Sports

The Defending ACC Champs Lie in Wait

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By
Tom Suiter
Wake Forest football coach Jim Grobe thinks back to a season ago and smiles. He looks toward the future and the smile becomes thinner. He knows what a ride the 2006 ACC championship season was. He also knows that neither he nor his players can dwell on it.

The veteran coach knows resting on past laurels spells disaster.

"The best thing our guys can do is to put those championship rings in a safe place," Grobe said last week. "Last year’s team had a lot to be proud of. But for our seniors, this is their team. As good as last year’s team was, this is the year the seniors will always remember."

It's less than three weeks to the start of the 2007 college football season. Wake Forest is the defending ACC champion and has 15 starters and 47 lettermen returning, yet the pre-season prognosticators (who, by the way, picked them to be dead last in the Atlantic Division a year ago) have them slated just fourth this season.

That's a step up from sixth, but still behind Florida State, Boston College and Clemson. It seems many do think last season was a fluke.

Do I think Wake Forest will repeat as champion? No, I really don't. But I do believe the Deacons are now at a point where they'll be hard to beat -- for as long as Jim Grobe is there.

He's got a good thing going now. He took his lumps early, but had a plan and the patience to carry out that plan. He red-shirts freshman, lets them sit and learn while he plays veterans who know the system and believe that the system will work. And after last year, they believe more than ever. Confidence is there.

You can say everything broke Wake's way last season, but you can also point to so much adversity. They lost the starting quarterback and the top running back before the season was three weeks old. By the end of it, it was running back by committee, but they still won. Fundamentals, good coaching and smart, solid, experienced players make for a winning formula.

Grobe watches Wake at work this hot August, and he can see that this team is focused, hearing what has been said that this is a new season.

"We've got guys that like to practice," says the veteran coach. "They're enjoying themselves out there, and we don't have to say much to them. Our coaches are really having fun coaching this group."

So Wake Forest readies for this season. They didn't expect to be picked to defend their championship, and they're attitude about that is, “So what?”

"There're a lot of people who think we're a one-shot wonder," says veteran center Steve Justice. "They have a right to believe that because of our history."

But Justice and his teammates don’t have to buy it.
Wake is not worrying about a perceived lack of respect, nor are they whining about it. Respect is won by action, not by word. Talk can be very cheap. Remaining quiet but having an inner belief is a strength.

The Deacons won't sneak up on anyone this season. As Grobe says, they do have a target on their chest. All champions know that, and there're no pushovers in the ACC's Atlantic Division.

There's no soft schedule to open this season, either. Boston College and Nebraska right off the top. However, there's no Virginia Tech, Miami or Georgia Tech down the road.

So there is a confidence amongst those who play football at Wake Forest. Triumphs of the past can be the springboard to success in the future.

Wake Forest practices, sweating in the heat, and readies. They're picked for fourth in their division.

They shrug and say, “OK.” Deep down they think they're better.

They don't expect to be one-season wonders.

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