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.