Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Deacons in the Post

ACC Media Days began yesterday, and the Deacs got a little wider circulation than they're used to:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072201310.html

Yeah, Joe Dailey, I don't remember any individual Tarheel standing out last season, either, but I think of your whole team as going 3-9 and getting your coach fired.

The ACC media poll was released this morning, and the same jokers who picked Wake to finish last in the Atlantic Division last year picked them to finish 4th this year. In other news, several ACC beat writers died last night after wandering away from Pinehurst and onto an artillery range at nearby Fort Bragg. Their last words were, "Ooh, fireworks!"

Next week Deaconball will have a round-up of the preseason football mags and where Wake ranked in them.

Temperatures in Winston-Salem the last two mornings have been in the very un-July-like mid-60s, which I take to be nature's way of reminding me that football season is right around the corner. Nature's a damn tease.

Friday, May 18, 2007

more on ACC football from the Charlotte Observer

This is obviously more trustworthy than their predictions, since the lead talks about what a great guy Jim Grobe is:

FOOTBALL TALK AT LEAGUE MEETINGS

Deacons' title puts heat on rest of ACC

If Wake Forest can win it, folks say anyone can

KEN TYSIAC

ktysiac@charlotteobserver.com

ACC Football Forecast

ACC teams ranked in descending order of their chances to win the 2007 conference title:

School	2006 record	Forecast
Virginia Tech	10-3, 6-2 ACC	Only question is at quarterback
Georgia Tech	9-5, 7-1	Quarterback Taylor Bennett an upgrade over departed Reggie Ball
Florida State	7-6, 3-5	Staff shake-up should pay dividends
Wake Forest	11-3, 6-2	League's reigning champion remains strong on offense
Boston College	10-3, 5-3	Can new coach Jagodzinski build on O'Brien's foundation?
Miami	7-6, 3-5	Offense will be question for new coach Randy Shannon
Clemson	8-5, 5-3	Great RBs, but QB is uncertain
Maryland	9-4, 5-3	Don't count out Ralph Friedgen in a strong division
N.C. State	3-9, 2-6	O'Brien needs to find a reliable QB
Virginia	5-7, 4-4	Attrition has decimated the Cavs
North Carolina	3-9, 2-6	Cupboard left bare for Butch Davis
Duke	0-12, 0-8	Time for Ted Roof's recruits to turn things around

Ken Tysiac

Thursday, May 17, 2007

US News & World Report

This has nothing to do with football, but a lot to do with Wake Forest (and schools like it, if there were any schools like it):

Colleges should round-file U.S. News' survey

Magazine's campus ratings perpetuate shallow assumptions

PATRICIA MCGUIRE

Los Angeles Times

Rip it up and throw it away. That's the advice I'm giving my fellow college and university presidents this month as the "reputation survey" from U.S. News & World Report lands on our desks. I am one of 12 presidents who wrote a letter urging colleagues to take a stand for greater integrity in college rankings -- starting by boycotting the magazine's equivalent of the "American Idol" voting process.

All presidents receive versions of the reputation survey, organized by region. Mine lists 181 Northern universities, including schools as different as the behemoth City University of New York's Hunter College, with more than 20,000 students, and my Trinity, a historically Catholic women's college that's now a 1,600-student university.

The survey asks me to "rate the academic quality of undergraduate programs," assigning each school a score on a 1-to-5 scale from "marginal" to "distinguished." That I have little real information about these 181 institutions does not seem to matter to U.S. News. The survey results will account for 25 percent of the total score used to rank colleges and universities in the "Best Colleges" issue.

In a cover letter reminiscent of a sweepstakes mailing, U.S. News informs me I am "one of a select group of people" with "the broad experience and expertise needed to assess the academic quality of your peer institutions." Most of what I know about these schools is through anecdotes, news stories and rumors. Should I score an institution poorly because I've heard it has money woes? Should faculty unrest influence my vote?

`Best' college? It depends

This reputation survey is just part of the larger problem with "Best Colleges," a misnomer that feeds into the American obsession with celebrity, prestige and list making. What's "best" educationally for an aspiring physicist is different from what's "best" for a future reading teacher. But in the strange alchemy of U.S. News, the rich diversity of American higher education boils down to a few points about fame and wealth.U.S. News also collects lots of institutional data that it churns through its own formulas to score each school; those scores drive the rankings. Colleges with high faculty salaries and strong "selectivity" -- meaning they reject a lot of applicants -- fare much better than those that are more efficient with resources or that accept more students.

Universities wanting to move up in rank dare not admit more low-income students from urban public schools who might lower retention and completion rates.

