Greetings WF fans!

It's been a tough weekend, as I'm sure you all know well enough. The Demon Deacon football team suffered a very tough loss to NC State, which all but ends our hopes at heading to Tampa.

However, don't quit on the team! As I said in my first ever post on the site; either you fully support this team, or you can hop off the bandwagon.

The men's basketball team is off to a great start with a 94-48 thumping of NC Central. The Deacs have a few more tune-up games, before heading out West for the Anaheim Classic.

Also, don't forget about our men's soccer team who suffered their first loss of the season in the ACC Tournament. Sure it's tough, but the National Title is till the goal for this team.

So with that said, I hope you all have a wonderful week, and be sure to look for a Q&A with some BC folks this week!

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Hey everyone, I just wanted to check in.

I'm sorry about the lack of coverage this week. It has just been really hectic this week, as it's the last week of the season for me in Football.

I promise you guys the coverage will pick up on a daily basis starting on Monday when I have all the time I need, to devote myself to the blog, and keeping you guys updated.

I hope everyone understands, and Go Deacs!

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Bandwagon: “a popular trend that attracts growing support,” according to dictionary.com. It's a word that I've heard floating around Demon Deacon Nation recently, and it's not something I'm too fond of.

I'd like to think Wake fans are unique and special; people who are not fans because it's the cool thing to do (which, sorry folks, it still isn't). However, it's a term I have seen thrown around in association with Wake fans over the past week and personally I'm offended. I think you should be too.

I am only 16 years old, and have hardly had to endure what some of you have throughout the history of Wake Football. Still, anyone who has been around more than a few years has been through some difficult times. With the recent success, however, it seems that we've acquired more fans who may not have always been there during the rough times.

Trust me; we all remember the days of the constant beatdowns (some more than others), the days when winning just ONE game felt like winning a big bowl game, when Groves would hold more opposing fans than Wake fans. Thankfully, with the achievements of the past few teams, the whole attitude around the program has pretty much done a complete 360, and for the most part it has been for the better.

Obviously winning is going to bring high expectations and, I believe, we all had those high expectations coming into this season. Now, having lost three of the last four, we have suffered quite the letdown. Nonetheless, I still believe this team can win out and have a successful year. Sure it will be tough, but look at the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2005 (their Super Bowl year). They were 7-5 at one point and on the brink of losing all hope, but managed to finish the season winning 7 in a row including three road playoff games.

There are countless other examples of teams who have been all but down and out, but these are times that test a fan’s faith. Alphonso Smith said it best “Our thought process on this team is 9-3,’’ (Alphonso)Smith said outside the locker room after Saturday’s 16-10 loss at Miami. “If you don’t believe it, get off the bandwagon. If you’re on this team and 9-3 is not on your mind, go to Coach Fair and say `I don’t want to be a part of this’ and turn your stuff in. That’s it.

“We have to focus on us, and focus on what’s at hand. At hand right now is Duke. This defeat (at Miami) is water under the bridge. We can’t go back and beat ourselves up for it, or we’re going to lose to Duke. then our goal will have to change to 8-4. Our thought process right now is 9-3, and if you don’t believe that, peace out. “

“That goes for everyone, teammates, fans, everyone.’’

--Dan Collins' blog - My Take On Wake

Smith summed it up as best as it can be. You either believe in 9-3, or “see ya.” Hopefully you will take this to heart. Sure, I expect some criticism for writing this, but I wouldn't write it if I didn't truly believe in this team. We've been there with this group of guys through the good times, now it's time to be there in the hard times.

That's why I urge you all to flock to BB&T Field this Saturday at 3:30 PM and cheer as loud as you ever have for your Demon Deacons. No, there won't be any national TV scene like there was a few Thursday nights ago. No, there won't be any big Jets flying over the stadium before game time. It'll just be good ole' Football, the way it's supposed to be played.

Here's to 9-3!

