Well, duh . . .

Grobe beats out Schiano for AP coaching honor

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Jim Grobe held Wake Forest together after a couple of potentially devastating injuries, refused to let his players feel sorry for themselves and turned the perennially downtrodden Demon Deacons into champions.

AP Coach of Year voting
Coach	Votes
Jim Grobe, Wake Forest	39
Greg Schiano, Rutgers	12
Bob Stoops, Oklahoma	6
Jim Tressel, Ohio State	3
Houston Nutt, Arkansas	2
Bret Bielema, Wisconsin	1
Chris Petersen, Boise State	1
Bobby Petrino, Louisville	1

For orchestrating one of the most surprising turnarounds in college football and the best season in Wake Forest's 105-year football history, Grobe was honored as The Associated Press Coach of the Year on Wednesday.

"I can't put into words how satisfying it's been," Grobe said in a recent phone interview. "It's just now that we're starting to appreciate what we've done and to enjoy it a little bit."

In his sixth season at Wake Forest, Grobe took the Demon Deacons (11-2) from worst to first in the Atlantic Coast Conference without their starting quarterback and top tailback. Wake Forest set a school record for victories and won the ACC for the first time in 36 years.

"This is one football team that appreciates the opportunity to go to a bowl game and especially appreciates the opportunity to play in the Orange Bowl," Grobe said.

The 54-year-old Grobe beat out a strong group of contenders for coach of the year, receiving 39 of 65 votes from the AP Top 25 voters.

Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, who took the once-laughable Scarlet Knights within a victory of the Bowl Championship Series, finished second with 12 votes.

Oklahoma's Bob Stoops was third with six votes. Ohio State's Jim Tressel received three votes. Arkansas' Houston Nutt got two votes. Boise State's Chris Petersen, Louisville's Bobby Petrino and first-year Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema each received one vote.

Any of those would have been worthy winners, but no coach got more out of his team than Grobe.

"The best thing he did this year was convincing us to believe in our program and to believe in him and the rest of his coaches," linebacker Aaron Curry said. "He convinced us to believe in our system and the things we were going to do."

The Demon Deacons were coming off three straight losing seasons, but had one of the most experienced rosters in the ACC with 18 returning starters.

"I thought we were going to be a better football team," Grobe said. "In fact, I thought we had potential to be a pretty good football team."

Great seasons, however, rarely start the way this one began for the Deacons.

In the opener against Syracuse, quarterback Ben Mauck broke his arm and was lost for the season. Two weeks later, tailback Micah Andrews injured his knee and was done for the year.

"The first thing you worry about is the mentality of your football team when you lose really good players, especially with season-ending injuries," Grobe said. "Our focus was to try and not change our approach each week and the way we talked to the players.

"Having a little bit more of a mature football team than we've had in the past and having a coaching staff that's been together for a while, we didn't dwell on the negatives very long. We were forward-thinking pretty quick."

While tending to the team's state of mind, Grobe and his staff were also revamping the offense. Under Grobe, Wake Forest has been the best rushing team in the ACC. Without its two best runners, the focus shifted for the Deacons.

They scrapped the spread-option built around Mauck's running and built a simpler plan around redshirt freshman Riley Skinner. Without Andrews, Grobe shifted receiver Kenneth Moore to running back and got other receivers involved in the running game.

"We kind of adopted a little bit of an old-school mentality -- and we typically try to do that anyway -- but I think even more so we began to emphasize the importance of taking care of the football," Grobe said.

Wake Forest was outgained this season 312 yards per game to 301, but was plus-14 in turnover differential, had a strong kicking game and played tough red-zone defense.

The Demon Deacons became the first ACC team to ever go 6-0 on the road and clinched their first Bowl Championship Series berth with a 9-6 victory over Georgia Tech in the ACC title game.

"We had a team that was focused on trying to win football games, and not coming out of the game worried about their stats," Grobe said.

Grobe, who had a winning record in his first two seasons at Wake Forest, is a hot commodity again and being mentioned as a possible candidate for high-profile jobs.

"I have no idea what the future holds," he said, "but I could not be happier than I am at Wake Forest right now."

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press

Well, son of a gun . . .

Before it happened, I would have found this even more unlikely than Wake winning the ACC Championship:

http://www.wfu.edu/wowf/

Bowl tickets are hot tickets

Wake Forest has sold nearly all of its ticket allotment to the FedEx Orange Bowl. By mid-day Wednesday, only about 500 tickets were left out of the 17,500 allotted.

Deaconball Victorious! Wake 9, Georgia Tech 6

Wake Forest football has completely undermined my purpose in keeping this blog, and I couldn't be happier.

This blog was supposed to be about living and dying with a team, a team that gave its fans no reason to expect great things.

Then this team went out and accomplished greater things than any Wake team before it.

Wake Forest is ACC champion. In football. In the era of expansion, the era that was supposed to make the ACC a football powerhouse, the era that was supposed to be dominated by Florida State, Miami, Virginia Tech.

Wake Forest is playing in a BCS bowl, the day after New Year's. For me, the New Year's bowls have always been a last gasp of college football, a chance to watch games as a dispassionate fan, enjoying the game for the sake of the game - until this year.

My brother said yesterday that "like the plays of Shakespeare, you can tease out the ramifications of this for a long, long time." I still can't wrap my mind around everything this means.

Once you finish grappling with the improbability of "little ol' Wake Forest" winning the conference championship - for the first time in my lifetime of following the Deacs - you come up against the fact that they won it without their starting quarterback and starting tailback, with their star linebacker playing on a bum ankle, with their third and fourth string tailbacks going out during the championship game with injuries.

They won it with a redshirt freshman that nobody wanted filling in at quarterback and losing only two games, throwing only four interceptions the entire season, and making big plays when Wake absolutely needed them.

It's the best team in Wake history, and the best team to root for that a fan could have. ABC flashed a graphic during the game showing the average graduation rate for Division I football programs - 58% - and the graduation rate for Wake Forest - 96%.

If you're looking for unnaturally talented athletes assured of making ridiculous amounts of money in the NFL, if that's the aspect of college football that brings you joy, don't bother watching Wake Forest.

But if you're looking for a team that plays with heart and brains and guts, a team that plays together, a team that plays for each other, then be sure to tune in to the Orange Bowl on January 2 and keep an eye on the Old Gold and Black.

I could go on about this until blogspot ran out of memory space. I could go on until I reached the end of the Internet. I can't say enough good things about this team, these players, these coaches, this incredible year. Yet I'm still somehow at a loss for words.

Go Deacs.

New Wake Forest video

Sent to me by my Wake-employed friend Patrick:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzNjhR45bN8

Go Deacs.

Wake 38, Maryland 24

Really, what else do I need to say?

http://wakeforestsports.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/recaps/112506aaa.html
No. 20 Deacons Clinch Atlantic Division With 38-24 Win At Maryland

Wake Forest will play for first ACC title in 36 years against Georgia Tech in Jacksonville.

Nov. 25, 2006

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) - Wake Forest had just defeated Maryland to advance to the Atlantic Coast Conference title game, and it was time to celebrate with a couple of thousand of their most faithful followers.

Running to the far corner of the end zone, the players serenaded the black-and-gold clad fans with the school fight song - a fitting conclusion to yet another successful foray on the road for the surprising Demon Deacons.

Kenneth Moore ran for 165 yards and a touchdown, Kevin Harris scored twice, and freshman quarterback Riley Skinner went 10-for-13 for 125 yards and a touchdown to lead No. 20 Wake Forest to a 38-24 victory Saturday night.

Wake Forest (10-2, 6-2) will be seeking its first ACC title since 1970 next Saturday against Georgia Tech in Jacksonville. The teams did not face each other this season.

"It feels really good," Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said. "These guys have even exceeded my expectations. They've done some cool stuff."

The final game of a crazy ACC regular season matched two of the league's biggest overachievers met for the Atlantic Division title. Wake Forest handed Maryland (8-4, 5-3) its first home loss behind an offense that was virtually unstoppable.

"They ran up and down the field on us. I'm really disappointed how we played defensively," Maryland coach Ralph Friedgen said. "We couldn't stop them at all."

Wake Forest became the first team in ACC history to go 6-0 on the road.

"We had a lot of tough road trips, but I thought this would be the toughest of all," Grobe said. "Maryland had a lot to play for. To come in here and get the win, I couldn't be more proud of our players."

It was Wake Forest's first victory in eight tries against Maryland since 1998. The Demon Deacons were 13-40-1 against the Terrapins and had scored as many as 38 points against them only twice before.

"It doesn't get any bigger, going to the championship game," said Skinner, who happily skipped to the locker room after a post-game interview. "It's what our goal has been the whole entire year. Obviously, a lot of people didn't think we could do it."

Wake Forest went up 28-14 with an 80-yard touchdown drive to start the second half. Moore had runs of 15 and 23 yards and Skinner went 3-for-3 for 35 yards before Harris scored from the 3.

Maryland's Keon Lattimore then accounted for all the yardage in a 49-yard drive that produced a 26-yard field goal by Dan Ennis, but the Deacons answered with a field goal to restore the 14-point cushion.

Maryland closed to 31-24 when Sam Hollenbach threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Williams with 12:54 left. But Wake Forest responded with a 10-play, 76-yard drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Rich Belton on a gutsy fourth-down call by Grobe.

All that was left after that was the celebration.

"The support has been great, to see everybody with us, traveling and pulling through with us," safety Josh Gattis said.

Lattimore rushed for 119 yards and a touchdown, only the third player to reach the 100-yard mark against the Demon Deacons this season. Hollenbach was 14-for-26 for 125 yards, but threw three interceptions.

"You can't turn the ball over three times and expect to win," Friedgen said.

The Terrapins will still be going to a bowl game, no small accomplishment for a team coming off two straight 5-6 seasons. But Maryland had its eye on the Orange Bowl, and that's not going to happen.

"It's disheartening," Friedgen said. "We had a chance to do something special tonight and didn't get it done."

Wake Forest yielded 215 yards in the first half, but benefited from Hollenbach's turnovers in taking a 21-14 lead.

Both teams scored touchdowns on their opening drives. Lattimore ran in from the 12 before Harris concluded a 13-play possession with a 2-yard run.

Next came an exchange of turnovers. After Riley Swanson took an interception 30 yards to the Maryland 16, an apparent touchdown run by Moore was erased by a holding call. On the next play, Skinner threw his first interception on the road.

Terps cornerback Isaiah Gardner unwisely chose to run it out of the end zone and was tackled at the 4. A short punt gave Wake Forest the ball at the Maryland 38, and a 19-yard touchdown run by Moore made it 14-7 early in the second quarter.