U.S. News also provides an incentive for colleges to raise tuition, because that means higher "educational expenditures per student" and more "faculty resources," which together account for 30 percent of the score. The very consumers whom U.S. News allegedly serves are paying a hefty price for what its rankings have done to higher education.

Plea to presidents: Backbone!

College presidents should show some backbone and stop colluding in this unseemly beauty contest.

Privately, some presidential colleagues say they agree with my position but are afraid to act publicly for fear of upsetting trustees or alumni. But one of the essential tasks of leadership is to risk speaking the hard truth.

U.S. News and others in the college-ranking business claim they promote accountability in higher education. But what truly betrays public trust is permitting surrogate measures of academic quality to replace real information about what students learn on our campuses. Colleges need to take back responsibility for communicating educational results, starting with posting accreditation reports on Web sites.

We also need to teach prospective students and families to assess what really counts in higher education -- not a magazine ranking but how well a college meets a student's learning style and academic interests, how available the faculty are outside the classroom, whether students can get the courses they need to graduate in a timely way and what professional schools and employers welcome its graduates. The best way to assess a school's quality is to visit the campus, stay overnight in residence halls with other students, meet the faculty, sit in on classes and try on the "feel" of the place.

PR distorts voting system

Some of the best colleges in the nation don't fare well in the U.S. News survey because they don't have the wealth, big-time sports fame or public relations clout to influence the peer voting system.

Every March and April, in anticipation of the reputation survey, some university PR machines go into overdrive and crowd my desk with glossy brochures touting accomplishments. A few presidents appeal for my vote directly, sending personalized form letters extolling their colleges' virtues. I rip those up and throw them away, where they commingle in the trash can with the U.S. News survey.

Patricia McGuire is president of Trinity (Washington) University in Washington, D.C. (www.trinitydc.edu.)

Friday, May 11, 2007

More hot stove, and Paint It Black

ESPN.com ran Mark Schlabach's ACC Spring Recap: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2860237

Lots of good things said about the Deacons.

And most of you have probably already seen and heard this, but if you haven't, and if for some reason you haven't started getting excited about Deaconball 2007, here you go:
http://www.wakeforestsports.tv/spring_football.html

Saturday, March 17, 2007

Hot stove ... really, really hot stove

I heard a story last week about Charlie Ward injuring his shoulder during an ACC Tournament game. FSU was a lock to make the NCAA Tournament that year, the round of 64 was a week away, but the first question from the Florida press was "Will he be ready for spring football?"

Now that the - ahem - magic of Deacon basketball has worn off, it's time to see if Wake really is "a football school now," as every Deacon fan has said at least once since December, as required by law.

Spring practice starts Tuesday:

http://wakeforestsports.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/wake-m-footbl-body.html
3/5/2007Wake Forest Announces Spring Football DatesWake Forest's spring football dates were announced on Monday. The defending ACC Champions take to the practice field on Tuesday, March 20. Wake Forest will have 15 practice days, culminating in the annual Spring Game on Saturday, April 14.

Deacon, um, Abcess

Watching the NCAA East Regionals on CBS last Thursday, when they showed an overhead blimp-cam shot of Lawrence Joel, I had a moment of disorientation when the camera showed a glimpse of barren red dirt off to one side of the coliseum.

Then I remembered Deacon Tower.

The entire Deacon Boulevard side of Groves Stadium is one big construction site, and the old press box, along with the top third or so of sections 3 through about 8, are just gone.

Ever seen someone get a mole (the red-mark-on-skin kind, not the digging-up-your-yard kind) removed, before they get stitched back up? That's sort of how Groves Stadium looks right now.

I drove by this morning, while taking my daughter to "Hoops Alley"* at the coliseum complex. Seeing the huge abcess in the side of Groves wasn't nearly as disconcerting as I thought it'd be.

Still, I have some fond memories of what's gone. I've watched football from every vantage point Groves Stadium offers, except the visitors' sideline. I've watched from both the east and west stands, I've watched from Deacon Hill, I've watched from Bridger Field House (versions 1 and 2), I've watched from the home sidelines (okay, it was a Pop Warner game - but it was the Pop Warner national championship game, when my dad helped coach the Tiny Falcons, starring future Wake wide receiver and Atlanta Braves outfielder Tommy Gregg), and I've watched from the old press box.

When I wrote for the Old Gold & Black ("Covers the campus like the magnolias"), our sports editor invited me to use our extra press pass a couple of times - ostensibly to help take notes, mostly just to hang out and enjoy what is undoubtedly the best view of a football game I've ever seen. The old press box was close enough to the field for us to see the players clearly, but high enough to be able to take in all the action. It's what TV coverage ought to look like. You could keep your eye on the quarterback as he dropped back, but you could also watch the battles on the line. The food was close enough that you could fill (or re-fill) your plate or your drink between plays. And the food was free.