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As you all know, things are already off and running for me at Deacons Illustrated, but the future of Old Gold & Blog has been up in the air. After announcing my new job, I received an email from a long time reader who offered to help out by continuing to provide new content for the blog. It sounded like a great idea to me, so I'll let our new writer introduce himself. His first post will appear tomorrow. I hope you'll all welcome him into the Old Gold & Blog family!

Hello Deacon Nation! I'd like to introduce myself, but first off I'd like to thank Zach Smith for giving me the opportunity to continue Old Gold & Blog. He has taken on an opportunity with DeaconsIllustrated.com, and I wish him the best of luck with that.

To start off, my name is Allan Ducker, and I'm currently a High School Junior at Easley High School in Upstate South Carolina approximately 10 minutes from Clemson. Sadly I am encompassed by Tiger fans around here, but I manage to make it through the days.

I'm a huge sports fan and I've always been a huge Demon Deacon fan. My interest started young as I loved the basketball team during the late Tim Duncan era. I was only about six years old then, but I remember how dominant he was. Then when Chris Paul arrived my interest really soared, and my love for all Demon Deacon Athletics increased, and now I'm known as the Wake Forest fan throughout the school.

I also play football for my school, so during the football season I am quite busy, but after the season I pretty much dedicate my time to school and sports. Sports is my passion and I hope to one day pursue a career in the sports journalism field, and I believe that with Zach's help, I am on the right track to getting there.

Hopefully you all will welcome me onto your desktop, and I look forward to sharing many great memories with you all!

I love Allan's enthusiasm for Wake Forest and for writing, and I look forward to seeing what he writes for Old Gold & Blog. As I said before, I'll still be around to provide occasional tidbits, blogpoll ballots and other fun stuff.

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Towards the end of last week several readers left comments on posts, and I even received a couple of emails, all of which said something to the effect of "Remember the other sports!"

First, I apologize for not providing better coverage of the soccer teams, field hockey, etc. I know there are Wake fans who would love to be kept up to date on these teams, and I wish I did a better job helping fill that need. In fact, going into this fall season one of my goals was to provide regular coverage of at least men's soccer, along with the football and basketball coverage.

Unfortunately, I was biting off more than I could chew. With a 16 hour class schedule along with other commitments, there just aren't enough hours in my day to cover everything to the extent it deserves to be covered, and ultimately football and basketball have to take priority over everyone else.

All of that to say, it's time to ask for help. I try to do all I can running this as a one man show, but there are clearly limitations. In order to provide better coverage I'm reaching out to you. Are you interested in helping Old Gold & Blog provide more comprehensive coverage of Wake Forest athletics? If so, send me an email (oldgoldblog@gmail.com) and let me know how you'd be interested in helping.

Hopefully this will be successful and the future of Old Gold & Blog will be even brighter than the present.

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As much as I would love getting to see Wake play today, I actually really enjoy bye weeks because they allow me to just enjoy watching football without worrying about the Deacs.

Because of that, and because I feel like doing a live blog, I'm going to be running a live blog for at least a few hours this afternoon. I'll almost definitely be watching Cal vs. Maryland, because even though I've noticed how bad Maryland's been so far, I haven't actually gotten to see them play yet.

I would like to see Navy vs. Duke since we play both of those teams, but for whatever reason ESPNU disappeared from the campus cable lineup this week and the game doesn't appear to be on ESPN360 either.

Anyway, if you're hanging out this afternoon without much to do, stop by and we can chat football. I'll get the live blog started right at noon, and I'll keep running it for as long as there's interest, (or until I decide I've got better things to do!)

I'm also trying to get done analyzing the film of the defense vs. Ole Miss so hopefully that will be up before we start the live blog. Happy Saturday!

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On Thursday I let you know there wasn't going to a be a live blog, and promised an explanation would come later, so here is that explanation.

Old Gold & Blog all of a sudden finds itself in a bit of a transitional period, and I’m going to use this post to explain to all of you what is happening. In the following paragraphs I’ll lay out a variety of information, but ultimately what they’re all going to add up to is this: Media relations has tightened their policies and Old Gold & Blog won’t be getting the same kind of access it has enjoyed for the last year. Live blogs, in particular, won’t be happening the same way.