The Terrapins' next two drives ended in interceptions by Alphonso Smith. After the latter turnover, Skinner threw a 49-yard touchdown pass to Willie Idlette for a 21-7 lead.

Maryland then got a 1-yard touchdown run by Lance Ball.


from the Charlotte Observer:

No time for Deacons to savor division title

BY JOEDY MCCREARY

Associated Press

NEXT: ACC Championship
Wake Forest vs. Ga. Tech
1 p.m. Saturday, ABC
ALLTEL Stadium, Jacksonville, Fla.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest kept winning and coming up with more reasons to celebrate: A school-record 10 wins, an improbable conference division title, Tobacco Road supremacy.

But the 16th-ranked Demon Deacons don't have time to party yet. With their first league championship since 1970 and a spot in the Orange Bowl on the line in Saturday's Atlantic Coast Conference title game against No. 23 Georgia Tech, the stakes remain huge.

"It's something that probably will happen once in a lifetime, so you definitely have to live up the moment," running back Kenneth Moore said Tuesday. "But you definitely have to get ready for next week and not get on too high a pedestal."

Wake Forest (10-2, 6-2) allowed itself a few days to drink in the division championship it clinched with a 38-24 victory against Maryland. Some players whooped it up in the locker room, others watched a 3 a.m. replay of the game on television and still more spent Sunday reflecting on their surprising accomplishment.

"It really didn't soak in until like Sunday ...Man, we just won the division," Moore said. "One step away from doing what we said we were going to do in the beginning of the year."

Then, on Monday, it was back to work.

"You can't just sit on that and be satisfied because Georgia Tech is a really good team," offensive tackle Steve Vallos said. "And if we want to be where we were planning on being at the end of the season, you can't dwell on that win and (not) focus on our next opponent."

That Wake Forest has maintained focus throughout its run is remarkable. The Demon Deacons have performed at a consistently high level for most of the season, with their only blips coming in the fourth quarter of the Clemson loss and in their loss to Virginia Tech.

Of course, Wake Forest won't play a bigger game than this one -- unless the Demon Deacons win and advance to the Orange Bowl.

"You think one game is huge, and you want to sit down and soak it all in," quarterback Riley Skinner said. "But you realize you've got an even bigger one next week, so there's no time to sit around and let it sink in.

"You've got to keep going through every week, planning for the next game. After the season's over, it'll be time to let it all sink in."

One thing the Demon Deacons say isn't a concern is the just-happy-to-be-there mind-set. They insist they aren't content just to win the division.

"We're happy to be in the position that we're at, but I don't think we're satisfied," Vallos said.

from wakeforestsports.com:

Grobe Unanimously Selected ACC Coach Of The Year

Sixth-year head coach received 80 of 80 votes

Nov. 28, 2006

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Wake Forest's Jim Grobe was chosen unanimously as the Atlantic Coast Conference's Coach of the Year, the league announced on Tuesday. Grobe, who has led the Demon Deacons to the most successful season in program history, received 80 of a possible 80 votes from the league's media.

The Demon Deacons were picked to finish last in the ACC's Atlantic Division in the preseason and lost their starting quarterback, starting running back and starting defensive end early in the season. Wake Forest responded by winning a school-record 10 games, including a perfect 6-0 on the road, and representing the Atlantic Division in the ACC Championship game this Saturday in Jacksonville.

"I'm humbled, to say the least, with all the things that are being said about me, because I'm really just a function of what the staff and the players have done," Grobe said. "I'm blessed with what I think and consider is the best coaching staff in America."

Judging by winning percentage, Wake Forest is the second-most improved team in America. The 2005 Deacons went 4-7 and the 2006 Deacons are currently 10-2. Wake Forest is ranked in the top 25 for the seventh straight week, the longest streak in program history. The Deacons finished with a winning record in the ACC for the first time 1988 and only the seventh time ever. Wake Forest swept its ACC Tobacco Road rivals for the first time since 1987.

"We've put together an absolutely great group of kids that don't have runaway egos and just like to win football games, like to play (and) don't care about stats," Grobe said. "From my standpoint, I feel a little guilty when people talk about any awards that I might get, because I'm totally dependent on my coaching staff and my players."

Grobe becomes the sixth Wake Forest coach to win the ACC's Coach of the Year award. He joins Paul Amen (1963, 1959), Bill Tate (1964), Cal Stoll (1970), John Mackovic (1979) and Bill Dooley (1988, 1992).

Later this season, Grobe will become the first coach to lead Wake Forest to two bowl games during the ACC era.

and:

Skinner Voted ACC Rookie of the Year

Quarterback led Deacons to nine regular season wins

Nov. 28, 2006

GREENSBORO, N.C. - Wake Forest redshirt freshman quarterback Riley Skinner was voted the Atlantic Coast Conference's Rookie of the Year, the league announced on Tuesday. Skinner, who led the ACC in three passing categories, received 48 of a possible 80 votes from the league's media.

"I'm excited about it, but I can't really dwell on it too much right now," Skinner said. "Maybe after the season I can think about it, but we've got a pretty task ahead of us right now that I'm looking forward to.'`

Through the regular season, the native of Jacksonville, Fla., leads the ACC in passing efficiency (142.1), completion percentage (67.3) and interception rate (1 per 51 pass attempts). Skinner's completion percentage ranks ninth nationally and his interception rate ranks 15th nationally.

Skinner, 9-2 as as starter, is one of just two freshman quarterbacks to have won nine games as a starter this season, joining Colt McCoy of Texas, 9-3.

Clemson running back C.J. Spiller was the runner-up with 25 votes. Darrius Heyward-Bey of Maryland, North Carolina's Hakeem Nicks and Myron Rolle of Florida State each received two votes. Jeffrey Fitzgerald of Virginia received one.

"I don't see how I could win over C.J. Spiller. You put me next to C.J. Spiller, and I'd pick C.J. Spiller as well,'` Skinner said. "But it's a huge honor. It really is. I couldn't ask for anything more, and it really is humbling to know that I've received that award.'`

Six of Skinner's nine wins have come away from Groves Stadium. Against ACC opponents on the road, Skinner completed 72 percent of his passes with four touchdowns and one interception. Wake Forest won all four of those games.

Skinner has completed 136 of 202 attempts (67.3 percent) for 1,579 yards, eight touchdowns and only four interceptions.

Skinner becomes the third Wake Forest player to win the ACC's Rookie of the Year award. He joins James McDougald (1976) and Michael Ramseur (1982).

and:

Come Send Off the Demon Deacons

Friday declared a "Spirit Day" on campus.

Nov. 30, 2006

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - In honor of the remarkable fall sports season, this Friday, Dec. 1st, will be declared a "Spirit Day" on the Wake Forest University campus. Fans are encouraged to wear black and show their school spirit throughout the entire day. There will be a pep rally at 10:10 a.m. to cheer on the football team as they depart from the Manchester Athletics Center. Come support the Demon Deacons as they travel to the ACC Football Championship in Jacksonville, Florida.

Wake Forest will take on Georgia Tech this Saturday's at 1:00 p.m. at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville. Fans not traveling to the ACC Championship, the game will be aired on the videoboard at the LJVM Coliseum, doors open at 12:15pm. Tickets are $10 and includes the football game viewing and the Men's and Women's Basketball games at 5:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

and, finally, from espn.com:

Unlikeliest of foes meet in ACC championship

By Jorge Milian
Special to ESPN.com

A conference championship game between Wake Forest and Georgia Tech probably was not what the ACC had in mind when it bulked up the league three years ago by adding Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech.

"They probably didn't factor in the Deacons, to be honest with you," said Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe.

Neither did anyone else.

In a preseason media poll, Wake Forest was picked to finish a distant last in the Atlantic Division.

The Yellow Jackets didn't fare much better. They were predicted to finish third behind Miami and Virginia Tech in the Coastal Division, although one visionary  out of 65 voters -- did select Georgia Tech to win the ACC title.

"We had one vote to get in and they had none," said Jackets coach Chan Gailey. "It's obvious that we should be the big favorite."

The 23rd-ranked Yellow Jackets (9-3, 7-1 Coastal) are actually only a 2½-point favorite to end No. 16 Wake Forest's surprising title run in the ACC Championship Game on Saturday at Jacksonville's Alltel Stadium.

That's just fine with the Demon Deacons (10-2, 6-2 Atlantic), who are still trying to convince skeptics that they're for real.

"We've always been the little guy," said Jon Abbate, Wake's All-ACC linebacker. "We've always been counted out."

Prior to this season, there was seldom reason to take the Deacons seriously. From 1953 to 2005, Wake Forest won the ACC championship once. That title came in 1970. Since then, the Deacons have finished in last or next-to-last place in the ACC a total of 19 times.

Said All-ACC senior safety Josh Gattis: "When I committed to Wake, people questioned why."

Opposing fans derisively referred to the Deacons as Cake Forest and Grobe, hired in 2001 away from Ohio University, admits that "the thing we started battling from the day we got here was having a football program that was almost made fun of …"

Nobody is making fun of the Demon Deacons now. Wake set a school record with its 10 victories this season and also established a conference mark with six road wins. Despite losing starters at quarterback, running back and left offensive tackle, the Deacons opened the regular season with five victories. Then they closed by winning five of its last six games, including last Saturday's do-or-die showdown with Maryland in College Park.

"These guys have really exceeded my expectations," said Grobe, who was named the ACC's Coach of the Year on Tuesday and figures to get serious consideration for national coach of the year honors. "They've done some really cool stuff."

Among that cool stuff is placing five players -- Abbate, Gattis, kicker Sam Swank, center Steve Justice and offensive tackle Steve Vallos -- on the All-ACC first team.

But the most important player this season on Wake's roster might have been redshirt freshman Riley Skinner, who took over at quarterback after starter Ben Mauk sustained serious arm injuries in the season opener against Syracuse.

Skinner, who is returning to Jacksonville this weekend where he was a prep star at the Bolles School, kept the Deacons moving in the right direction even after star tailback Micah Andrews was lost for the season in the third game with a knee injury.

Among other accomplishments, Skinner led Wake to a victory over nationally-ranked Boston College and spearheaded a landmark 30-0 win against Florida State in Tallahassee. He led the ACC in passing efficiency (142.2 rating) and completion percentage (67.3 percent).

On Tuesday, Skinner was rewarded for his efforts when he was named the ACC's Rookie of the Year, beating out Clemson tailback C.J. Spiller, who was considered the favorite for the award.

