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?
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Monday, September 25, 2006
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
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.
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.
Friday, September 15, 2006
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.
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.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
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.
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.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Pre-game warm up
I walked into Circuit City this morning to buy the cheapest, smallest radio I could find. All the TVs were tuned to ESPN's College GameDay, broadcasting on this, the first college football Saturday of the 2006 season, from the University of Michigan.
If College GameDay ever broadcasts from Wake Forest, I might break down in tears. Shoot, if College GameDay ever broadcasts from the state of North Carolina, I might break down.
I was buying a radio in the first place because, even though North Carolina might not be the center of the football universe, this is a big weekend for its college football teams. UNC opens at home against Rutgers at 3. Traditional HBCU rivals Winston-Salem State and NC A&T* face each other tonight for the first time in years; A&T moved up to I-AA a few years ago, while WSSU just made the jump this year.
And speaking of I-AA, the reigning I-AA national champion Appalachian State Mountaineers come down off their mountain and head to Raleigh for NC State's home opener.
NC State is led by head coach Chuck Amato, an alum and the defensive coordinator on Florida State's powerhouse teams of the 1990s. Amato promised big things for the Wolfpack, and the Wolfpack faithful rewarded him with a massive expansion and renovation project for Carter-Finley Stadium.
Those big things have yet to arrive, and last season was considered a disappointment despite winning a bowl game. Chuck is also a little too . . . we'll say colorful . . . to sit well with some of the Wolfpack's boosters. Amato wore bright red shoes. He wore sunglasses, night games and indoor games included. Plus, there's a story making the rounds that claims Amato tried to woo a recruit from South Carolina by telling him he needed to go to an in-state school.
Is that story true? Probably not. Does his wardrobe have anything to do with his coaching? I doubt it. But it sure does make an easy target for the rest of us.
Appalachian, meanwhile, won their first national title this year after a thrilling run through the I-AA playoffs, which included an injury to their star quarterback and three-year captain Richie Williams. That injury led to backup Trey Elder, who's this year's starter, taking the reins and leading them to a win in the semi-final game. Elder started the championship game, too, and played adequately. Adequately wasn't going to cut it, though, so in came Williams for one of the all-time great Willis Reed moments in college football.
I really like Appalachian State football. For years Wake opened the season against them to see who held the 'Northwest NC' title; more often than not, Appalachian did. My in-laws met while student at Appalachian, which might seem a strange reason to like a team, but if they hadn't met there, I'd have never met my wife. My younger sister just graduated from Appalachian, and I managed to make it up to Boone for a few of their games. Their fans are great. They take over the town. Last year I went to their late-November matchup with Southern Conference rival Western Carolina. This may be one of the great small-college rivalries in all sports. The winner of the game gets to take home the Little Brown Jug, which looks exactly like you'd think a prize fought for by two mountain colleges would. Before the game they played on the scoreboard a video with highlight clips from past games, set to "Dueling Banjos." The temperature was in the 40s, but plenty of guys were so fortified with whiskey that they stripped down to t-shirts. The crowd was fantastic - enthusiastic, knowledgeable about the game, excited just to be there. And Appalachian won going away.
The Wolfpack and the Mountaineers kick off at 6 tonight, just half an hour before the Wake game starts, and I want the radio so I can keep an ear on that game while I'm watching Wake's. And if the I-AA National Champion Mountaineers somehow pull off the upset against Wake's ACC rival NC State, it'll make a good day a whole lot better.
Meanwhile, in 6 hours and 33 minutes, Wake Forest kicks off against the Syracuse Orangemen.
Jim Brown. Ernie Davis. Donovan McNabb. All were Syracuse Orangemen.
But I get to use the past tense in that last sentence, and none of those guys are going to be on the field at Groves Stadium tonight.
This year's Orangemen, in fact, were ranked #5 in ESPN's preseason 'Bottom 10' teams in the country. We shouldn't be worried, but we're Wake Forest fans - we always have reason to worry. Last year Wake opened at home against Vanderbilt, subject of dozens of Lewis Grizzard jokes. We knew going in that Vandy had a pretty good quarterback, some kid named Jay Cutler*, but we figured, Come on - it's Vanderbilt. But we're Wake Forest, and though we played them tough to the very end, Cutler picked apart our secondary and the Commodores took home the win.
Syracuse has a new defensive coordinator and a lot of tradition, and the Big East proved last year to be a better football conference than anybody expected. Wake returns 18 starters from last year, the highest number of any ACC team, and nothing helps a team like experience - except for speed, size, and good coaching, of course. We'll see what happens in six hours and twenty-five minutes.
* A&T filled an empty spot in Wake's schedule a few years back. My daughter, who wants to be a vet, saw the Aggies' bulldog mascot and they've been her favorite team since then.
