The Greatest By Number

Now this is a great dog-days-of-summer college football piece: Prime Numbers. ESPN's Ivan Maisel - one of the primo college football writers today - developed a great offseason debate topic. In short, he goes through each uniform number, 1-100 (yes, 100), and selects the best player to ever wear that number, along with a few honorable mentions. This being an ACC blog, I'll espouse on the ACC players named in Maisel's collection:

Winners
#2- Deion Sanders, CB/KR, Florida State
#17- Charlie Ward, QB, Florida State
#22- Doug Flutie, QB, Boston College
#28- Warrick Dunn, TB, Florida State
#36- Bennie Blades, S, Miami-FL
#43- Terry Kinard, DB, Clemson
#47- Michael Irvin, WR, Miami-FL
#56- Micheal Barrow, LB, Miami-FL
#58- Peter Boulware, DE, Florida State
#66- Banks McFadden, HB, Clemson
#66- William Perry, DT, Clemson
#67- Russell Maryland, DT, Miami-FL
#76- Warren Sapp, DT, Miami-FL
#78- Bruce Smith, DT, Virginia Tech
#94- Randy White, DT, Maryland
#96- Cortez Kennedy, DT, Miami-FL

Honorable Mentions
#3- Scott Bentley, K, Florida State
#3- Homer Jordan, QB, Clemson
#4- Steve Walsh, QB, Miami-FL
#5- Edgerrin James, TB, Miami-FL
#7- Michael Vick, QB, Virginia Tech
#9- Peter Warrick, WR/KR, Florida State
#11- Ken Dorsey, QB, Miami-FL
#13- Gino Torretta, QB, Miami-FL
#14- Vinny Testaverde, QB, Miami-FL
#16- Chris Weinke, QB, Florida State
#18- Roman Gabriel, QB, NC State
#20- Bernie Kosar, QB, Miami-FL
#22- Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice, HB, North Carolina
#25- Fred Biletnikoff, WR, Florida State
#26- Sean Taylor, S, Miami-FL
#27- Terrell Buckley, CB, Florida State
#31- Dre Bly, CB, North Carolina
#38- Sebastian Janikowski, K, Florida State
#45- Jeff Davis, LB, Clemson
#49- Julius Peppers, DE, North Carolina
#50- Ron Simmons, NG, Florida State
#50- Jim Ritcher, OL, NC State
#52- Ray Lewis, LB, Miami-FL
#53- Clay Shiver, C, Florida State
#53- Corey Simon, DL, Florida State
#55- Marvin Jones, LB, Florida State
#59- Andy Bershak, E, North Carolina
#62- Jack Scarbath, QB, Maryland
#68- Mike McGee, G, Duke
#73- Jim Dombrowski, OT, Virginia
#76- Warren Sapp, DT, Miami-FL
#78- Bruce Smith, DT, Virginia Tech
#84- Carroll Dale, E, Virginia Tech
#85- Andre Wadsworth, DE, Florida State
#89- Ted Hendricks, DE, Miami-FL
#94- Randy White, DT, Maryland
#96- Cortez Kennedy, DT, Miami-FL
#98- Lawrence Taylor, LB, North Carolina

Thoughts
...15 of the 100 "winner" spots were taken up by players from ACC schools
...Miami-FL leads the league with 6 "winners" and 11 "honorable mentions"; Florida State is second with 4 "winners" and 11 "honorable mentions"
...Georgia Tech and Wake Forest are MIA on the survey, with no players mentioned
...Speaking of GT, how in the world was Joe Hamilton (#14) left off?
...Omission that nearly destroys the credibility of the whole survey: Derrick Brooks (#10), LB, Florida State (only a two-time All-American and defensive star of the '93 national champs)
...Inclusion that nearly destroys the credibility of the whole survey: Scott Bentley (#3), K, FSU (outside of the title winning kick against Nebraska in '93, was benched and/or ineffective much of his career in Tallahassee)
...Just because he was a jackass leading up to the '00 Sugar Bowl (and did next to nothing in that title game) doesn't mean Virginia Tech's Corey Moore (#99) wasn't dominating enough to be on the list
...Missing: Wolfpack stars Torry Holt (#81) and Philip Rivers(#17), should've been no-brainer honorable mentions
...Lawrence Taylor (#98) and Chris Weinke (#16) should have been runaway winners in their respective numbers