"This definitely was not what we had planned and prepared for," said Skinner about being thrust into the starting lineup. "None of us wanted to see Ben get hurt. But having the opportunity, I just wanted to make the most of it and do everything I could to help us get wins on Saturdays."

Grobe credits Skinner's success to being "surrounded by a group of older, more mature guys that don't get a lot of credit but keep Riley Skinner comfortable."

No ACC team entered the season with more returning starters than Wake's 18.

If not for the Deacons, Georgia Tech would carry the title of the ACC's most surprising team.

The Yellow Jackets had plenty of returning talent with 15 starters, although they weren't seen as a threat to either Miami, which was picked to win the Coastal Division, or Virginia Tech.

But the Yellow Jackets throttled the Hokies in Blacksburg, Va. then beat Miami in Atlanta and have a chance to win their first ACC title since finishing as co-champions with Florida State in 1998.

While Wake is entering Saturday's game with the momentum of last week's clutch 38-24 victory against Maryland, Georgia Tech comes in still smarting from a bitter 15-12 loss to rival Georgia. The defeat was the sixth straight to the Bulldogs.

"I'd be lying if I said we weren't really down," said Tech defensive end Adamm Oliver. "It was a big ballgame for us. We really wanted to get those guys bad."

Whether the Jackets can turn things around in time to beat Wake Forest and earn a berth in the FedEx Orange Bowl could depend on the play of senior quarterback Reggie Ball, whose abysmal performance -- 6-of-22 passing with two interceptions and a fumble the Bulldogs returned for a touchdown -- in the regular-season finale had some wondering whether Gailey might choose to bench Ball in favor of sophomore backup Taylor Bennett.

"That won't happen," Gailey said this week. "[Ball] has taken us this far. He's the guy that's gotten us to nine wins this year, gotten us to the championship game. He's a senior. We're going to give him the opportunity to be successful."

With tailback Tashard Choice, the ACC's leading rusher, and standout receiver Calvin Johnson, the Jackets have plenty of options besides Ball, who led the ACC with 20 touchdown passes but was second with 12 interceptions and last with a 45.8 completion percentage.

"We lost that game [to Georgia] and it hurts, but we have to focus on our goals and win this Saturday," said Choice, who ran for more than 100 yards in each of his last five games and topped the ACC with an average of 100.3 yards per game. "It's right in front of us."

First, the Jackets will have to burst the bubble surrounding Wake Forest's season.

"We won some games that had people scratching their heads a little bit and wondering if it was kind of a fluke," said Grobe, alluding to a 14-13 victory over winless Duke on Sept. 9 that ended with the Blue Devils missing a short field goal on the game's final play. "But as we've gone through the season, we've had enough wins that our players certainly feel that it's a special year. I think our players are starting to realize that if we play good, we're not a bad football team."

And, maybe, the best in the ACC.

Damn, y'all. On to Jacksonville. Go Deacs.

Turkeys 27, Wake 6

So the Virginia Tech Turkeys won last Saturday. We got our revenge Thursday.

And like some Wake fan in the parking lot after the game said to the Virginia Tech fan screaming, "We're going back up the mountain with the W," "That's fine - we're going to play for the ACC Championship."

I can't believe Virginia Tech has lost a conference game this year. By now I've seen every ACC team play at least once, and Virginia Tech looked the best by far. Great speed, great strength, and they weren't fooled by Wake's misdirection offense. Frank Beamer and his staff coached their players well on staying where they're supposed to be, even if Wake looks like they're running to the opposite side.

But, to be honest, I thought Wake looked pretty good, no matter what the final score said. The offense looked like most of Wake's opponents have looked against the Deacs: they moved the ball well, but they couldn't quite get it into the end zone. The backbreaker was a fumble recovery for a touchdown by Virginia Tech in the third quarter. From where I was sitting, I couldn't even see the fumble. I had looked away, thinking the play was over, when I heard gasps from the Wake fans, looked up and saw a Turkey racing into the end zone untouched. 'Racing' might not even be the right word - he actually stopped after a few yards and looked at the referee, as if to ask, "Is this really a fumble? You haven't blown this play dead?"

The ref hadn't, and it really was, and Virginia Tech went up 23-6 and put the game out of reach.

I left Groves Stadium for the last time this incredible season feeling good about two things: the Deacons' chances against Maryland this Saturday, and the state of football at little ol' Wake Forest. Little ol' Groves Stadium was sold out on the Tuesday before the game. Little ol' Groves Stadium was packed 15 minutes before kickoff. Those ticket holders packed inside little ol' Groves Stadium were deafening, right up until that fumble return. Wake fans outnumbered Tech fans, and Tech fans travel in hordes to support their Turkeys.

I pulled into the parking lot more than 4 hours before kickoff, and the Joel lot was already half-full. Cars were still streaming into the Deacon Club Gold Lot twenty minutes before kickoff - had those Deacon Clubbers not gotten the word that Wake Forest football is for real this year? Long gone are the days when you could mosey on over to Groves, find you a nice convenient spot, even buy your ticket at the window before you walk into the game. Seeing Wake football takes planning these days, my friends. It takes commitment. You got to get there early, tickets in hand, unless you're willing to get scalped.

The final score of last Saturday's game couldn't take away the thrill of seeing crowds in and around Groves Stadium, of feeling the anticipation coming off everyone there like electricity, of hearing the noise after Wake scored or when Virginia Tech faced third down. Deaconball has arrived.

Yet the Charlotte Observer pointed out that Wake returns something like 10 starters on offense, including Riley Skinner and Sam Swank, then asked the reader if he thought Wake could win nine again next year. "See," the Observer said, "you still don't believe, do you?"

Will Wake win nine next year? I don't know. All kinds of things can happen.

Can Wake win nine next year? You bet your old-gold-and-black ass they can.

But right now, let's worry about Wake winning one, just one, in College Park.

Right Now . . .

My friend Patrick sent me this. I almost started crying. Get your Deac on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veFwsFuj3rQ

For Wake to win it all . . .

Thanks to Patrick, who sent me this link:

http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/sports/content/sports/stories/2006/11/16/LaWELL.html

"So, what needs to happen? It's simple, really.

First, Grobe needs to lead the Demon Deacons to a win over Virginia Tech this weekend, then another next weekend at Maryland and one more in Jacksonville against the conference's Coastal Division champion, most likely Georgia Tech.

From there, the team needs just a pinch of luck. Are you ready? Take a deep breath.

For Wake Forest to have a shot at a national crown, California needs to beat Southern California in Los Angeles this weekend, then lose to Stanford next weekend; Auburn needs to lose at Alabama; Texas A&M needs to drop Texas on the road; either 1-9 Utah State or 7-3 Nevada needs to beat undefeated Boise State; Louisiana State needs to lose to both Mississippi and Arkansas; Louisville needs to lose to South Florida or Pittsburgh or Connecticut; Wisconsin needs to lose at home to mighty 2-8 Buffalo; and West Virginia needs to lose tonight at Pittsburgh or next week at South Florida, then beat Rutgers.

Whew.

OK, now for the rest of the mess.

Those same Scarlet Knights also need to lose at home to Syracuse, and Arkansas also needs to lose at Mississippi State; Army needs to beat Notre Dame, which then needs to beat Southern California; Florida needs to lose to Western Carolina and at Florida State; and, finally, the Trojans need to lose the aforementioned games to California and Notre Dame, then lose to UCLA, too.

Of course, if all that happens, Ohio State and Michigan will probably just meet again 53 days from now for the national championship – a rematch made in heaven for the midwest and pretty much nowhere else, including Winston-Salem, where big dreams still live.

'If we win,' Grobe told the Greensboro News & Record prior to Monday's practice, 'good things will happen to us.'"

Wake 30, Florida State 0

I got chills just typing that in. What can I say? Can I say anything to adequately describe how it felt watching Wake go down to Tallahassee and slap around the Seminoles?

Florida State joined the ACC while I was a student at Wake. The first time the Seminoles came to Groves Stadium, an assistant brought a little plastic chair over to the FSU sidelines after the teams had taken the field. Bobby Bowden sat down in the little plastic chair. At halftime, Bowden got up and ran into the locker room. At the start of the second half, Bowden sat down again. He didn't get back up until the final gun, when he walked to midfield and shook Bill Dooley's hand and tried to act like a gracious winner.

I don't remember the score of that game - don't much want to - but I remember Bobby and his chair, dadgumit. And I thought about Bobby and his little plastic chair as Wake shut him out at Doak Campbell for the first time in Bowden's career.*

I thought about Bobby and his little plastic chair; I giggled like a schoolgirl; I jumped up and down; I hollered (not screamed or shouted - hollered, and there is a difference); I got a grin that wouldn't go away. My spinal cord shimmied as my mind opened up to new possibilities, as neural regions long dormant began to wake up and explore a brave new world.

Suddenly, it's completely realistic:
- to talk about Wake's chances for an ACC championship
- to talk about Wake playing in the Orange Bowl
- to wonder if Wake will finish in the Top Ten
- to wonder if Wake will win out the season

I've even heard that someone's worked out a scenario that would take Wake to the BCS championship game (if anyone has a link to that, please post it here).

Wake Forest is 9-1. No Wake Forest team has ever won 9 games in one season. Some Wake Forest teams haven't won 9 games in consecutive seasons.

This Wake Forest team is so good, and this season has been so magical, that I have sunk to a Neolithic mentality and honestly worry that I will do something to screw it all up. Powerful mojo is at work around this team, and any one of us could do something to offend JoBu and break the spell. I watched the FSU game from yet another motel room - I'm sick of motel rooms, but if the magic of this season requires me to be gone so much, then I will happily hie myself from Winston-Salem, and I'd do it all again, too. I watched the game sitting in an easy chair, my legs resting on an ottoman, my right leg over my left. My left leg fell asleep, but I did not want to move it - not if there was a chance that the position of my legs had pleased the spirits, and my moving would displease them. If the players can sacrifice their bodies on the field, I can sacrifice mine in my easy chair. At halftime I was already so excited that I wanted to go down to the hotel bar, grab a beer, see who was about - but I could not leave that room so long as the mojo was on Wake's side. If the mojo demanded my solitude, my isolated ecstasy, then I would give it my solitude for as long as the game lasted. I'd have stayed where I was while the hotel burned down around me.

That same pre-scientific, borderline-pagan mentality has helped answer the original question of this blog, though. Why submit yourself to the trial, to the quest, to the 12 labors of Hercules or the taking of the Golden Fleece? Because the reward is glorious, and made more glorious by the righteous test first endured.

