CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Miami quarterback Kyle Wright turns 23 on Thursday, and that may not be a good omen for Florida State.

He tends to get big wins as birthday presents.

Wright is 0-2 as a starter against the Seminoles, who’ll host the Hurricanes on Saturday. But Wright has been in this spot before — senior year, seeking to beat an archrival for the first time, during his birthday week — and came through successfully.

Oct. 18, 2002: Wright threw for 275 yards and two touchdowns, leading the way on his 18th birthday as Monte Vista (Calif.) High School beat rival Foothill 26-21 — ensuring he wouldn’t go 0-3 in the series between those clubs.

"Hopefully, the moons will align again for me," Wright said.

For the record, Miami hasn’t lost a game played during the same week Wright celebrates his birthday since he arrived on campus five years ago.

Picking Eagles

Sure, Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan is putting up sensational numbers and is getting mentioned more and more as a Heisman candidate. And yes, the Eagles defend the run as well as anyone in major college football.

But the real reason why the Eagles are 7-0 and ranked No. 3 in the country, their best showing in 65 years?

Try interceptions.

Jamie Silva leads the ACC with 0.71 interceptions per game, DeJuan Tribble — whose 15 career interceptions are tied for the all-time lead among active major college players — isn’t far behind at 0.57 picks per game, and both are ranked in the top 15 nationally in that department.

So far, the Eagles have 18 interceptions this season — far and away the best in the ACC and twice as many as Virginia, Georgia Tech and North Carolina State combined. And Boston College’s turnover margin of 1.57 per game is fourth nationally, behind only Florida Atlantic (2.50), LSU (1.86) and Connecticut (1.67).

Coaches vs. media

Clemson coach Tommy Bowden knows who’s opinion — and rankings — he’d value more regarding college football’s best teams.

"I would hope you all have a better idea than I do about sentence structure and grammar," Bowden said. "And I would hope I would know just a little bit more on football than what you all would."

"That might not be the case. I’m sure that’s not the opinion of many of you all," Bowden added. "But that’s a commonsense scenario."

Bowden votes in the weekly USA Today coach’s top 25, along with 59 other members of the American Football Coaches Association, and says it’s natural for coaches to weigh more in favor of teams they see more often.

But with coaches focused on their own teams, don’t media voters have a different scope and viewpoint?

"I could look at chemistry on a board and not know what it is," Bowden said. "See the carry-over? Probably a lot of you all can watch a game and really don’t know what’s going on there."

Draddy semifinalists

The ACC has six players still in the running to become college football’s top scholar-athlete this season.

Boston College defensive end Nick Larkin, Duke linebacker Patrick Bailey, Georgia Tech center Kevin Tuninello, North Carolina quarterback Joe Dailey, Virginia tight end Tom Santi and Wake Forest tight end Zac Selmon are among the 153 semifinalists for the Draddy Trophy.