The only drawback was the unwritten law of the press box: no cheering. None. Not a bit. Not a clap. Not even when Wake came from two touchdowns down to overtake Appalachian State in the home opener. Not even when John Henry Mills made the greatest almost-catch I've ever seen: just a step ahead of the cornerback, with the safety coming over to help, Mills laid out for the ball at about the 5-yard-line, rolling over in the air so that he was flying with his face to the sky, and the ball slipped through his hands and bounced off his chest. I just had to sit there grinding my teeth, clenching my fists, and quivering like Beeker.

Good times, good times.

Anyway, if you want to check on the progress of Deacon Tower, Wake has a site set up at http://wakeforestfacilities.com/about_overview.htm. Doesn't really tell you much we didn't already know. I'll see if I can get a picture of the abcess posted on here before too long.

Friday, March 02, 2007

goodbye, ben mauk

Deacon fans have probably heard about this by now:

Mauk Decides Not To Return For 2007 Season

Quarterback to graduate in spring, pursue Master's degree elsewhere

Feb. 1, 2007

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Quarterback Ben Mauk has opted to complete his undergraduate requirements at Wake Forest this spring and pursue a Master's degree at another school next fall.

Mauk has told the Wake Forest coaching staff that he plans to have a career in education as a teacher or coach and will attend a school that offers an advanced degree in education administration. Wake Forest does not offer that degree.

Mauk was Wake Forest's starting quarterback in 2006 until suffering a dislocated shoulder and right arm in the team's season-opening win against Syracuse. He underwent two surgeries at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center this fall to repair and stabilize his arm and shoulder.

- from www.wakeforestsports.com

Mauk's first pass as a Deacon was an 85-yard touchdown to Jason Anderson in the 2004 season opener at Clemson. I remember watching that game on TV and saying, Thus starts the legend of Ben Mauk.

Even at that time, about 60% of that comment was meant to be sarcastic. Mauk had come to Wake holding all sorts of high school passing records in Ohio. No Deacon football recruit had been as heralded - and no recruit had faced such ridiculous expectations - since C.J. Leak, and we all remember how Leak turned out. But Deacon fans had been clamoring for Mauk since his signing, even though Cory Randolph had done nothing to deserve a benching. It's a football truism that the most popular player on most teams is the second-string quarterback. That's especially true when he's a young and ballyhooed player on a struggling team - and by struggling team, I mean a team that hasn't beaten every opponent by at least three touchdowns. C.J.'s little brother Chris led Florida to the national title this past season, but Gator fans spent most of the year calling for freshman QB Tim Tebow.

(I will point out, but will not comment on, the fact that both Chris Leak and Cory Randolph are black, while Tebow and Mauk are white.)

Such are the demands of college football fans.

So Mauk came in against Clemson and began his Wake Forest career with an 85-yard touchdown pass in possibly the most hostile venue in the ACC. What sometimes got lost was that most of those 80 yards came from running after the catch by the all-conference Anderson, who had had to turn around and wait for the weak floater that Mauk had thrown him.

Mauk and Randolph ended up sharing the position on a game-to-game, sometimes possession-to-possession rotation, a move that did no favors for the rhythm or confidence of either one. It may be the only serious mistake Grobe has made since he came to Wake. Randolph, a competent but not spectacular passer, seemed to lose every bit of his nerve knowing that he could come out of the game at any time. Mauk never seemed to acclimate himself to the pace of the major-college game; he held the ball too long on almost every snap, was too prone to declare a play broken and take off running, and often failed to put enough zip on his passes to get them to his receivers before the defense converged.

This past year he got Wally Pipp-ed* in the most painful way possible. In the season opener against Syracuse, he dove for a loose ball and ended up with his right arm buried and crushed under two Orangemen defenders. While they wheeled him off the field on a cart, Mauk pumped his left fist - on the end of his only working arm - to the Deacon crowd, some of whom were almost in tears because they had no idea who the Deacs had to replace Mauk. The Groves Stadium crowd cheered, and cheered loudly, Mauk's display of spirit.

It turned out, of course, that the Deacons had Riley Skinner to come in for Mauk, and all Skinner did was lead the Deacons to their first ACC title since 1970 (that was two years before I was born, so I'm not even going to calculate how long that was before Skinner was born) and win ACC Rookie of the Year in the process. A few newspapers "reported" on the possibility of a QB controversy for the Deacs when Mauk got healthy, but anyone who really follows the team knew that the job was Skinner's to lose. Skinner would have had to collapse in the most monumental way to give up his starting position. If Mauk had started in Skinner's place, the first interception, the first fumble, the first sack because he held the ball too long, would have been met by the most savage boo's a Wake Forest crowd could muster. They'd have wanted Skinner, the hero of 2006.

