ACC RELEASE – Boston College senior linebacker Mark Herzlich (Wayne, Pa.) and NC State senior linebacker Nate Irving (Wallace, N.C.), a pair of hard-hitting defensive standouts who each rebounded from life-threatening situations, have been named the recipients of the 2010 Brian Piccolo Award, Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner John Swofford announced Friday.

The Piccolo Award has been given annually since 1972 in memory of the late Brian Piccolo to the “most courageous” football player in the ACC. Piccolo was the ACC Athlete of the Year in 1965 and played for the Chicago Bears before his career was cut short when he was stricken with cancer. His courageous fight against that disease was an inspiration to the Bears and the entire football community.

This year’s Award marks the third time two student-athletes shared the award. Irving is the fourth NC State student-athlete to be honored with the Picccolo Award, joining former teammate Toney Baker, who received the award last year, Scott Adell (1991) and Ralph Stringer (1977), as past Wolfpack honorees. Herzlich becomes the first Boston College student-athlete to be honored with the Piccolo.

In May of 2009, Herzlich was diagnosed with Ewings Sarcoma in his left thigh. Ewings is an aggressive cancer which attacks both soft tissue and bone. He underwent extensive radiation and chemotherapy in the months following his diagnosis. Once the cancer was controlled, a titanium rod was also inserted into his left leg to stabilize the bone. Once cleared, he began a rehab program to restore his lower body strength. This past summer, probably as a by-product of his aggressive rehab, Herzlich developed a fracture in his right foot. Despite this setback, Herzlich was able to start and compete in Boston College’s 2010 season opener against Weber State. On October 5, Herzlich suffered a broken bone in his left hand, resulting in a cast which has basically made him play “one-handed” this fall.

Still, Herzlich has responded to be Boston College’s third-leading tackler on the nation’s top ranked defense against the run. Herzlich has recorded 54 tackles this year, including 41 solo hits, 3.5 for loss. Despite the “club cast” on his hand, he has four pass interceptions, five pass deflections and one forced fumble.

NC State’s Irving was severely injured in a single car motor vehicle accident on June 28, 2009. Irving suffered a compound fracture of the tibia, a broken rib, a punctured lung and a separated shoulder. The fracture of the tibia required a surgical insertion of an intermedullary nail to allow proper alignment and healing of the bone. Irving faced a length rehab due to the severity of his injuries and the quantity of body parts that were affected.

Due to an extensive rehab program, Irving was able to return to football activities in March of 2010. He has enjoyed a sometimes spectacular senior season as the 2nd leading tackler for an NC State defense which ranks 3rd nationally in sacks and 4th in tackles for loss. He ranks 4th nationally in tackles for loss with 19 and has five quarterback sacks among his 85 total tackles.

Check out the Outer Loop Sports Show online as high school sports experts discuss the football playoffs, including Wake Forest-Rolesville’s big win over Garner and Panther Creek’s high-scoring win over Fayetteville Seventy-First.

Outer Loop Sports Show: December 1, 2010 from Outer Loop Sports Show on Vimeo.

ACC RELEASE – Virginia Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor, who has led the No. 12 Hokies to 10 consecutive victories and his third berth in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game following an 0-2 start, is the ACC Player of the Year for 2010.

Taylor, a senior, was the choice of 27 of the 57 members of the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association (ACSMA) that voted. Russell Wilson of NC State was second with 19 votes.

Clemson defensive end Da’Quan Bowers won ACC Defensive Player of the Year.

Taylor, also the offensive player of the year and the league’s first-team All-ACC quarterback, has played for four years, and set himself up for a big finish this summer.

“I think I put in the work this offseason and previous years to come out and have a big season and I think it just paid off,” Taylor said of his All-ACC selection.

The Hokies will play No. 20 Florida State for the championship on Saturday night in Charlotte, N.C., with the winner earning the conference’s berth in the Orange Bowl.

Taylor said he will approach this game like any other – with high expectations.

“I challenge myself every week to be the best player on the field,” he said. “That’s my mindset going into the week and when I step onto the field, I want to let it be known that I was the best player on the field in that game.”

