"I've noticed a huge difference in the level of athlete that the ACC schools have been able to recruit since Florida State has joined the league and that includes at the quarterback position," says Georgia Tech coach George O'Leary. "Because Florida State plays such an attacking style of defense, you need a quarterback that can hurt the other team with his arm as well as his feet."

He makes a good point. O'Leary has one of the nation's finest signalcallers in elusive Joe Hamilton. North Carolina State is home to Jamie Barnette, who needs to throw for just 2,500 yards this fall to be the ACC's all-time leading passer. North Carolina sophomore Ronald Curry is a superstar-in-the-making after producing a team-best 1,394 yards as a true freshman.

But it doesn't stop there. Duke has brought back the ACC's all-time passing yardage leader, Ben Bennett, as its offensive coordinator as the Blue Devils install a carbon copy of Florida's wide-open passing attack called the "Airborne" offense. Heck, even traditional ACC patsy Wake Forest has landed a gem in 6-foot-4 true freshman C.J. Leak, who chose the Demon Deacons over Notre Dame, among others. And old Bobby Bowden has a Heisman Trophy candidate under center in Chris Weinke (who possesses a current streak of 218 straight passes without an interception), if he is 100 percent following neck surgery.

However, like an arms race, it's a question of how many total weapons you have, and nobody has an arsenal as deep as Florida State, which might have its most talented team in Bobby Bowden's tenure.

"If he loses a game (with this team), he ought be shot," quipped Tommy Bowden, Bobby's son and the first-year coach at Clemson, at ACC Media Day.

		For those who enjoy the constant reference to Florida State's ACC dominance, who thereby judge the league to be of inferior quality, here is a sobering reality: Florida State would almost certainly dominate any league in similar fashion. This is a program that has finished fourth or better in the national polls in each of the last 12 seasons. In my 45 years of football, I have never seen such national dominance. One could argue that a playoff system would have allowed the Seminoles to be No. 1 in about half of those years. The bottom line is that Florida State has been beating everyone else at the same rate it beats the ACC. So when Bobby Bowden returns 18 starters, including all specialists, there is no question about which team deserves the marquee lights on both the conference and the national billboards. Suddenly dangerous Georgia Tech, working on an eight-game road win streak, seems to have the best chance to end Florida State's 40-game home win streak on Sept. 11. All of Joe Hamilton's magic and several turnovers will be required to pull it off. The epic Bowden family confrontation, the first father-son match in Division I-A history, is going to happen, but not with Auburn, not with Terry, and not in Tallahassee. The game will be played on Oct. 23, at Clemson, against Tommy, the latest flash of Bowden genius. I think Clemson is the conference dark horse, but that will not be enough to whip Daddy this time. It will be Florida State on top, with Georgia Tech, Clemson and Virginia a quantum leap behind in 1999.

The younger Bowden is only half-kidding. The only major question that the Seminoles have is the health of Weinke, their 27-year-old quarterback. Weinke, of course, underwent spinal surgery last November to fuse two vertebrae in his neck, repair a ruptured disk and a remove a bone chip that had been lodged against a nerve in his neck.

The surgery was considered a success, and Weinke has returned to lead the Seminoles through informal summer workouts and is under center now as FSU prepares for its season opener later this month against Louisiana Tech. The only problem? He's wearing a green jersey in practice which means he's not allowed to be tackled, leaving many to wonder how he'll react he's finally hit.

If he's healthy, no one will be able to cut off the 'Noles at the, er, pass. Wideout Peter Warrick has added five pounds of muscle to his frame and will become an instant millionaire at next spring's NFL draft. The entire offensive line returns intact, and the defensive line has two bonafide All-American candidates in Jamal Reynolds and Corey Simon.

The team most likely to unseat Florida State is Georgia Tech, thanks to a high-octane offense that returns nine starters and averaged 35.5 points per game. The man at the controls is Hamilton, who appears to be generously listed at 5-foot-10 in the program but is one of the most dangerous performers in the college game. Hamilton threw for 2,166 yards and 17 TDs last season and is poised for an even bigger senior season, thanks in part to the return of go-to guy Dez White (46 catches, 973 yards, 9 TDs).

"I don't know how you stop Joe Hamilton, unless you knock him out of the game," says O'Leary, whose team went 10-2 and shared the ACC title with Florida State last fall. "Because he can hurt you in the running game, he can hurt you in the passing game and he's very confident."

He's not the only confident quarterback. In fact, everywhere you look on Tobacco Road, there seems to be a playmaker under center. For instance, in just about any other league, guys like Barnette or Curry would be on everybody's lips. Here, they're lucky if they make honorable mention all-league.

Barnette enters his fourth year as the Wolfpack starter. He led the ACC in total offense last year and might be the nation's most underrated quarterback. Much like many of the quarterbacks who were plucked high in last year's draft (Donovan McNabb, Akili Smith and Daunte Culpepper), Curry fits the 21st century prototype for college quarterbacks. He's got size (6-3, 205), foot speed and a bevy of guys to throw to, including an All-America candidate in tight end Alge Crumpler.

"Most of the teams in the league either have an accomplished guy under center or a young guy who they're very high on," says O'Leary. "Because of this group of talented quarterbacks, 1999 has the potential to be one of the best in recent ACC history."