North Carolina's ACC Football Teams Look Promising

There is good news all around for the ACC's North Carolina football teams.

Every team has the potential of making a bowl game next year, including Duke.

I did not misspeak when I said Duke, but more on them in a moment.

Wake Forest, Duke, NC State, and UNC all have the talent and the coaching to have a successful season all at the same time. Here is a break down of each team.

Wake Forest

Hands down, Wake, over the last three or four seasons, has been the best ACC football team in the state of North Carolina and, at times, the entire ACC. This is despite that fact they are typically never predicted higher than third or worse in their division.

Jim Grobe has taken his team that was at near Duke-low levels 10 years ago and has turned them into a very respected program nationwide.

How does he do it?

Well on paper, he doesn't bring in the biggest or fastest guys, but he makes them into good, if not great, football players. It is well documented that Aaron Curry wasn't even recruited by any other ACC schools, and he has done pretty well.

Expect more of the same from Wake this year. They will be a solid team that will play disciplined football. They also have a pretty good quarterback in Rylie Skinner.

If Wake can choose an offensive scheme that can utilize his arm, we could see big things from him.

North Carolina

Of all the schools, UNC probably lost the most. They lost their three best receivers and some studs from their linebacker corps just to name a few.

Just take a look at the NFL draft board and you can clearly see that the Tarheels lost some significant talent. That is the bad news.

The good new is of course Butch Davis has done as good a job as any recruiting, and if his recruits can produce like they are projected to, look out.

Carolina's history in football lately has been rife with inconsistency. They would have a good year followed by a few really bad years.

Under Davis they have improved each year, and while they may have some growing pains replacing the likes of Hakeem Nicks and Brandon Tate, Davis has enough talent up his sleeve to make this year's version of the Heels dangerous again.

If quarterback T.J. Yates can produce and stay healthy, look out.

N.C. State

The Wolfpack have the potential to be the state's best team and could even compete for the division title.

For State to have the kind of year that Tom O'Brien wants, they will need to stay healthy.

The Wolfpack had worse luck than UNC's Yates with injuries last year, but once healthy they started to show just how good they could be.

In the first half of the Papa John's Bowl, State controlled Rutgers, but when Russell Wilson went down with a knee injury, there was a cavernous drop off at quarterback.

That shouldn't be the case this year with red-shirt freshman Mike Glennon backing up Wilson. Glennon, a prized recruit, could even push Wilson for the starting job if he isn't 100 percent healed from surgery.

The Wolfpack will be deeper and more experienced, and if they stay healthy they will be very good.

Duke

In most years, all but two actually over the last 30, the Blue Devils were hardly worth mentioning in any preseason discussions about ACC football.

Those days appear to be long gone with the arrival of David Cutcliffe, who has stated that he expects Duke to make a bowl this year. When you look at this year's crop of Devils, you'd be hard pressed to argue with the man.

He returns Thaddeus Lewis at quarterback, arguably the second best in the league last year. Though Lewis did loose go-to receiver Eron Riley, he does have Requan Boyette returning in the back field.

That backfield may be the deepest in the league with Boyette joining a stable of backs that got quality playing time when he was injured last season. Combine that with solid contributors back on the defensive side of the football Duke could make some noise.

If they can develop some quality depth, protect Lewis and find someone who he can throw to then Duke's season looks bright. Most importantly this team needs to learn how to win.

Last year they began to learn how to play, and now it becomes all about winning.

Duke may or may not make a bowl, but the days of them being chalked up as an automatic win are over.

And if David Cutcliffe says he expects this year's team to make a bowl appearance, far be it from me to disagree.