He supposedly runs 40 yards in 4.5 seconds.

Even if Michael Vick plays at Miami, will his injured ankle allow him to make plays like this?(AP)

He's a fifth-year senior; he's married; he's a graduate student.

So he shouldn't be rattled by anything.

It all sounds pretty good ... but Dave Meyer will never be Michael Vick.

That's the problem for Virginia Tech and the issue of the week in college football, as the Hokies' 22-year-old backup quarterback is smack in the middle of the national championship race thanks to the great one's gimpy right ankle.

Will he, or won't he? Vick's status for Saturday's Big East clash at Miami: Day-to-day.

At best, he'll miss some practice time, but be ready to start. At worst, Meyer will have to take every snap. Likely, Meyer will have to play some.

The Virginia Tech quarterback situation makes this week's game all the more intriguing. Based on the media and coaches polls, the winner of Virginia Tech-Miami would be in grand shape to play in the national championship Orange Bowl. Ah, but the BCS rankings are a bit more complicated than that (OK, a lot more complicated), so nothing is guaranteed, even if one of these teams win all the rest of their games.

But the loser is definitely out.

Until all the games are played, and the BCS shakes out to make some sense (hopefully), we're left with this truth for this week:

It's showdown week in the Big East and ACC.

And everything else is mostly off the radar.

Which is where Meyer was until last week. He came off the bench in the second half against Pitt, held everything together, and then got a chance to lead a game-winning drive for a field goal in the final five minutes. He did the job, completing 4 of 5 passes on the final possession.

"If (Vick) can't play against Miami, I've now shown that I'm fully capable, with the talent around me, of going down there and keeping our team on track," Meyer said.

Well ... we'll see.

The Hurricanes will be looking to defeat Virginia Tech for the first time since 1994, having lost five in a row in the series. A Miami victory would essentially ensure a league title for the 'Canes, although none of their final trio of games will be a walkover -- Pittsburgh, at Syracuse, Boston College.

A Hokies' victory means their Big East title is all theirs. They're 6-0 in the Big East, and in a scheduling quirk, they finish their conference schedule Saturday.

Further north in Florida on Saturday, Tommy Bowden and Bobby Bowden get together in Tallahassee to determine who in the family has the best team ... which would also mean it is the best team in the ACC. With a victory, papa Bowden's Seminoles claim their ninth consecutive ACC title, and the BCS rankings indicate they could leap into the Orange Bowl to play for their second national championship in a row.

While Clemson's loss last week downgraded the game to something a little less than titanic, the FSU coach said the Tigers just might elevate their game because of that defeat.

"The wounded animal, the play-it-loose-as-a-goose, the nothing-to-lose type of thing, I think that could be beneficial to them," Bowden said.

Keep an eye on ...

• The Bulldogs' bite. Those 527 yards Mississippi State allowed to Middle Tennessee State last week? They didn't come in garbage time against walk-ons. The Bulldogs' regular were getting routinely toasted, just as they were a week earlier in a loss to LSU (446 yards, 45 points). This week, Mississippi State pays a visit to Kentucky, who like the Blue Raiders, have a spread offense, only better. Fred Smoot, where are you?
• Finishing strong. After early-season falls from grace, look who still has a chance at make something of themselves: Penn State can still go to a bowl if it sweeps Iowa, Michigan and Michigan State; Wisconsin can finish 8-4; and Tennessee will be favored to win the rest of its games and get to 8-3. SportsLine.com's bowl projections have the Badgers and Vols meeting in the Outback Bowl. Not bad at all.
• Ortege, Part II: Arizona QB Ortege Jenkins returns to the scene of his most famous moment -- the flip over three defenders into the end zone to give the Wildcats a last-play victory at Washington in 1998. With the way Arizona keeps scores down because of a stout defense, and the way the Huskies always manage to play a close game (six of the past seven decided by a touchdown or less), it sure looks like this one will be a nail-biter where somebody has to make a play at the end of the game.
• The un-national championship. On one side is an injury-ravaged team that has been shutout three times and failed to score more than one touchdown in seven of eight games. On the other side is a team that has lost to a Division I-AA foe twice. It's the two bottom teams in SportsLine.com's rankings -- Louisiana-Monroe vs. Louisiana-Lafayette -- playing for none of the marbles.
• Another minor game in Louisiana. Three things Central Florida and Louisiana Tech have in common: They're both independents, they both have productive freshman quarterbacks (Ryan Schneider and Luke McCown) ... and they've both beaten Alabama in the past two seasons.

Games of the week