If Mauk never lived up to the expectations - expectations that were probably unrealistic from the get-go - at least say this for him: nobody, no player in my memory of Wake Forest football, played with more heart than Ben Mauk. He never threw a pass that got more cheers than the bravehearted blocks he threw to spring his runners, or the times he put his head down and took on a linebacker or safety on a quarterback keeper. He gave up his job - and, it turns out, his career - by giving up his body to recover a fumble (I wrote about the guts he showed on that play in an early Deaconball post, "Wake 20, Syracuse 10," on 9/7/06) in a tie game.

When I lived in Charlotte I listened to a Wake football pre-game show on the radio while they ran down the top passers in Deacon history. I listened to the roll call of names - Jay Venuto, Gary Schofield, Keith West, Mike Elkins, Phil Barnhill - that once had occupied a ridiculously large percentage of my thought and emotion. For a season - for two or three seasons - I lived and died with how these guys played each Saturday. Then, after their last season, I usually all but forgot them. I concentrated all that expectation, all that hope and despair, on the next guy to step under center.

Maybe Mauk never turned into the quarterback Deacon fans thought he would be, or expected him to be, or hoped he would be. Blame him for that if you hold your standards to excellence and nothing but. Forget about him and give all your love to Riley Skinner for another year, another two, until Skinner makes a mistake you find inexcusable and you start hollering for Brett Hodges to come off the bench.

I think we should thank Mauk, like we should thank every Deacon player, for giving Wake Forest football everything he could in a career that was confused and cut short. We buy our tickets, come to the games, stand (maybe) and cheer. We give up some of our money and varying measures of devotion. Mauk gave up the right arm that had made him the best quarterback in his home state, the right arm that had gotten him a college scholarship, the right arm that had carried the expectations of Deacon fans for three years. He deserves our best wishes.

* Wally Pipp was the starting first basemen for the New York Yankees, until he took a game off because of an illness. His replacement was Lou Gehrig.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

That wind you feel . . .

. . . is the collective "whew" let out by Deacon fans everywhere at this news:

Wake Forest coach Grobe inks new 10-year deal

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Jim Grobe always said he was happy to be Wake Forest's coach. He's backing that up by signing a contract that could keep him with the Demon Deacons through the end of his career.

Grobe -- The Associated Press Coach of the Year -- signed a 10-year deal Tuesday, keeping him with the school he led to an improbable Atlantic Coast Conference championship last season.

"This allows us to continue to do things the right way and be very patient in the way we approach our football team," Grobe said early Wednesday. "It's good when your staff can go to bed at night and not worry about where they're coaching the next day. And I think there's a good comfort level for our players knowing that we're happy as a staff to be at Wake Forest."

Grobe was four years into a 10-year deal signed before the 2003 season. Athletics director Ron Wellman announced the new 10-year deal during a banquet Tuesday night to honor Grobe for winning the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award.

The new contract runs through the end of the 2016 season. Terms were not disclosed.

Grobe, who turned 55 earlier this month, led the Demon Deacons to their second ACC title and first since 1970. Wake Forest was picked to finish last in the league's Atlantic Division, but went 11-2 in the regular season and reached the Orange Bowl, where it lost to Louisville.

Grobe is 37-35 in six seasons at Wake Forest and is the first coach to take the Demon Deacons to bowl games twice since they joined the ACC. The team's success this year was the first indication that the plan to slowly build the program in Winston-Salem by redshirting freshmen and remaining patient was working.

"We really don't want to give this up right now," Grobe said. "We're really having fun with these guys. We've worked awful hard to get to this point and we're all anxious to see if we can keep this thing going."

This year's surprising run raised Grobe's national profile, making him a popular candidate linked to job openings around the country. But Grobe maintained through the season that he was committed to staying, saying Wednesday that he and Wellman began contract talks again around October.

"You never know what might happen down the road, but I think for me personally I'm just really, really happy," Grobe said. "My coaching staff is happy. I'm not interested in chasing other jobs. And I think that maybe the best thing about this contract is that I'm comfortable and I don't have to worry about going out and chasing other jobs around."

- end -

This is the first of what I hope will be many (okay, several) "Hot Stove" editions of Deaconball, keeping Deacon fans updated until the September 1 kickoff at Boston College. My house finally has an internet connection again, and it's even wireless this time. You know what that means, don't you? I can post to Deaconball while sitting in my PJs in bed.

Like you needed or wanted to know that.

Deaconball