Why do you root for a football team like Wake Forest's? Because Wake is your alma mater, or your hometown school, and loyalty is a virtue. Because they recruit good kids who go to class and graduate, who so far haven't shot anybody, who may not be blue-chippers but play their guts out week after week after week. Because they're coached by a man like Jim Grobe, who's tough but not a bully. Because they're the underdog in almost every game, because they've defied the odds and the economics of college football just to field a team at Division 1A, much less win.

Why root for a football team like Wake Forest's?

Because of the chance for a season like this.

* My former FSU fan friend Frazer says Miami shut out the 'Noles at home in the 1980s, but every report on the game I've seen has said Wake's was the first of the Bowden era.

Wake 21, BC 14

We have had earthquakes in Winston-Salem.

We have had wars, and rumors of wars.

And now we have Wake Forest traveling to Tallahassee Saturday . . . as the favorite.

Lo, and repent, for the end times are nigh. It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fan-freakin'-tastic.

#22 Wake Forest beat #16 Boston College last Saturday in Groves Stadium's first game between ranked teams since 1979, when Wake came back in the second half to beat Auburn. With the win, Wake moves to 8-1 for the year, 4-1 in the ACC, and #18 in the AP poll. They haven't been 8-1 since 1944. They share the lead in the Atlantic Division with Maryland. They control their own destiny. Win out, and they're in the ACC Championship Game. Win that, and they're in the Orange Bowl.

Even Coach Grobe said, "It's time to dream a little bit."

Saturday night, it was time to scream a little bit. I'm still hoarse. Every now and then my voice will crack and I'll sound like I should be studying for the PSAT's. I clapped until my fingers bled. From where I sat, and to the viewers watching the game on ESPN2, Groves at times looked like one throbbing old-gold-and-black mass, thanks to the pom-poms given out at the gates.

Mark Packer, who's long called Wake Forest "Switzerland" because we're pleasant and inoffensive, brought his Southern Fried Football tour to the Chalet Saturday. It ain't quite the same as getting College GameDay, but it ain't bad, either. When, Deacon fans, did we ever think a Wake game would be THE big game in the South? When did we ever think Wake would be the highest-ranked ACC team in the AP poll?

8-1, without the starting quarterback or tailback. Wake's so thin in the offensive backfield that they had to move the leading receiver, Kenneth Moore, to start at running back against BC. All he managed to do was pick up 46 yards on 19 carries, and make the key block that spung Kevin Marion for an 81-yard end-around touchdown run, which put the Deacons up for good.

8-1, despite giving up 402 yards passing to BC's outstanding QB, Matt Ryan. The BC offense outgained Wake's by more than 100 yards. The Wake defense seems especially concerned with giving fans their money's worth in drama; why stop BC on 4th-and-10 when you can toy with them, let them pick up the first down, then intercept the ball in the end zone (it was Patrick Ghee this time)?

8-1. One more win, and Grobe does what Peahead Walker, John Mackovic, Al Groh, and Bill Dooley couldn't do.

8-1. Remember those Alabama-fan friends of mine who mocked the premise of Deaconball back in August? Funny, I haven't heard from them lately.

Wake takes on Florida State at 8 pm Saturday, and the game will be broadcast live on ABC. Yes, ABC. Not the Ocho, not SportsSouth, not Lincoln Financial-Raycom: ABC, the American Broadcasting Company. Prime time, network TV. Little ol' Wake Forest will be seen in more households than The Sopranos, Jon Stewart, MTV.

It's good times in Deacon land.

Wake 24, UNC 17

One of real sportswriters' favorite cliches is "good teams find a way to win."

My brother, who was at Kenan Stadium on Saturday, said that Wake didn't deserve to beat Carolina.

But didn't Clint Eastwood, in Unforgiven, say something like 'deserves got nothing to do with it'? Wake might have played ugly, but they found a way to win, and now Wake fans have to ask themselves a mostly unfamiliar question:

Just how good is this team?

They're 7-1, still in the AP top 25, and thanks to Virginia Tech's whuppin' of Clemson last Thursday, they have a share of the lead in the ACC's Atlantic Division and a realistic shot at the ACC Championship Game.

If I weren't already sitting down, I'd need to.

That 7-1 record is the Deacons' best since the 1979 Tangerine Bowl season under John Mackovic. For the first time since 1987, they've beaten all three of the other Big 4 schools: Duke, State, and now Carolina. All this without their starting quarterback or tailback.

Carolina, riding a rush of "win-one-for-Bunting" emotion*, drove to inside the Deacon 10 with less than a minute left. On third down Joe Dailey tried to sidearm a pass into the end zone. The ball made it to the end zone, but I don't think Dailey meant for it to hit Jon Abbate square in the numbers (though he might have, since Abbate was closer to it than anyone in baby blue).

So now all Wake has to do to ensure a chance at the ACC title game is run the rest of the table: Boston College at home, Florida State in Tallahassee, Virginia Tech at home, Maryland in College Park.

Gee, is that all? Why don't we throw Ohio State into that schedule for good measure? Is there any way we can move Ol' Miss from September to November? Can we play Duke again?

Mathematically, Wake could lose one of its remaining games and still win the Atlantic division, but that would require both Boston College and Clemson to lose again to an ACC opponent. Honestly, Wake could lose the rest of their games and still go to a decent bowl game and call the season a success. Historically, Wake finishing 7-5 should satisfy any Deacon fan with a lick of sense.

But now the Deacons have done gone and raised expectations on us. Would 7-5 satisfy the faithful? Would 10-2, 9-3, 8-4? What if the next loss is a gut punch like the Clemson game? What if the next loss is in the Wake tradition of well-played, hard-fought, ultimately futile close-score defeats at the hands of a deeper and more talented team? What if Wake loses another key player? Which of those scenarios would make 7-5 easier to take? Should any of those scenarios make 7-5 easier to take? Are we justified in un-humbling our expectations for "little old Wake Forest"?

I'd love to know how other Deacon fans answer those questions.

* Mark Packer on Prime Time with the Packman correctly (I think) pointed out that the Tarheels' rallying around Bunting now is about the biggest slap in the face they could give him. They wouldn't or couldn't rally around him earlier, when they had to know his job was on the line, and they could have done something to help keep him there. Suddenly showing up to play at this point, when Bunting's fate has been decided, is almost like saying they're glad he's gone.

Maybe they are, but by all accounts Bunting is a decent guy and a class act all the way. And he obviously bleeds Carolina blue. Like Matt Doherty before him, though, Bunting seemed a little overmatched, a little underprepared for his dream job. He kept Willie Parker, the running back who would become the starter for the Super Bowl champions, on the bench. He recruited as much talent as any coach in the ACC, but couldn't seem to get them to play consistent, disciplined football.

Grobe in the N&O

From the Raleigh News & Observer:

Grobe winning his way
Wake coach's style effective, not flashy

A.J. Carr, Staff Writer

WINSTON-SALEM - During Wake Forest's nerve-racking Oct. 14 game with N.C. State, Demon Deacons freshman quarterback Riley Skinner sidled up to Jim Grobe and made a remark that would have sent some coaches flipping over their clipboard.

"Coach, I see you've changed your sweatshirt," Skinner said.

"Yeah, my wife didn't like it, so I had to change," Grobe quipped.

After that bit of sideline levity, the Deacons went on to defeat the Wolfpack 25-23 and push their record to 6-1.

The coach-quarterback exchange said much about why Grobe has been able to lead his team so effectively.

"He's there to win, has a serious, competitive side ... and has fun," Skinner said.

But there's more to Grobe, Skinner said. "He's a very spiritual man, a family-based man, which is important to me. It's encouraging to know your coach cares about you as a person, not just as a product of the system."

In a tough year for several ACC coaches, Grobe is quietly overachieving at a small school that lacks the football tradition and rich resources of its conference rivals.

Yet, the 54-year-old Grobe still prefers the low profile of an offensive lineman, which he was at Virginia in the 1970s. He isn't flashy. He doesn't seek the spotlight. And his ego would fit in a wide receiver's glove.

But his team, which plays at North Carolina on Saturday, is making headlines.

It's a good time for the Wake players and the coach who inspires them with phrases like "grit your teeth and bow your neck!" and "play like your hair's on fire!"

Having steadily recruited better players with more speed, Grobe is confident Wake can sustain success -- he believes he has a sound program, not just a good team.

"We are not going to have one of those years when you drop off the edge of the earth,'' said Grobe, whose redshirt system assures him of having 15 to 18 fifth-year seniors every season. "Each class we've brought in is more talented than the one in front of it. "

The challenge for Wake could be to keep its coach, who is in the fourth year of a 10-year deal. Other schools have courted him in the past, and more are likely to come knocking after this season.

Asked how he would deal with enticing offers, Grobe talked only of his affection for Wake and said he isn't planning on leaving.

Much of his success and appeal is linked to a leadership style that has evoked unwavering loyalty from players and staff, whom he readily credits for Wake's success.

"We try to treat kids like our own sons," said Grobe, who has two grown sons. "We pat 'em on the back; hug 'em around the neck a lot; and kick 'em in the seat of the pants if they're not doing what they're supposed to do."

He has suspended players, including career rushing leader Chris Barclay, who sat out a few games last year for an off-the-field misadventure.

"He knows how to deal with people and knows how to deal with a problem," said Bill Faircloth, assistant athletics director for football.

After games, even if it's late at night, Grobe reminds his players to call their parents to "tell 'em you love 'em," and to get up Sunday morning and go to church.

Grobe sets a schedule that allows his assistants to be home with their families on most nights of the week. Eight of his original 10 Wake coaches are still with him.

Grobe is typically even-keeled during games and rarely gets riled up in practice. But when his voice soars several decibels, the Deacons know it's serious.

For example, in 2001, Wake fell behind UNC 24-0 late in the first half. Grobe doesn't unleash expletives, but he delivered an intense sideline message. Wake woke up after that and rallied for a 32-31 win, the biggest comeback victory in school history.

Mini-miracles like that can happen with a coach you can believe in.

Bye-bye Bobby Bowden?

Former Florida State fan Frazer (say that three times fast) sent me this yesterday:

"It is with great regret that I announce that my decades-long man-love for Bobby Bowden has finally and irrevocably come to an end.

The disappointment and heartbreak of the 80s and 90s were bad enough, even before the scandals started; now all that remains are disgust and embarrassment as my once-proud Seminoles have been reduced to a laughingstock, currently #42 in the polls, and are apparently unable to pull themselves out of their tailspin. Jeff Bowden's incompetence as an offensive coordinator has been obvious for years, but then so was Chris Rix's complete and utter idiocy as a quarterback and no one did anything about that. And is Bobby actually coaching anymore? I mean, the guy's pushing 80. If he isn't actually coaching much now, then he needs to be eased into the sunset. And if he is, then he needs to be fired.

