Wake in a BCS bowl? You gotta believe ...

  Is there any reason Wake Forest can't win its last four games and finish the regular season with one loss?

   All right, there's reality and history and probably gravity. But if you've seen the Deacons you have to believe. Their final four? They play at home against Boston College, at Florida State, at home -- their house, the snakepit known as Groves Stadium -- against Virginia Tech and at Maryland.

    They can do this. They were pounding Clemson, the best team they have played, until a brilliant defensive play by the Tigers woke them up and undid the Deacons. That is still their only loss.

   The Deacons are the last hope for North Carolina teams that play in the ACC. I wrote after their victory Saturday against North Carolina that they are N.C.'s team. Of course, an Appalachian State grad wrote to say the Mountaineers are. Sorry, you can't be N.C.'s team if you lose to N.C. State. Appalachian State did.

   Wake Forest fans have become pretty cocky. I asked a friend who loves his Deacs how he though the Deacons would handle those last four games.

   "I just hope we win one of them," he says.

   BCS baby. Eleven and one. Believe.

Comments

[David McKnight]

Here's hoping the Deacons can win as many as they can against these four strong teams remaining on their ACC schedule.

Wake Forest is also to be commended for maintaining a wholesome campus atmosphere in regard to balancing academics and athletics, which probably helps its football players do better both in the classroom and on the field.

Tom, the political winds buffeting the Duke and North Carolina campuses have become so turbulent, it's all bound to be a distraction for the Blue Devil and Tar Heel football teams, which have only a single win between them at this late stage of the season.

And Tom, how did starting times for ACC football games get moved from 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon to 12 noon? N.C. State is practically unbeatable when the Pack starts in the afternoon or evening, but if you play at noon, then the training meal is so early that you barely have time to go feed the chickens and the hogs.

So it's up to Wake to make the most of its opportunity to lead the way to the bowl season for the Big Four

[David McKnight]

Tom--

As usual, your column turned out to be somewhere between prescient and brilliant. That was a fine win that Wake Forest earned against a strong Boston College team. So the Deacs have won the first of these remaining four big games.

One victory in these last three ACC matchups would still assure Wake of a good season, and two out of three would be quite impressive, don't you think?

So they should go on the road to Tallahassee and just go out and play some good football. A win over Florida State would vault the Deacons into the top tier of the collegiate football ranks heading into the final two weekends of the regular season. Then all they would need is back-to-back wins on their own home field.

Can we hear a "Go Deacs!" cheer from our in-state Carolina, State and Duke loyalists?