* Jay Cutler was the Denver Broncos' first-round pick in this year's NFL draft, and so far has impressed everyone who's seen him play. He impressed the hell out of Wake fans last year; his accuracy is scary. He's one of those guys you end up wanting to succeed, because then it proves that he was that good and your team wasn't that bad.
If College GameDay ever broadcasts from Wake Forest, I might break down in tears. Shoot, if College GameDay ever broadcasts from the state of North Carolina, I might break down.
I was buying a radio in the first place because, even though North Carolina might not be the center of the football universe, this is a big weekend for its college football teams. UNC opens at home against Rutgers at 3. Traditional HBCU rivals Winston-Salem State and NC A&T* face each other tonight for the first time in years; A&T moved up to I-AA a few years ago, while WSSU just made the jump this year.
And speaking of I-AA, the reigning I-AA national champion Appalachian State Mountaineers come down off their mountain and head to Raleigh for NC State's home opener.
NC State is led by head coach Chuck Amato, an alum and the defensive coordinator on Florida State's powerhouse teams of the 1990s. Amato promised big things for the Wolfpack, and the Wolfpack faithful rewarded him with a massive expansion and renovation project for Carter-Finley Stadium.
Those big things have yet to arrive, and last season was considered a disappointment despite winning a bowl game. Chuck is also a little too . . . we'll say colorful . . . to sit well with some of the Wolfpack's boosters. Amato wore bright red shoes. He wore sunglasses, night games and indoor games included. Plus, there's a story making the rounds that claims Amato tried to woo a recruit from South Carolina by telling him he needed to go to an in-state school.
Is that story true? Probably not. Does his wardrobe have anything to do with his coaching? I doubt it. But it sure does make an easy target for the rest of us.
Appalachian, meanwhile, won their first national title this year after a thrilling run through the I-AA playoffs, which included an injury to their star quarterback and three-year captain Richie Williams. That injury led to backup Trey Elder, who's this year's starter, taking the reins and leading them to a win in the semi-final game. Elder started the championship game, too, and played adequately. Adequately wasn't going to cut it, though, so in came Williams for one of the all-time great Willis Reed moments in college football.
I really like Appalachian State football. For years Wake opened the season against them to see who held the 'Northwest NC' title; more often than not, Appalachian did. My in-laws met while student at Appalachian, which might seem a strange reason to like a team, but if they hadn't met there, I'd have never met my wife. My younger sister just graduated from Appalachian, and I managed to make it up to Boone for a few of their games. Their fans are great. They take over the town. Last year I went to their late-November matchup with Southern Conference rival Western Carolina. This may be one of the great small-college rivalries in all sports. The winner of the game gets to take home the Little Brown Jug, which looks exactly like you'd think a prize fought for by two mountain colleges would. Before the game they played on the scoreboard a video with highlight clips from past games, set to "Dueling Banjos." The temperature was in the 40s, but plenty of guys were so fortified with whiskey that they stripped down to t-shirts. The crowd was fantastic - enthusiastic, knowledgeable about the game, excited just to be there. And Appalachian won going away.
The Wolfpack and the Mountaineers kick off at 6 tonight, just half an hour before the Wake game starts, and I want the radio so I can keep an ear on that game while I'm watching Wake's. And if the I-AA National Champion Mountaineers somehow pull off the upset against Wake's ACC rival NC State, it'll make a good day a whole lot better.
Meanwhile, in 6 hours and 33 minutes, Wake Forest kicks off against the Syracuse Orangemen.
Jim Brown. Ernie Davis. Donovan McNabb. All were Syracuse Orangemen.
But I get to use the past tense in that last sentence, and none of those guys are going to be on the field at Groves Stadium tonight.
This year's Orangemen, in fact, were ranked #5 in ESPN's preseason 'Bottom 10' teams in the country. We shouldn't be worried, but we're Wake Forest fans - we always have reason to worry. Last year Wake opened at home against Vanderbilt, subject of dozens of Lewis Grizzard jokes. We knew going in that Vandy had a pretty good quarterback, some kid named Jay Cutler*, but we figured, Come on - it's Vanderbilt. But we're Wake Forest, and though we played them tough to the very end, Cutler picked apart our secondary and the Commodores took home the win.
Syracuse has a new defensive coordinator and a lot of tradition, and the Big East proved last year to be a better football conference than anybody expected. Wake returns 18 starters from last year, the highest number of any ACC team, and nothing helps a team like experience - except for speed, size, and good coaching, of course. We'll see what happens in six hours and twenty-five minutes.
* A&T filled an empty spot in Wake's schedule a few years back. My daughter, who wants to be a vet, saw the Aggies' bulldog mascot and they've been her favorite team since then.
* Jay Cutler was the Denver Broncos' first-round pick in this year's NFL draft, and so far has impressed everyone who's seen him play. He impressed the hell out of Wake fans last year; his accuracy is scary. He's one of those guys you end up wanting to succeed, because then it proves that he was that good and your team wasn't that bad.
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