Back in the early days, mid-80s when I first came to FSU, one of the cool things about the program (even if it probably wasn't true) was that we could say, 'Hey, look at Florida--we're not that bad.' That feeling of course was crushed into dust years ago, but at least the team would occasionally win a game. Now most non-alumni have nothing but contempt for the Seminoles, and why wouldn't they? The petty greed, brazen indifference for the rules, the sheer stupidity--hell, we might as well be Miami.

And, like most FSU alum, I bought into the myth of Bobby Bowden, dadgummit. I loved the guy. Cornball, straight shooting, self-deprecating charisma. I even looked the other way when he started doing pre-recorded telemarketing calls for the Republicans in 2000. But now, he, his program, and his coaching career have become a ghastly parody. He's a cute little corn-pone wind-up doll, for sure, but there's something calculated and reptilian about his aw-shucks now. I can no longer defend it.

Therefore, I officially renounce my FSU fandom, until such time as Bobby Bowden retires, and the FSU coaching staff is taken over by someone other than Bobby's Faulknerian idiot man-child son Jeff. New blood is needed. Change. Great heaping ladles full of change. I am shopping around for a new college team to root for, and am open to any suggestions; of the gentlemen I've addressed this rant to, Fred and Ed are alums of schools that might fit the bill. Before Sunday, I would have just said I'm turning to pro football, but then our Panthers displayed great incompetence as well. We'll see how it shakes out.

Oh, yeah, Rick....you were right. Joe Pa deserves the most wins laurels, even if not technically.

Frazer
Former Florida State fan"

Bye-bye Bunting

John Bunting is gone. Or will be. Dick Baddour's letting him play out the string, giving him time to clean out his desk, steal some towels from the locker room, and swipe all the "U," "N," and "C" keys off the Athletic Department computer keyboards.

In the Charlotte Observer Scott Fowler wrote that Bunting was good guy who was more or less in over his head. I've said before that the best thing Bunting had going was Chuck Amato in the same media market; with Chuck the Chest over in Raleigh, Bunting could never be the biggest buffoon in the neighborhood.

Personally, I'll kind of miss the guy. I'll miss the lackadaisacal effort from UNC players. I'll miss seeing a running back like Willie Parker kept deep on the bench. I'll miss the deer-in-the-headlights look of Bunting's postgame interviews.

But Deacon fans need to be worried about the effect this announcement will have on the Tarheels going into Saturday's game against the Deacs at Kenan Stadium. I've seen other teams in similar situations get ridiculously fired up, rallying around the coach they've more or less ignored the rest of the season, which is how the coach got let go in the first place. Even if it's only for one game. The next game.

Feel free to use this space to post your fondest memories of the Bunting Era of UNC football.

Wake 25, State 23

I need to send some kind of thank-you gift to the good folks at SportSouth. Some of my wife's brownies, perhaps.

Once again, I was nowhere near a TV, much less Carter-Finley Stadium, when Wake played NC State in Raleigh last Saturday. I was at the Southern Festival of Books (an excellent event - ), held in Memphis this year. I had about an hour between the time we closed up our booth and the time we had to leave for dinner; I spent that hour in front of the TV in my hotel room, flipping between ESPN, ABC, and Fox Sports, waiting for the Wake score to scroll across the ticker on the bottom of the screen.

Finally, after 45 minutes, after seeing all the Top 25 scores twice, after seeing the ALCS score four times, after seeing the Big 12 scores, the Ivy League scores, the I-AA scores, I saw "WAKE" and "NCSU" roll onto the screen - and "WAKE" was highlighted.

If the occupants of the room below mine were sleeping, I'd like to apologize.

Resigning myself to not knowing the details of the game until I got back to North Carolina, I woke up the next morning with every good intention of working out or writing or otherwise spending my Sunday morning in a productive way. I flipped through the TV channels to find some good background noise. That's when I stumbled on Comcast SportsSouth, and the vaguely familiar sight of Carter-Finley, with the NC State Fair in the background.

Son of a gun. All my plans got tossed into the Mississippi.

Dang, Wake looked good last Saturday. State was better than I expected, but for three quarters Wake dominated them. For three quarters, of course, Wake dominated Clemson, too, but this time Wake held on. Specifically, Josh Gattis held on to a last-minute pass from State's Daniel Evans; the change-of-possession allowed Riley Skinner to take a knee and let the clock run out.

The cliche of the moment to describe Skinner is "poise," and it's as good a word as any other. But what Skinner shows is sort of beyond poise; it's a kind of composure that's freakish for a redshirt freshman who was not highly touted, and barely recruited at all, coming out of high school. Against State he glided through collapsing pockets like he was Dan by-God Marino, sliding just enough to give him the time and space to throw.

On defense Aaron Curry had a big game, as did Jon Abbate. Gattis, after his game-saving interception, could have sat down on every other play and still gotten a game ball.

The hero of the game, though, has to be Sam Swank. On the broadcast they said that Swank's teammates call him "Swankemeier," in reference to Wake's All-American, Ray Guy Award-winning, clutch punter Ryan Plackemeier. But Swank needs his own name now. He hit three field goals from beyond 51 yards, and he makes punts settle between the 10 and the end zone like he uses the Force.

So Wake moves to 6-1 and cracks the AP Top 25 (at #25). I almost hate that this is their bye week.

In the Winston-Salem Journal yesterday, Lenox Rawlings pointed out:

"Normal has taken a crazy ride since then, perhaps the wildest twist involving Wake Forest. In the current AP poll, Wake Forest ranks No. 25, the Deacons' first recognition since Sept. 2003, a span of 53 polls. Wake Forest ranks ahead of FSU, Miami and Virginia Tech.

The upshot: Wake Forest can reach the ACC title game and play someone - Georgia Tech, perhaps - for the trophy and the league's automatic spot in the Orange Bowl. A trip to Jacksonville for the ACC showdown would represent a historic rarity - only the 1970 team won the league race - and an oddsmaker's long shot.

The shot could get a lot shorter this weekend. Wake Forest (6-1, 2-1 ACC) will engage in extracurricular activities (presumably other than boxing) while rivals will risk defeat. By Saturday night, the Deacons could claim the catbird's seat.

Wake Forest's version of bliss doesn't even require a monumental upset: Clemson (3-1 ACC) loses at home to Georgia Tech, N.C. State (2-1) loses at Maryland, BC (2-1) loses at FSU (2-2). If all that occurs, Wake Forest will head to Carolina tied with Maryland (2-1) for first place in the Atlantic. Then, Clemson must travel to Virginia Tech five days later.

The Deacons' road turns rougher in November: BC at home, FSU away, Virginia Tech at home, Maryland away.

Wake Forest has beaten BC twice in the past three seasons and lost to the Eagles 35-30 last year. FSU, which hasn't lost to the Deacons in the 14 games since 1973, looks extremely vulnerable against any organized opponent. Virginia Tech beat the Deacons 17-10 in Groves Stadium last year but lacks crispness, especially in the passing game. The Deacons often run out of gas against Maryland - hence, seven straight losses - but they should have more fumes this time.

Quarterback Benjamin Mauk broke his throwing arm on opening night. Instead of disaster, the Deacons have aided the careful emergence of freshman Riley Skinner. The calm Floridian has completed 68 percent of his passes, 15th nationally. He has thrown for 912 yards and four touchdowns while suffering only one interception. He ranks second to Clemson's Will Proctor in overall passing efficiency, and first in ACC games only.

With rushing leader Micah Andrews knocked out by a knee injury, the Wake Forest offense might have sputtered. Instead, the Deacons lead the ACC with 21 scores on 23 trips inside the 20-yard line, the red zone. A major factor: kicker Sam Swank ranks sixth nationally with 1.6 field goals per game and kicked three from beyond 50 yards last week, which means that Wake Forest can score from nearly anywhere inside an opponent's 40.
Swank's punting average (42.9 yards a kick) ranks No. 22 nationally, but that is a quirky stat harmed by his knack for letting punts die in teammates' arms just outside the end zone. The no-return policy has made the Deacons No. 2 nationally in net punting (38.9 yards after returns are figured).

In real ACC games, Wake Forest won 25-23 at State and blew a two-touchdown lead against Clemson before losing 27-17. Clemson thus holds a tiebreaker edge head-to-head, which damages the Deacons' chances. Three-way ties are resolved differently, though, often relying on other results within the division.

Wake Forest could lose again and still nudge past Clemson in a three-way deal, or Wake Forest could win the division outright."

I hear Jacksonville's lovely in December. OK, not really, but if Wake's in the ACC Championship game, it'll sure look lovely to me.

this helps, too

From my friend Patrick:

For those of us who like college football...
(1) What does the average Michigan player get on his SATs? .........Drool.
(2) What do you get when you put 32 West Virginia cheerleaders in one
room?
.........A full set of teeth.
(3) How do you get a Nebraska cheerleader into your dorm room?
........Grease her hips and push.
(4) How do you get a Florida State graduate off your porch? ..........
Pay him for the pizza.
(5) How do you know if an Alabama football player has a girlfriend?
........There is tobacco spit on both sides of his pickup.
(6) Why is the Indiana football team like a possum? .....Because they play
dead at home and get killed on the road.
(7) What are the longest three years of a Miami (Fla) football
player's life?
.........His freshman year.
(8) How many Oklahoma freshmen does it take to change a light bulb?
.........None. That's a sophomore course.
(9) Where was O.J. headed in the white Bronco? ......... Durham, North
Carolina. He knew that the police would never look for a Heisman
Trophy winner at Duke. AND FINALLY......
(10) Why did Tennessee choose orange as their team color?
.........You can
wear it to the game on Saturday, hunting on Sunday, and picking up
trash along
the highways the rest of the week.

Clemson 27, Wake 17

This one hurt. This one hurt bad.

Wake had it. Wake had it in the palm of their collective hand. And then they blew it.

Swank makes that field goal, Clemson's looking at three scores to get back into it. Wake makes that field goal, the psychology totally shifts; or, rather, it stays the same, with Wake dominant and Clemson struggling. By no means am I laying the blame on poor Jon Temple; stuff happens, and he did exactly what he was supposed to do when that particular stuff happens. Clemson still had to score twice more to win the game, so there's plenty of blame to go around, if you want to place blame. I don't. They played their guts out. They have a lot more football to play. But, good Lord above, this one hurt bad.

Groves Stadium had a capacity crowd, standing room only. Wake had it. For three quarters, Wake looked like worldbeaters.

