ACC Football Kickoff Preview: Players, coaches, and Jim Phillips in the hotseat

The annual midsummer ACC Football Kickoff, the 2022 edition of which is next week in Charlotte, is usually all about the chance for us sportswriter types to talk to coaches and players.

This year, the highlight will almost certainly be watching ACC commissioner Jim Phillips dance around his annual commissioner’s forum.

No golf, as has been the case the past several years, since the event moved up Uptown Charlotte. We used to get to tee it up every other year at Pinehurst out in the middle of nowhere in North Carolina, but that’s a thing of the past.

Which is fine with me. I’m partial to Mark Twain’s view of golf as a good walk spoiled.

Since the Kickoff moved to Charlotte, I gave away my set of clubs that I used literally just that one day a year.

The schools are bringing three kids along with the head coach, and for UVA kids, we get Brennan Armstrong, obviously, along with Keytaon Thompson and Nick Jackson along with the new head coach, Tony Elliott.

Getting a few minutes with each is a priority, but the bigger story will be Phillips, who will be in the crosshairs for the first time publicly since the most recent missiles were fired by the Big Ten in the conference realignment war.

I don’t know that I expect Phillips to have really anything to say on the record that will amount to anything in terms of giving us an indication as to the next steps for the ACC, but it won’t be because the reporters in the room won’t be giving him every opportunity.

For me, I’m also hoping to get a sense of what’s in store for the ACC Network, which recently dropped its signature morning show, “Packer and Durham,” replacing it, for the time being, with reruns of old games.

I haven’t turned the channel on once since the last “Packer and Durham.” I can’t imagine why anybody would tune into ACCN now unless they’re watching for whatever C, D or E game that ESPN didn’t want for its main channel or ESPN2 when football gets going again in a couple of months.

Since the ACC Network is a key way ESPN and the ACC make money, this should be a concern for the brass.

Anyway, lots of questions regarding the business side, and we also get to talk some actual football.

Should be fun.