To understand where we are, I need to explain where we’ve come from: I first began publishing Old Gold & Blog in late September 2007, explaining in my first post that I wanted to fill a void. I had a vision for what I thought the site could become, but I knew that the site was just as likely (if not more so) to fail completely as it was to meet that potential. Things were probably pretty touch and go those first couple months, but I stuck with it, my writing started to improve, and the site developed a small but strong base of readers.

At the beginning of the 2007-2008 basketball season, with the encouragement of a friend, I approached the athletic department about getting media credentials for basketball games. Wake’s athletic department hadn’t ever been presented with such a request, and was willing to test it out with me. Things went well and I received credentials to every game I requested them for throughout the season. I posted updates and analysis (a “live blog” if you will) at every media timeout (sometimes more often towards the end of halves), and interviewed coaches and players after the games for my post game stories. Readers seemed to enjoy the content the access provided.

There are lots of college fan blogs being published around the country, but very few of those do so with any kind of official access, they’re just fans posting from their living rooms. There are also a decent number of truly “professional” journalists working for local newspapers or national outlets whose job it is to attend games with press credentials and publish blogs (Dan Steinberg for the Washington Post and Heather Dinich for ESPN.com are good examples). I was in the unique position of having the access of a professional journalist while maintaining the independent status of your average fan blogger.

Back in the spring everything seemed to be going well. The media credentials allowed me to live blog from games and interview coaches and players afterwards for my post-game stories. The number of readers continued to grow and I was proud of what the site had become.

When spring football rolled around, I decided to head out to practice and tell people what I was seeing. I was amazed by the positive response from those posts, because I had not realized how starved for information fans were when it came to things like spring practices. The fact is, at a school like Wake Forest, there just isn’t a whole lot of coverage from traditional forms of media, and a site such as Old Gold & Blog seemed to step in nicely to fill that void. It seemed like a beneficial relationship for everyone; Wake Forest was getting more “media” coverage, and I had the fun, enjoyment, and a small stream of revenue from running the site.

I thought all of this was setting up for a pretty outstanding 2008-2009 athletic year, including continued access to football and basketball games (and really any other sport I wanted to cover, like soccer). I had some new software I wanted to use for the live blogs that were going to make them interactive and a lot of fun, and after a successful soccer experiment I couldn’t wait to try them out for football.

Media relations had different plans, however. They have tightened their credentialing guidelines to only include established media outlets, meaning that an independent website like mine is no longer allowed press box access to blog. Unless Old Gold & Blog were to become an established media outlet, or join an existing media outlet, there aren’t going to be any more credentials. Even if one of those things were to happen, there would likely be restrictions placed on live blogging.

I’ve loved doing live blogs from games. They’re fun and I know that readers enjoy them. This does not prevent me from sitting on the couch and live blogging, but it does keep me from doing it with a credential at a game. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is. As much as I love live blogging for you (particularly with the new format that allows for so much more interaction between all of us), I’m not going to sit on my couch in the dorm to live blog when the actual game is happening in the stadium five minutes away – I just can’t miss out on that fun and I think you’ll understand. For road games I often will live blog from the couch, but just not for home games. I will, of course, continue to provide my post-game thoughts and analysis the same as always, except that it won’t contain any quotes from coaches or players since I won’t be in the locker room to get them.

Like I said, as much as I love live blogging, I’m going to go to the home games I can make it to, not sit on the couch and blog. I know, however, that there are many of you who aren’t able to make it to games and are doing exactly that – sitting on the couch at home. Many of you would probably even enjoy looking at and participating in a live blog while you watched. So here’s what I want to do: I want you to run the live blog yourself. It’s not overly difficult to do (I’ll teach you) and it’s a lot of fun. If you’re interested in giving this a try, send me an email and let me know. We can work on a schedule for the rest of the season, but for now all I need is a volunteer who knows he/she will be able to watch next Saturday’s Ole’ Miss game on TV in its entirety, will have a computer with internet access, and is willing and able to run the live blog. If this sounds like you, let me know and we’ll see what we can work out.