I wasn't there. I was at the beach, watching on ESPN (long story short, my wife owed me). I had my notebook and wrote a post about the excitement of watching College GameDay and hearing a Wake game discussed as one of the day's biggest games, of seeing the Charlotte Observer call it 'the most important game in the Carolinas.' I was bouncing off the walls. The only thing keeping my excitement in check was GameDay's use of a Big & Rich song for their theme (can they please go back to being Small and Poor?).

I looked back over what I wrote and decided I couldn't put it online. Too painful. I kept a running diary of the game; I can't bring myself to post that, either. Who would want to read the record of 45 minutes of joy abruptly followed by 15 minutes of shock and anger?

Reminding myself that this was just a game, that football's just a game, hasn't helped so far. Reminding myself that I have invested nothing in this program, nothing like what the coaches and players have, hasn't helped. It still hurts.

This helps: Tom Sorenson's column in the Observer on Sunday ran under the headline "Wake loses game, keeps its class,' and talked about how well the Deacons held up under the heartbreak of this game (www.charlotte.com). I'd rather root for a losing team with class, who goes to class, than a winning team made up of thugs and dummies who bitch and moan and point fingers.

This helps, too: I don't have to choose between classy winners and thuggish losers. Wake's record is now 5-1. My math skills are suspect, but that still looks like a winning record. Like I said, they have a lot more football to play. They have a lot of heart to play it with.

Ouch

Wake-Clemson gets a mention in Dave Revsine's Between the Numbers column on espn.com:

67: The marquee game in the ACC this week, though, involves the biggest surprise team in the conference: Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons' five wins already are more than they totaled in 67 of their 104 years of football. (Italics mine)

1944: With a win over Clemson, Wake would be 6-0 for the first time since coach "Peahead" Walker's team started 7-0 in 1944.
I mention this for no other reason than to use the name "Peahead" in context, although Walker is the source of one of the great football quotes of all time. After being disciplined by the university president for using some offensive language during a game, Walker responded by saying, "Damn to a football coach is like amen to a preacher." Where have all the Peaheads gone?
3: As for Clemson, the Tigers had 3 100-yard rushers in their obliteration of Louisiana Tech last week. That's one more 100-yard rusher than they had in the entire 2004 season, when Reggie Merriweather went over the century mark twice -- with both efforts coming in the final three games of the season.

Here's the link to the article: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=revsine_dave&id=2613804&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos1

Alert: Back in Black on Saturday

From www.wfu.edu: Wear black, support the Deacs
Wake Forest fans attending Saturday's game against Clemson (noon kickoff) are encouraged to wear black to show their support for the ACC's only remaining undefeated team. The Deacons are 5-0 for the first time since 1987. Clemson is ranked 15th in the country.

Grobe makes the Forde-Yard Dash

Pat Forde gives Jim Grobe his September's Coach award on ESPN.com:

"• September's coach is Jim Grobe (11) of Wake Forest, whose injury-depleted team is nevertheless the last unbeaten in the biggest flop of a conference, the ACC. "

And a shout-out to the Old Gold and Black:
"• Black and gold (23). Not a bad color scheme for up-and-comers. Works for Missouri (5-0). Works for Wake Forest (5-0). Not working so well for Colorado (0-5). "

You can read the full Forde-Yard Dash at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2611255.

5 for Abbate

If you're at the Clemson game Saturday, get your hand up at the start of the fourth quarter: http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149190946222

5-0 Does Not Make Good Baptists Happy*

With Wake Forest starting 5-0, this should be an easy time to bask in the program and in college football generally. Should be. But although I, like Wake Forest, broke with the Southern Baptists some time ago, enough of the old low-church is in my blood that I can’t help but feel uneasy. Baptist theology is not strictly Calvinist, since the whole point of adult baptism is the free will of the individual soul, but it’s just as distrustful of anything that feels too good. 5-0 feels good, feels really good, and a lot of Wake Forest folks, myself included, just can’t trust it. We want to stand and cheer, to holler our lungs out like we were at a revival, to ride this winning streak right into the New Year. But we’ve grown up Wake Forest fans, and Southern Baptists, and we assume Apocalypse is right around the corner. Or next Saturday.

* Nothing really makes good Baptists happy.

Wake 34, Liberty 14

Wake beats Liberty by 20 points and starts the 2006 season 5-0, and still some of the Deacon faithful weren’t entirely happy.

They were looking ahead to Clemson, and they found the Deacons’ more-than-adequate efforts against the Flames to be less-than-adequate against the Tigers in their minds, the Tigers that beat the Seminoles and mopped up Death Valley with the Tarheels.

When the Liberty quarterback found one of his receivers in the back of the end zone, the guy sitting behind me wailed, “Left him wide open.” I guess he couldn’t see the Wake defender running jersey-to-jersey with the Liberty receiver. To me, the touchdown looked like a great catch by a taller receiver who went up for a jump ball over the stout defense of a shorter player.

Liberty, in fact, had an impressive passing game with an accurate QB and sure-handed receivers who were rarely left “wide open,” but had a knack for hanging onto the ball in traffic.

I think the bulk of the faithful, watching Wake’s last non-conference game, wanted dominance more dominating than what they saw against Liberty. They wanted a blowout. They wanted a shutout. They wanted a 50-plus-point smackdown like the Tigers laid on the Tarheels two weeks ago. They wanted a contest as stacked and one-sided as the midway games being played across Deacon Boulevard at the Dixie Classic Fair.

Or maybe all the fair traffic on the way to the game just made them cranky. Otherwise they could have relaxed and enjoyed the fact that Wake Forest is undefeated after five games.

All together now: Wake Forest is undefeated after five games. Wake Forest is undefeated. Wake Forest has yet to be beaten. Almost halfway through the season, and Wake Forest has won every game they have played.

This has happened twice before: in 1944 under Peahead Walker, and in 1987 under Bill Dooley. The AP Top 25 comes out Monday, and Wake stands a good chance of being in it*. Dang.

Riley Skinner looks more poised than anyone in his position should; D’Angelo Bryant is picking up where Micah Andrews left off; the defense is something fierce. So, just as if they were on the Dixie Classic’s midway, the Deacon faithful should quit worrying about the quality of the competition and just savor the sights and sounds and all the pretty colors of a possible Top 25 ranking and a 5-0 record.

Back to the guy behind me: early in the first quarter he let loose with a couple of cuss words. The woman with him slapped him hard on the leg and pointed at my daughter, who had come to the game with me. Now, I didn’t mind much what he had said; the words he sued were pretty mild, nothing my daughter couldn’t hear on network TV. What got me was what he said after he was reminded to watch his language: “You’d think that when you come to a football game . . .”

What the #%^& is that supposed to mean? That when you come to a football game you ought to be able to cuss like a #$%&^ sailor on shore leave? And don’t think that the way he said “football,” the emphasis he put on that one word, didn’t have meaning. I can’t imagine him or most other guys saying “You’d think when I come to a basketball game,” or “a baseball game,” quite the same way. He didn’t just say “football,” he invoked it. Maybe he might invoke “hockey” like that, if he were a Yankee or a Canadian. Probably he’d invoke “NASCAR race” in much the same way, if he’s a NASCAR fan. But those sports have a lot in common with football: speed, violence, and men geared up in helmets and armor.

In football the helmets make the players unrecognizable to the fans in the stands, and the shoulder pads make even the few slight players – kickers and the occasional wide receiver – look like Olympian examples of robust manhood. When Roger Clemens is on the mound, he is recognizably Roger Clemens, even if his name and number were taken off his uniform. Same goes for Tim Duncan banking in a jump shot. When a football player throws or catches a pass, throws a block or makes a tackle, it could be any big strong guy inside that helmet and those pads. Maybe, even, a big strong guy with a face a lot like the one you see in the mirror every morning.

The whole premise isn’t really true, of course: Jim Brown or Tony Dorsett ran in a way that was identifiably theirs, just as Lawrence Taylor rushed the passer or Brett Favre throws the ball. It’s not even logical, but how often does logic get in the way of daydreams? Isn’t that the whole point of vicarious identification, anyway – the escape from the cold, hard fact that you can’t do what you wish you could do?

So I’m guessing that the guy behind me associates the freedom to cuss with a kind of primal joy, if not masculinity, that he also associates with watching football*. Kind of like 6th-grade boys who think they’re big because they know bad words. Now, I find a good stream of profanity as entertaining – even cathartic – as the next guy, but it takes a whole lot more than the basic rules of common civility to make me feel emasculated. Heck, it even takes more than using words like “cathartic.”

This scene leads to a dilemma, though. One fan’s common civility might be another fan’s uptight snobbery. One fan – more than one, at a typical Wake game – might wish that everyone would sit still and clap politely, maybe utter a well-considered “Go Deacs” at appropriate moments but otherwise comport themselves with absolute dignity. Other fans – a growing number of fans at Wake games – might want everyone to stay on their feet from when the team runs onto the field* to the final gun. They want cheers and screams and noisemakers, chants and heckling and loud displays. They want face paint, and bare chests in November. In other words, they want to be the kind of fans you’ll find at Alabama and Ohio State, and maybe if the fans are worthy, they’ll get the kind of football you’ll find at Alabama or Ohio State.

Prime Time with the Packman is a sports-talk radio show produced in Charlotte and broadcast all over the Carolinas. The host is Mark Packer, son of Wake basketball great Billy Packer, so I assume he grew up going to Wake games. Packman took a call one day near the start of the season from a Wake fan who said he took a bicycle horn with him to one game, only to have security take it from him after a well-dressed fan in his section complained. Packer and his co-hosts howled, and one of them pointed out that at an SEC game, the only complaint he would have gotten is not bringing horns for everybody else.

It’s a fine line to walk, but that line is as much of a barrier to Wake’s building a strong football tradition as winning and losing. Jim Grobe is doing everything he can about the wins, and doing it well. Athletic Director Ron Wellman has done an amazing job injecting energy and fan participation into all the sports, football and basketball especially. But the Deacons are never going to build the sizeable fan base a strong program needs unless the fans who want to come and yell and have a rowdy ol’ time are allowed to do so.

If I seem to be contradicting myself, keep in mind that “rowdy” doesn’t (always) mean obscene or offensive. But how in the world is a bicycle horn going to corrupt the morals of our youth? How is the guy up above us, who’s started doing push-ups on the railing for every point the Deacons score, offending anybody? How does some excitement and joy in the stands of Groves Stadium keep some Wake fans from enjoying the game? And, if it does bother them that much, shouldn’t they be the ones to leave?

* Wake was high on the 'Others Receiving Votes' list, but did not crack the Top 25. 5 ACC teams did: Clemson at 15, Florida State (huh?), Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and Boston College at 25.

