miami has set the bar historically low for quarterback play: starter Kirby Freeman, stepping in for an injured Kyle Wright, completed one pass the entire game.

Completed... one... pass.

Not that his passes weren't caught; 4 out of 14 landed in the arms of a football player. The problem? 3 of them wore NC State uniforms.

At least the pass Freeman did complete (to his own teammate) was a good one, an 84-yard completion to Darnell Jenkins which resulted in a touchdown for the Hurricanes.

As Miami heads down the stretch of their 2007 season, so too does the Orange Bowl's farewell tour. The incredible achievements of legendary teams from the past still resonate within the confines of the aging and rickety stadium, but they seem like distant memories now. The Hurricanes have lost three of their last four games, two of them coming at the "O-B". Only their matchup with #23 Virginia remains before Miami moves to Dolphin Stadium in 2008.

While Virginia was riding a 7 game winning streak, there were a multitude of reasons to hesitate to take them seriously. Starting with the opening day humiliation to Wyoming, through winning the last 3 games by 4 points. The Hoos never looked like a top team in the ACC. Still, they were (see SMQ, for a very plausible theory on that). They were 4-0 in the conference and always staying close in an entire game before finally pulling it out at the end.

It looked like a similar story in Raleigh to play NC State. For three quarters, Virginia trailed, but never by too much. They were usually within a single score of tying or taking the lead. That's just what they did early in the 4th quarter. Virginia's QB Jameel Sewell was having statistically one of his best games with a career high in passing yards (260) and nearly 300 total yards along with two TDs. Virginia took a 24-23 lead when Mikell Simpson took the ball in for a score.

NC State, however, continued to exploit a poor Virginia pass defense. QB Dan Evans kept tossing it up to Donald Bowens who piled up 202 receiving yards and 2 TDs, including a 30-yard catch to give NC State the lead once more, 29-24.

The Virginia luck ran out shortly after that, when Sewell left the game with a leg injury. After that, the Virginia offense completely stalled. Nothing. The Cavs went 3 and out on their next series. Then back-up QB Peter Lalich was sacked 3 times in their final series to end their chances.

Four ACC teams entered the season under new head coaches. The expectations for the new men in charge varied from pundit to pundit and program to program. With the season at its midpoint, it seems like a good time to check each honcho's progress.

Jeff Jagodzinski, Boston College
What people were saying before the season: After eight seasons away from the college game, Jags might have the steepest learning curve. It was also questioned if he'd be able to fill Tom O'Brien's shoes.
What they are saying now: Hmm, maybe this guy can coach? There are still many who are questioning how much of BC's current success should be credited to Jags and how much to the senior-laden team left behind by O'Brien.
Prognosis: Jags is clearly off to the best start of any new coach in college football. BC's schedule gets considerably tougher down the stretch. If he gets the Eagles to the ACC championship he'll probably be named ACC coach of the year.

I suppose when you have a career night, you're allowed to speak your mind. In this case, Chase Daniel is taking full advantage and was a tad uncomplimentary toward the Nebraska defense.

"They're very stubborn," Daniel said. "[Nebraska defensive coordinator Kevin] Cosgrove's a very stubborn guy. It's always been that way. ... That's just how he is, that's how they are. They're a bunch of confident guys in what they do, and they felt they had the best chance doing that, so they stuck with it."

"You can't just play one defense the whole entire game," Daniel added. "That's like high school stuff that I faced in high school, so it's nothing new for me."

Ouch. Talk about kicking us when we're down. High school stuff? Like prom dates, and bad acne? High school stuff?

But dammit, Chase Daniel is absolutely right. Kevin Cosgrove is stubborn and the three-man rush the Huskers utilized was less effective than over-the-counter bug spray at Jacobs Field. Realizations like this have led to quite the internal debate – Is this year's Nebraska team really better than Callahan's first team in 2004? Offensively? Probably. Defensively? No way.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go listen to Morrissey and play with knives. You know – high school stuff.