Here's to Wake Forest

In this season of school records for Wake Forest, the Demon Deacons established an Atlantic Coast Conference mark on Saturday.

In beating Maryland 38-24 to win the Atlantic Division title and a berth in the ACC Championship game, Wake (10-2) finished the regular season with a 6-0 record on the road.

Throughout ACC history, 113 ACC teams have played six road games. None had ever run the table until Wake.

The Deacs won at Connecticut, Ole Miss, N.C. State, North Carolina, FSU and Maryland. All are big state-supported schools, but little Wake – the third-smallest NCAA Div. I-A school after Tulsa and Rice – beat the big boys.

Until the Deacons won at Florida State on Nov. 11, a Wake team had not won five straight road games since 1945-46.

The Deacons’ road accomplishments capped an amazing end to an amazing regular season for the Deacons. They’ve already surpassed the school record for victories by two games and can win even more by facing Georgia Tech for the ACC Championship and another opponent in a bowl.

Wake’s surprising season includes setting a team record for most consecutive weeks nationally ranked in the Associated Press poll (6), winning at Florida State for the first time since 1959, winning at N.C. State for the first time since 1984 and winning at Maryland for the first time since 1998.

The Deacons also had the second-biggest turnaround in terms of victories, trailing only Arkansas. They won four games in the final minute, won despite mediocre statistics in terms of total offense and total defense, won without injured stars such as quarterback Benjamin Mauk, running back Micah Andrews and defensive end Matt Robinson.

In six seasons, coach Jim Grobe has the program moving up. He has plenty of star players returning, including quarterback Riley Skinner and linebacker Jon Abbate, and did not have to play a single true freshman in 2006.

The future looks bright for Wake Forest football, which has a gloomy all-time record of 388-577-33 and an all-time ACC mark of 107-258-6. Given the Deacons’ lack of a past, the future looks even brighter.

But don’t look ahead, Wake fans. For now, keep enjoying this special season because it may never happen again.

–Tom Berry, High Point Enterprise sports columnist

 

The ACC Championship game is going to be the worst championship game ever

 

Thank God for expansion.

 

Really an amazing season when you consider the injuries they've had and the fact that it's WF we're talking about. A down year for most of the teams in the ACC doesn't hurt either. Hope they roll Tech Saturday to finish the thing off.

 

Not a big football fan, I guess.

 

sockit says it will suck, mark it down as a must see game of the year

 

He doesn't seem to be. Wake is a fun team to watch because you never know what weird play is coming next.

 

They play as a team. It's everything you'd want to see if you're a football fan.

 

nearly every other play is a "trick" play ,they are great to watch

 

Why so negative ? If you are a college football fan, a true fan this is great to see Wake Forest get some time in the sunshine and the spotlight. Great reward for Wake Forest Football. I will watch and hope they win. It would be great to the the Deacs get a BCS bid. They could use the money.