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.