Regular Season in Review

When I look at the big picture of Wake football’s 2007 regular season, I cannot find any reason to complain. Can I look at individual games and think we definitely could have or should have won? Of course I can, but in the grand scheme of things an 8-4 season is nothing to be ashamed of, in fact it is one to be very proud of. Should we have lost to Nebraska? No. Virginia? No. We could have beaten Boston College, but I don’t think that loss is anything to be ashamed of, and on the day we played them, we absolutely deserved to lose to Clemson. So 8-4 could have been 10-2, although without and incredible comeback against Maryland we could have ended up anywhere from 7-5 to 9-3, so it goes both ways. The fact is we won 8 games and any Wake fan is delusional if they think there’s a problem with that.

Certainly this season hasn’t been as magical as 2006, and in fact we may not ever experience something quite like that ever again. Two years from now we could go win the ACC championship and the Orange Bowl and it still wouldn’t be quite the same, because as long as Jim Grobe is here at Wake Forest, anything now seems possible.

This is the perfect time to recognize our All-ACC selections, including:

Offense, 1^st Team: center Steve Justice and wide receiver Kenneth Moore.

Offense, 2^nd Team: running back Josh Adams.

Defense, 1^st Team: cornerback Alphonso Smith

Defense, 2^nd Team: linebacker Aaron Curry .

Honorable Mention: kicker/punter Sam Swank, safety Chip Vaughn and return specialist Kevin Marion.

Certainly deserving selections and I love to see Josh making an impact on the voters already. Hopefully we’ll see him take ACC-ROY honors as well, although I don’t other teams’ rosters well enough to know whether there are other freshman on that list. UPDATE: Adams has just been named ACC-ROY by overwhelming vote - AP story here. I think Aaron Curry may have deserved 1^st team honors, and I don’t see how Marion didn’t get voted higher (only explanation is that he didn’t return punts. Whatever), but all in all pretty reasonable selection.

Thinking back over the season I have several favorite memories. Even though the game turned out so poorly, the anticipation and excitement of playing a ranked opponent from a major non-ACC conference was still quite memorable. Although it doesn’t mean quite as much to me as many Wake fans, dominating both UNC and State is a beautiful feeling. Of course, the most exciting memory from this season is the amazing 4^th quarter comeback and overtime win against Maryland. Sticking around with several thousand others to see that may end up being one of the greatest sports highlights of my Wake career (not to discount ACCCG, OB, etc., but comebacks like that are flat out exciting). If you have any favorite memories of your own, I’d love for you to share them in the comments section.

So now we sit and wait for a bowl bid. Although Charlotte still seems most likely to me, I’m optimistic that a trip to Nashville or Orlando may be in the cards. There is plenty of speculation going on, as well as random people starting uncorroborated rumors, so I'm just going to stay out of that for now. No matter what, this season has been a great success for Demon Deacon football, and a great way to follow a season like we had last year. I think we’ve proved we’re not going back to the cellar, and I’d love to get a bowl win so we can lay claim to 20 wins in 2 seasons. Many of the biggest programs in the country would be happy with numbers like that.

Go Deacs!