* It's not like I'm the first to notice this: the early commercials for the movie Gladiator aired during football games, and spliced together scenes of Russell Crowe swinging his sword with scenes of NFL football.

* Wake actually does something much cooler than running: while the Deacon mascot roars onto the field on a custom Harley**, the football team marches arm-in-arm in a show of solidarity until they're almost at midfield.

** Is there a less "Harley-Davidson" kind of a school than Wake Forest?

"Wake freakin' Forest?"

My buddy Chris sent me this link to a CBS Sportsline article about Wake's 4-0 record despite losing their starting quarterback, tailback, and left tackle: http://www.sportsline.com/collegefootball/story/9684430

Wake fans, we need to start some nasty rumors about Jim Grobe to counteract all this great press he's getting, before some bigger program lures him away. Or maybe we can change it from Groves to Grobe's Stadium. He can't leave if we re-name the stadium after him, can he?

Wake 27, Ole Miss 3

Poor Leigh Tiffin. He kicks - by the time I post this, I might need to say kicked - field goals and PAT's for the Alabama Crimson Tide. But Saturday, he didn't. Sure, he lined up for the attempts and put his foot on the ball, but 3 of his field goal attempts and his last extra point attempt flew, straight as an arrow, to the outside of the goalposts. Alabama lost 24-23 in double overtime to SEC foe Arkansas.*

Alabama football matters in Alabama. Matters a lot, probably more than it should.* Tiffin's dad kicked for Alabama, too, so poor young Tiffin knows better than most how much Alabama football matters. Tide fans are already suffering through the agonies of the damned this year, watching rival Auburn run out to a 4-0 record and the #2 ranking in the AP poll. Now this Tiffin kid took what should have been a big conference win and pushed it wide right.*

Bama is one of college football's elite programs, even during seasons when they struggle just to be bowl-eligible. They've won enough titles in the past, under both Bear Bryant and Gene Stallings, and they continue to win enough in the present to keep them in a sort of mental upper echelon even if their actual record doesn't get them in the Top 10. A few other programs are like that - Southern Cal, Notre Dame, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Florida. Their names earn respect even in those years when their records don't. Casual fans know about those teams. They usually don't rebuild, they just reload.

Other programs have some tradition, but most of their high-profile success has come in the last ten years or so: Oregon, Virginia Tech, Louisville. Florida State fit this category in the late '80s and early '90s.

Then there are the programs who have a terrific tradition, a large and loyal fan base, but no or very few titles and no record as a serious, year-in and year-out contender. They've had a few flashes of greatness, some outstanding players and teams, but not the sustained excellence of a Bama or a Notre Dame. Ole Miss falls into this category. Their fans still wear jerseys with Archie Manning's number, 36 years after Ole Miss retired it. The youngest of Archie's litter of QBs, Eli, led the Rebels to some great season just a few short years ago, but they never seriously threatened to take the BCS title. This year they started a miserable 1-2.

Still, they are an SEC team with a long and storied tradition. In fact, they are the only football team I know of that has been memorialized by a Nobel Prize winner for literature:

"And they gave him a uniform and on that afternoon . . . one of the other players failed to rise at once and they explained that to him - how there were rules for violence, he trying patiently to make this distinction, understand it: 'But how can I carry the ball to that line if I let them catch me and pull me down?'
. . . He did this for five days, up to Saturday's climax when he carried a trivial contemptible obloid across fleeing and meaningless white lines. Yet during these seconds, despite his contempt, his ingrained conviction, his hard and spartan heritage, he lived, fiercely free - the spurning earth, the shocks, the hard breathing and the grasping hands, the speed, the rocking roar of massed stands . . ."*

So listening to the Deacons thump the Rebels was awfully, awfully nice.

The Deacs went into the game a 2½-point underdog. I really should have laid $100 on that. That line was built on SEC bias (understandable) and the Deacons' loss of star tailback Micah Andrews to a torn ACL (also understandable). But the Deacon defense dominated; only a couple of dumb 1st quarter penalties - roughing the passer and 12 men on the field - kept the Deacs from pitching a shutout.

On offense, DeAngelo Bryant got the start in place of Andrews. Bryant racked up 105 yards on 22 carries. Riley Skinner only had to pass the ball 5 times, completing 4 for 43 yards. 34 of those yards came on a beaut of a pass to fullback Rich Belton that took the Deacons to the Rebels' 4-yard-line.

So Wake has started the season 4-0 for only the fourth time in school history (two of those times came in the 1940s). They take that shiny 4-0 into next Saturday's game against Liberty.

I said Liberty. Liberty. Yes, Jerry Falwell's Liberty. Yes, apparently they do have a football team.

Wake cannot overlook Liberty. Number one, 4-0 record or not, we're still Wake Forest. Number two, Falwell's boys might go all jihad on us, since we heretic Demon Deacons broke from the Southern Baptist Convention back in the 1980s, so we could let the campus collapse into a den of such iniquities as dancing and co-ed dorms.

Then, the Saturday after Liberty, the Deacons welcome the Clemson Tigers back to Groves Stadium.

I'm about to get a lot of ugly e-mails from my Clemson-fan friends and readers, but I'd put the Clemson program, historically, in the same category as Ole Miss. They've got fans as devoted as any in the country. Game days in Clemson are like medieval holy-day carnivals, except with RVs, gas grills, and lots and lots of orange. I defy any serious college football fan - South Carolina fans excepted - to sit in the sea of orange inside Death Valley, watch the Tigers touch Howard's Rock and run down the hill, hear the Tiger Band play the Tiger Rag (Hold That Tiger), and not get chills. But Clemson only has one national championship (in 1981), and they haven't won an ACC title in more than a decade.

That could change this year. Two weeks ago I mentioned their gut-wrenching double-OT loss to Boston College; if the ball had bounced their way one more time, the game would have, too. Last week they beat Florida State in the annual Bowden Bowl, pitting the Seminoles' Bobby (that huckster SOB) against his son Tommy, the Tigers' 8th-year head coach.

Yesterday I watched them crush - I mean crush - UNC. The final was 52-7, but it wasn't really that close. Clemson was up 21-0 by the end of the first . . . quarter. They were up 35-0 at the half. They scored on 5 of their first 6 possessions. It was a rout. It was a joke. It was a great Saturday for ABCers* everywhere.

As good as the Deacons have looked so far this year, we can't really know what they're made of until they face the Tigers on October 7th. And just to make it more interesting, all Deacon fans (and Clemson fans, too) have this thought running through their heads: the Deacons have absolutely owned the Tigers the last 3 years. Wake doesn't have Clemson's tradition, they don't have Clemson's rabid fan base, they usually don't have Clemson's talent on both side of the ball. What they have had is Clemson's number in 2 of the last 3 games.

Blame the higher academic standards.


* Don't believe me? Read Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer like I told you to.

* Give the Alabama coaching staff and team tremendous credit for class: the camera, of course, followed Tiffin to the sideline after every missed kick, and every shot included at least two players and at least two coaches coming over to comfort, console, and cheer up the poor kicker. Nobody got in his face; instead, they patted his shoulder or his helmet, hugged him, put their arm around him. They may have given him the Full Metal Jacket/Private Pyle treatment once they got into the locker room, but in public they showed nothing but support for their teammate. Says a lot about their character, and I suspect it says a lot about Tiffin's character, too.

* In fairness, Tiffin had made a 46-yard-attempt just before the half, and he kicked the game winner against Vanderbilt two weeks ago.

* from The Hamlet by William Faulkner. The passage describes the reaction of a poor Mississippi farm boy who takes a summer job grading the University (of Mississippi)'s new practice football field, and ends up being offered a football scholarship. Even after graduation, he can't believe they gave him an education in exchange for merely carrying that "trivial contemptible obloid."

* The ABC - Anybody But Carolina - Club is normally a basketball season organization, and the membership has declined recently in direct proportion to the growth of the ABD - Anybody But Duke - Club.

Wake 24, UConn 13

Well, son of a gun, Wake Forest won. Once again, I didn't get to see the game because, once again, no broadcaster in their right mind would air Wake vs. UConn. In basketball, certainly; in football, not so much.

So Wake starts the 2006 season 3-0, the first time they've opened with three straight wins since 1987. Dang, y'all. And their next two games are against Ol' Miss and Liberty. Dang. Then they face Clemson at home on October 7. In the past three years, they've only lost to Clemson once - in overtime. Dang. Dang.

I am a superstitious man. I am going to stop right there. I am going to cede the Deaconball floor to espn.com's excellent Pat Forde, who gives the Deacons some well-deserved attention in his Forde-Yard Dash: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=2594247

Ol' Miss fans like to say that they may not win every game, but they've never lost a party. Wake Forest fans like to say that we may not win every game, but partying is best left to the country club. Or, if they're the old-school Southern Baptist Wake Forest fans, they say partying is of the Devil and is best left to Episcopalians.

Wake 14, Duke 13

Look at that score again. Wake 14, Duke 13. Wake beat Duke - Duke - by one point. How does that happen?

I missed the game - I was at the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance trade show in Orlando, FL. During the lunch break I got to see UNC give Virginia Tech all the Hokies could handle . . . for about 3 minutes. Then the cosmos righted itself and the Hokies ran away with it.

The Wake-Duke game wasn't on TV. What programmer in his right mind would broadcast Wake-Duke? Even if the teams were better, the schools have the smallest alumni/fan bases of any in the ACC. Blame the academic standards. The football programs would have to be as good as Duke's basketball program to earn serious TV time.

So I didn't see the Wake score until the trade show was over for the day at 5, and I adjourned to the nearby bar. I watched Clemson and Boston College play a whale of a game, a double-overtime heartbreaker for the Tigers. I watched the ticker scroll through the Top 25 scores three times before it showed the Wake score. Wake 14, Duke 13: I almost fell out of my chair.

How does that happen? I found out Monday that Wake had to come from behind, and still needed to block a last-second Duke field goal attempt to seal the deal*. How does that happen? How does a team that beat Syracuse by 10 - and Syracuse gave a top-20 Iowa team all they could handle the next week - scrape by Duke by one point?

I wasn't there, so I won't speculate. All I know is we got shellacked by UConn at home in 2003, and this Saturday we go up there to face them. They're currently first in the NCAA in rushing, 2nd in total offense. It may not be pretty.*

Meanwhile, Tom Sorensen has a great column in the Charlotte Observer about college football in the Carolinas: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/sports/colleges/15523478.htm His advice for big-time college football fans in the Carolinas? Drive north on I-77 towards Blacksburg, VA, or south on I-85 toward Athens, GA. Ouch. It hurts because it's true.

