More From Ron Wellman

DG: There are a lot of examples in the ACC where fans of School A have a genuine dislike — even an intense hatred — of the teams from School B. Yet many fans and media members see Wake Forest as a university that seems to attract fans of other schools, especially in years when the Demon Deacons are doing particularly well. Do you sense that same thing from where you’re sitting?

Wellman: Definitely. That’s been going on, I think, for a number of years. We have a number of season-ticket holders at our football and basketball games who tell me all the time that they’re not alums of Wake Forest but that they root for Wake Forest in every game but one, and that’s when we play their alma mater. We’re thrilled to have those people as part of our program. We’re not such a big school that we can fill our stadium and arena with our own alums, so we have to have the support of the community, and that’s where a lot of those people come from. We recognize, too, that if they’re a Georgia Tech alum, they’re going to root for Georgia Tech in that one game. Or North Carolina. That’s going to happen.

One of the real interesting aspects of this season has been the support, the verbal support and emotional support, that the other schools’ fans have given us. For instance, we know a number of North Carolina fans who are going to the Orange Bowl just because they are excited about what has happened to our program this year. There are probably a lot of those folks who are Wake Forest fans second and their alma mater first.

I think, generally, people have good feelings about Wake Forest. And I think, generally, Wake Forest folks have good feelings about the other three (ACC) schools in the state. The rivalries are intense, but I don’t think it’s gone beyond what it should. We have an awful lot of respect for those people at North Carolina, North Carolina State and Duke, because they all have great programs as well.

DG: Most people think of Wake Forest as a place that mixes academics and athletics well, and a place where the athletic programs are intertwined with the university community in a healthy manner. Obviously, the team’s success has done a lot for the reputation of Wake football and Wake sports as a whole. Do you sense that it has raised the university’s profile as well?

Wellman: That’s exactly right. We’re just a small part of the university, and we’re glad that we have the opportunity to represent the university. We’re probably considered, as with most athletic departments, the front porch of the university or the front door of the university. Many people view the university through the athletic program, so it’s extremely important that we represent the university exceptionally well.

What’s really encouraging to me, and fun to watch, is that the entire university is participating in this success. Everyone is so excited, whether it be our administration, our trustees, our faculty, our students. Everyone has jumped on board and is looking for opportunities to take advantage of this, to benefit their own programs through the athletic department. To give you an example, our applications for admission are up 20 percent over last year.

Things like that, we’re thrilled about. We’re thrilled that the university is celebrating this football season, and not just the athletic department, not just the Deacon Club. It’s everyone in our community, and not just at Wake Forest. It’s the community in Winston-Salem and the entire Piedmont-Triad area. I think everyone has kind of jumped on board and gotten involved with it and can celebrate what is going on in our program.

DG: A lot of people aren’t aware of this, but the 2006 season was extremely important for Wake football in ways that extend well beyond the performance on the field. With your Deacon Tower project, and the overall improvements to Groves Stadium, your staff was working this fall trying to sell a lot of new suites and other premium ticket packages for the 2008 season — after construction is complete — and beyond. How much has this season’s success impacted your ability to meet and surpass your original sales targets?

Wellman: We thought if we could sell 75 percent (during a two-month sales period this fall), that would be a strong indication of support. We had 602 club seats to sell, and we sold 750. We had 12 club tables and sold 30. We had 27 box suites and sold them all.

I think this season had a little bit to do with it, but frankly I think the people who purchased those premium seats took a long-term perspective of this. They thought and think that our football program is going to be very competitive — a championship-contending program — for many, many years. When you look at the number of seats that were sold, and when they were sold, this season probably had very little to do with the (sales) success that we’ve had.

Our deadline for selling those seats was Oct. 2. We sold the vast majority — well over 50 percent — of those seats when we had only won two or three games this season. I think people could see that we had turned the corner, and our future was very bright, but I also think that if we had lost one of those early games we would have had the same (sales) success. Our fans were excited, even the last two years when we were 4-7, because they could tell that something was happening in this program. There were improvements being made, and our future was extremely bright, and we were very frank about how we were trying to build the program and trying to get to the point where we were starting fourth- and fifth-year seniors rather than underclassmen. Our fans were educated enough to understand what we were trying to do, and they jumped on board with us.

So I really do not believe that this season’s results led to the success we had in the premium-seat sales. I think the success and the trend line that our fans saw for the future is what led to the (sales) success.

DG: Given his success, how do you keep Jim Grobe at a small, private university that’s not famous for its football tradition, when big schools with ridiculous amounts of money to spend can come calling?

Wellman: Well, Jim has been very frank, with his quotes in the public and his desire to stay at Wake Forest. He says that, “Wake Forest is my school. I love it here. I love my players. I like what’s going on. Our future is extremely bright. There’s no reason for me to want to go anywhere else.” He has said that over and over to the public. He has said that to me over and over.

We recognize that when you achieve at the level that Jim has, that there are going to be suitors out there. People are going to contact him. We probably should be happy about that. If people weren’t calling, then probably there is another issue there that we need to speak to. So that’s going to happen, but I really believe that Wake Forest is the perfect school for Jim Grobe, and that Jim Grobe is the perfect coach for Wake Forest. I anticipate a long, long relationship with him.

You know, he still has six years on his contract. We have dabbled with that contract a little bit — not recently, because we’re both trying to prepare for the bowl. But he’s very secure here. We want him to be very secure here. I think he feels that love that we have for him, if you will. And I really do anticipate him being here for a long time.

DG: Many people were shocked when Wake Forest, one of the smallest universities in Division I-A football, quickly sold its 17,500-ticket allotment to the Orange Bowl. Is it true that the event is expected to be the largest collection of Wake alumni in history, or at least the largest outside of Winston-Salem?

Wellman: There’s no doubt about that. I was talking with Senator (Richard) Burr, who came to our practice the other day. He’s a former Wake Forest football player. He said, “You know something, every living former football player from Wake Forest is going to be in Miami. I don’t know of one player who is not going to be there.” I talked to another former player, from a different era than Senator Burr, and he said, “Every one of my teammates is going to be in Miami for the Orange Bowl.”

The response that we have had to selling these tickets has literally been overwhelming. We had no idea how many tickets we were going to be able to sell, because we don’t have any pattern. We had not gone to a bowl like this in our history, so we didn’t have anything to draw from. We thought we would do well, but we didn’t know if that meant 12,000 tickets or 15,000 tickets or 17,000 tickets. But everyone has stepped up, and we’re just going to have a great time in Miami.