Thrown for a loss: it should have been a coming-out game for Florida State coach BOBBY BOWDEN in the league he built. Instead, it was the finish to one of the worst weeks of his life

A game he still hasn't grasped. Rix doesn't see blitzes and doesn't hit hot receivers. He doesn't read the field and doesn't go through progressions. He doesn't set his feet, square his shoulders and throw. And he is careless with the football. All issues you'd expect of a true freshman--yet this is the fifth-year senior Bowden has pampered over and over instead of going Woody Hayes on him after another big-game meltdown.

"It was beyond frustration," Bowden says of Rix's performance. "I have to really do some thinking to see what's going on."

This isn't rocket science; it's the reality of Rix. The past three years, it appeared FSU had reached the golden years and was on the way down. But the harsh truth is this: The 'Noles have been just as talented over that span, it's just that Rix has gummed up the works.

After the latest loss to Miami--FSU>s fifth in a row with Rix under center--players and coaches tried to stay positive despite Rix's two-interception, two-fumble performance. There was no locker room finger-pointing at Rix like two years ago, no public bashing of the quarterback who looks the part but rarely plays it when the 'Noles need it most.

Jeff Bowden, Bobby's son and FSU's beleaguered offensive coordinator, tried to sneak out of the Orange Bowl after the game. Seems as though every time Rix plays poorly, Jeff is the scapegoat.

"I'm hot," Jeff said, stammering to find an answer for Rix's performance. "I mean, I'm hot."

He was, in a word, bumfuzzled.

Meanwhile, Bobby Bowden had just finished explaining away another crushing loss to the Canes and a week of tragedy that had affected him like no other. The ACC was celebrating a new era, one it owes to the folksy yet fiery football coach who lifted the league along for the ride over the last decade. Dadgumit, he should've been celebrating, too.

He took off his hat with his signature under the bill and tossed it to a local sportswriter who had covered the team for years.

"Give it to your grandson," he said.

He just can't get a break.

REVENGE of the Big East

The ACC got the hype, the hoopla and the fat television contract. And the Big East? It might get the last laugh.

After losing Miami, Virginia Tech and eventually Boston College (in 2005) to the ACC. the Big East could be sitting at the big-boy table come January--right next to another BCS team at the Orange Bowl national championship game. All it could take is a little payback to the ACC.

West Virginia, the team no one really knows about--or, for that matter, cares about--can take the first step this week toward a run at the Orange Bowl during the biggest game in Morgantown, W.Va., in years: The Mountaineers must beat rival and ACC power Maryland this weekend to set up a cakewalk schedule that could lead them to the BCS' promised land.

"They've handed it to us that last couple of years," says West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. "You don't forget things like that."