Taylor was the MVP of the 2008 ACC Football Championship Game against Boston College. He is the first Hokies player to win the ACC Player of the Year honor since quarterback Bryan Randall in 2004.

Taylor leads the ACC in passing efficiency, having completed better than 60 percent of his attempts while throwing for 20 touchdowns and just four interceptions. He also is the Hokies’ second-leading rusher with 613 yards, and has two runs of more than 70 yards.

Bowers, who led the nation with 15½ sacks, received 36 of 55 votes to finish ahead of Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly, the nation’s leading tackler, who had 14 votes.

Voting for the 2010 Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year awards, as voted on by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association (ACSMA)

North Carolina basketball has committed 73 turnovers in the last four games, including 18 turnovers in a 79-67 loss at Illinois Tuesday night.

Also troubling is the free throw shooting. UNC missed nine of 17 foul shots.

Harrison Barnes, the heralded rookie, was taunted by Illinois fan as being “overrated.” He hit only two of nine shots. UNC coach Roy Williams said Barnes hasn’t found his niche yet, isn’t playing smoothly and needs to move better without the ball.

Williams said the Tar Heels need to do a better job of getting the ball to Barnes while guard Kendall Marshall said that the Tar Heels are getting the ball to Barnes too far away from the basket.

Carolina is now 4-3 on the season – that’s already a third of the number of losses that Barnes had in four years of high school ball.

For more on the game itself, please click here.

Another penalty kick shootout has given the North Carolina men’s soccer team a 5-4 NCAA playoff victory and sends them to quarterfinals for the third straight year. UNC’s Enzo Martinez was the hero Sunday.

Read Tim Candon’s piece in the Raleigh News & Observer here.

While North Carolina had to overcome the College of Charleston’s Andrew Goudelock – something the Heels couldn’t do last year – to win 74-69 at home tonight, Goudelock only hit 11 of 27 points and he went 10 minutes without a point. Dexter Strickland mainly had the responsibility in covering Goudelock.

During the two minutes in which Goudelock hit 13 points, including three threes, he really had no open shots. He just hit very, very long or tightly-covered shots en route to a game-high 28 ponts.

Carolina got into the more uptempo, fast-breaking style in the second half and tired the Cougars. John Henson led the way with 19 points. With a little better free throw shooting and without those wild threes from Goudelock, it would have been a comfortable margin.

But it wasn’t.

“I loved our poise,” UNC coach Roy Williams said. “They go up five and Goudelock’s making some unbelievable shots, and we kept playing. I don’t want to call a timeout and have the kids panic. I think you get stronger through the course of your program if the kids can figure it out themselves.”

Even though Williams seems to be trying to inject confidence in his young team for the way they persevered, it’s going to be tough for the Heels to win at Illinois Tuesday.

Click here for a game story and click here for a photo gallery.

In the weekly broadcast TV ratings, three of the top 10 shows, including the No. 1 show for the week, were National Football League related. In the weekly cable TV ratings, ESPN, on the strength of pro and college football, was the top-ranked network.

Glee, at No. 3, is the top-ranked broadcast show not related to sports. The top five cable networks for the week, in order, are ESPN, USA, Disney, TBS and FoxNews. The NFL Network, which is not available in all markets, was still the 24th highest rated network. FoxNews was the only news channel represented in the top 25. Hey, football is the news this time of year.

Should be clearing but cold for tonight’s high school football playoffs. I went 5-1 in predictions for last week’s games and 12-1 the week before for a 17-2 mark which is close to 90 percent. In bold below are the predicted winners for tonight’s games. Games tonight are at 7:30 p.m. My record of predicting games in the regular season was 97-23, which is an 81 percent accuracy.

Panther Creek at Seventy-First

East Bladen at Carrboro

Cedar Ridge at Northwood

Northern Guilford at Cardinal Gibbons

Lee County at Hillside

Southeast Raleigh at New Bern

Garner at Wake Forest-Rolesville

Check the scores in our Sports Roundup on the left navigation bar. Good luck to Cardinal Gibbons – I hope I’m wrong… again.