* My dad was there, and said the blocked FG was one of the most exciting plays he's seen in years. He said the crowd went nuts like Wake had just won the Sugar Bowl. I'm sure I would have been, too, if I had been there, but at a distance, all I can think is how very, very sad that is.

* Although it can't possibly be as not-pretty as NC State's upset loss to the mighty Akron Zips. And that loss wasn't nearly as not-pretty as State coach Chuck Amato's postgame comments about the advantage Akron had because they play 'academic non-qualifiers.' Those are players who have to sit out their first season for academic reasons; the ACC doesn't allow them. John Delong, in the Winston-Salem Journal, pointed out that reporters kept pestering Amato, trying to provoke this kind of remark; it wasn't like Amato came out whining. Even so, the reporters kept after Amato because they knew they could eventually provoke him, as Delong admits. Amato will probably last the season, but not much longer than that. His hot seat's getting hotter. The latest rumor involves NC State alum Bill Cowher's new house in north Raleigh: this is Cowher's last year in his contract with the Steelers, and Amato's last year in his contract with State. Like Cowher's going to leave the NFL for State.

It's interesting to compare Amato's situation with Jim Grobe's. Amato has more wins and more bowl games, but his job is in serious jeopardy while Grobe seems to be sitting pretty. Part of the problem is expectation: Amato came in with a lot of hype from his days as a FSU coordinator, and made a lot of promises about 'restoring' NC State football to national prominence (I didnt't know they'd ever been nationally prominent). He sold the fan base on a multi-million dollar renovation and expansion of their home field. Then Phillip Rivers left and the wins were harder to come by. Throw in the bright red shoes, the constant sunglasses, the chest, and the voice, and Amato became harder and harder to rally around.

On the other hand, I have yet to hear or hear of Grobe saying anything stupid or provocative. He's a smart guy who clearly knows what he's doing, appears to appreciate Wake's academics and even its small size, doesn't dress or talk funny, and seems to get the most out of his talent. Every football commentator I've ever heard has nothing but good things to say about him; most Wake fans are scared to death that if he does lead the Deacs to a breakout season, he's going to get lured away to a bigger program.

Wake 20, Syracuse 10

(Apologia: I was very diligent Saturday, going so far as to keep thorough notes during the game. Since then, though, I can't seem to get those notes in close proximity to a working computer with an internet connection, which is why this post is late and lacking in facts and stats.)

My family tailgates in the Joel Coliseum parking lot, across the street from Groves Stadium. The Groves parking lot is now the exclusive domain of Deacon Club members who contribute a certain amount.

I'm not a snob, but this represents a big step for Wake Forest football. Once, an entire game day crowd could fit in the Groves Stadium parking. Nowadays, both that lot and the Joel lot are completely full by kickoff time, and merchants along Deacon Boulevard can make a little extra by charging anywhere from 5 to 10 bucks for a parking space.

My wife and I get to the parking lot three hours before game time, and the best spots - the shady spots - have already been taken. By Syracuse fans. We didn't expect this kind of turnout from the Orange faithful. Their team's coming off a one-win season, and northwest North Carolina's a long way from upstate New York. But apparently hope isn't the exclusive virtue of Wake Forest football fans.

Witness Groves Stadium just before kickoff: it'd be packed to the rafters, if it had rafters. I've never seen it packed for a nonconference game before. I don't think I've ever seen it this full at kickoff before; usually great gaps of empty seats are still being filled at the end of the first quarter. Jim Grobe has been like a booster shot to the hope quotient of Wake fans, and it has less to do with actual wins and losses than it does with the attitude he brings, the aggressiveness he demands from his players. At times in the past, Wake played like a beat dog instead of an underdog. That has yet to happen under Jim Grobe.

The third quarter of the Syracuse game contained a great example of Grobe's effect. DeAngelo Bryant takes the handoff around the right side and gets popped by a Syracuse linebacker, knocking the ball loose and back across the line of scrimmage. Ben Mauk, a redshirt junior QB who came to Wake with all kinds of gaudy high school numbers and hype, who took a nasty beating last season after earning the starting job for the opener but getting yanked halfway through the schedule, who is finally the unquestioned starting quarterback and leader of this team, who finally seems to have a strong grip on Wake's multiple offensive schemes and formations*, dives for the loose ball. So do two Syracuse d-linemen.

From where I sit, I can see the collision coming. Mauk had to see it coming. He gets his right arm over the ball when at least one of those big linemen lands on it. After the game, Grobe will call what Mauk did "the bravest thing" he's ever seen a QB do. But when the pile clears, Mauk is lying facedown on the ground, his legs kicking in pain. We're glad to see his legs move.

Mauk is wrapped on the field and carted off on a stretcher; we find out later he broke his arm above the elbow and dislocated his shoulder. He's done for the year.

Mauk completed his first pass for Wake two years ago, when he came in for Cory Randolph in a game at Clemson. He took his first snap and completed an 80-yard touchdown toss to Jason Anderson. So began the expectations, even though the pass was a bit of a floater that Anderson, an All-ACC receiver, had to come back for, and most of the yards on the play came from Anderson's broken-field running. But what really made the fans love Mauk, at least for a while, was his willingness to hit and get hit. On quarterback keepers Mauk made like the second coming of Jim Brown, lowering his shoulders and taking on defensive backs, never sliding or scooting out of bounds. I was in the stands when he did that, and I went nuts with everybody else, every time he did it, even though I knew it wasn't smart football. Grobe finally had to tell him, publicly, not to be so eager to court injury. Better he be able to get up for the next snap than gain an extra half-a-yard by standing up a cornerback.

Recovering a fumble is a different animal, though, one that requires less discretion and more reaction. Mauk did what he saw he had to do, apparently without having to think about it. And Wake got the ball back. Who knows if that's worth a starting quarterback.

Football coaches are always going on about commitment, usually when they're talking about the long, hard slog of summer practices, two-a-days, the aches and pains that build up over a season. But commitment is equally measured in a moment, a split-second, when a player has to choose so quickly he doesn't have time to realize he's making a choice. It's the kind of moment that can happen anywhere, that any one of us could face, but the nature of the game makes those moments far more likely to occur on a football field. That's one of football's attractions, to see others make the choices that we dread and crave at the same time. Hemingway called it 'grace under pressure,' and defined courage as 'the willful ignorance of likely consequences.' I'm not sure what Mauk did qualifies as 'willful ignorance'; I'm not sure he had time to think about what could happen, beyond the general and accepted acknowledgement that football is a dangerous game whose participants can be hurt - badly - on any given play. But for whatever else Mauk did or didn't do Saturday - and he did lead a touchdown drive on the opening possession - in that one instant he showed more commitment to winning, to his team, to getting Wake Forest a W, than any of the fans in the stands who have lionized or criticized him the past two years.

Mauk's replaced by redshirt freshman Riley Skinner*, who gets himself on the faithful's good side just a few plays later. He pitches the ball to Bryant, who's coming around left end, but instead of hanging back like most QBs do, Skinner keeps running right alongside Bryant. The fans who notice this barely have time to realize it, before a Syracuse defender comes into our field of vision. He's got an angle on Bryant, but Skinner's got an angle on him. Like Mauk's collision, we can see it coming. Unlike Mauk's, Skinner has the time and opportunity to think about what he's getting ready to do. He's got time to back off, to slow down, to shrink from what he could do. He's got time to hesitate and give it his minimum, and because he's a quarterback, not many people would blame him if he did.

But he doesn't: he hits the Syracuse defender so hard we can hear the pads collide; it's the last sound we hear before the Wake fans start screaming. It's an ugly block, but it's a good one, and it springs Bryant for a first down. Best of all, Skinner stays on his feet, unharmed, ready to get back under center and take the next snap. And if there was any question about his leadership - and screw the faithful, I'm talking about his teammates here - Skinner answered it.

Skinner leads a touchdown drive to give Wake its 20 points for the game, but any game balls need to go to the defense. Alright, yes, Syracuse was something like 117th in total offense in Division I-A last year, but the Wake defense looks no less dominant just because the opponent is weak. If I had my notes I could tell you exactly how many 2nd-half possessions in a row Syracuse went three-and-out, and how many Syracuse 'drives' were stopped inside their own 20-yard line. Put it this way: our seats are near the south end zone, which was what Syracuse was trying to reach in the fourth quarter. They stayed so far away that they could have slipped in a 12th man and nobody in our section would have noticed.

So Wake fans went home with a 20-10 win that was closer than it looked, at least until the defense took over in the second half. We went home with a starting QB lost for the season, but a replacement who - even though, for all we know, he can't pass on a four-lane highway - earned a great deal of respect. We went home with a defense that looks mighty hard to handle.

And we went home knowing that our next opponent is Duke, who lost to Division I-AA Richmond 13-0*. That would make anyone feel better, even Wake fans.

* If the Wake Forest admissions office is going to insist that football players meet the school's high academic standards, the coaches might as well use that to their advantage. The quote is with my notes, which I don't have, but one respected football analyst said something along the lines of "Wake has more formations than General Patton." I'm no respected football analyst, but I'd like to think I'm fairly knowledgeable, and I can't keep up with all the sets the Deacons show over the course of a game. Plus, they run a no-huddle offense with a lot of hot routes and motion in the backfield**. It's enough to make you dizzy before the ball's even snapped.

** Now, if the team you root for runs a no-huddle offense in which coaches send in plays from the sideline, and then the QB calls out the play to the rest of the offense, wouldn't you think your fellow fans might not want to start a raucous chant between plays WHILE YOUR TEAM HAS THE BALL? Don't you think that that might be a bad time to show how much noise you can make? Shouldn't that be saved for, oh, I don't know, maybe when an opponent is facing third down? Maybe the coaching staff has some system worked out, and has requested that the band and cheerleaders do this - getting the two sides of the stadium screaming "Wake" and "Forest" to each other to see who can scream louder - as part of their ongoing efforts to confuse the opposing defense. Otherwise, Wake's supporters have a whole lot to learn about football.

* The Winston-Salem Journal had a nice article about Skinner today: http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?c=MGArticle&cid=1149190472593&pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle

* It also helps that Carolina lost to a lightly regarded Rutgers team. Heh heh. Carolina fans had been out in force on sports talk radio the past week, predicting nine or even 10 wins for the Tar Heels. That might turn out to be a bit, um - well, the nice word would be optimistic. Since it's Carolina, though, I don't feel like being nice - it's downright delusional.

Appalachian gave NC State all they could handle, but couldn't hold on for the win. Same with Georgia Tech, who nearly upset Notre Dame.