I don’t know how big of a change this will really end up being to the site, but there isn’t anything that can be done about it, so (to use the cliché) we’re going to make lemonade out of lemons.

I apologize for the length of this post, but I didn’t think it would really make sense without giving a larger picture for what that has happened. I’m curious to see what you all think about the whole situation, so let me know by leaving a comment.

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As Old Gold & Blog enters its second school year covering Wake Forest athletics, it seemed a fitting time to update the look and layout of things. Hopefully you like the new design and don't have any problems using it, but if any issues arises please let me know. Don't worry, the header images will change on a seasonal basis; other sports will have their chance in the spotlight later in the year.

I also recognize that many of you have become new followers of Old Gold & Blog in the last few months, and I want to point you towards the subscription options over to the right. If you subscribe via RSS you'll be updated every time there's a new post. Subscribing via email puts Old Gold & Blog in your inbox once per day. There's no better way to keep track of the latest Wake Forest news and analysis.

On to the news...

Yesterday was the first day of practice for the Demon Deacons. Besides my report, the Nenon report, and this report from the official website there wasn't a whole lot of specific practice coverage.

Still, yesterday produced plenty of other Wake Forest links. I asked my three questions a couple days ago, but Heather Dinnich finally asks hers. The Raleigh News & Observer has a few questions as well. Dinnich also names Alphonso Smith and Sam Swank as two of the top five clutch players in the conference, and Swank makes it into the nation's top ten.

The previews keep pouring in, this time Dan Collins for the Sporting News.

Want to take a look inside Deacon Tower? Done.

Want to be amazed by Aaron Curry? He can power clean a lot of weight. 374 pounds to be exact. Check it out:

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It's hard to believe 364 days have come and gone since the passing of Skip Prosser. Tomorrow, July 26, will mark the one year anniversary of that unfortunate day, and Wake Forest fans will never forget the impact he had on the university.

One of the most amazing things about Skip was that his presence was not felt only at Wake Forest. He had a positive effect on every campus, every coach, every player, every media member, and every person who spent considerable time with him.

Though time may have dulled the pain for many of us, an anniversary like this is never easy. Many tough memories return, and many happy ones seem to hurt, too.

My path didn't cross Skip's for very long. I only spent one season paying close attention to him: my freshman year, his 2006-2007 season. Though it wasn't Skip's most successful season on the court, that brief glimpse provided all I needed to see the strength of his character.

Because I had spent such little time around him, I did not anticipate the effect his passing would have on me. I hadn't been around Skip long enough for him to have a huge personal effect on me, but seeing the impact he had in the lives of those who had been around him longer, I couldn't help but feel the pain of losing a great man.

Just yesterday, when listening to senior guard Harvey Hale and current head coach Dino Gaudio talk about Skip and the anniversary, I was reminded of the tremendous impact Skip had had on the lives of everyone around him. Not only did Harvey share how much Skip had meant to him on the basketball court, but he also expressed how much Skip had contributed to the development of his character. Coach Gaudio expressed similar sentiments, and talked about how difficult parts of this summer have been as he has traveled the country recruiting in all the same places Skip used to recruit.

There is no doubt about it; Skip was a great man who passed long before anyone on this earth would have liked. His presence is still felt in the Wake Forest basketball program and in the Wake Forest community as a whole. The Demon Deacons he touched will never forget him.

Although I will be unable to attend, I encourage all who are able to head to campus tomorrow night at midnight to throw a roll for Skip. I would love to see this become a yearly tradition, as it is exactly the type of memorial I believe Skip would enjoy.

Furthermore, in honor of Skip, Old Gold & Blog will be silent tomorrow, save for a single image. Feel free to leave your thoughts, memories, or anything else Skip-related in the comments section of this post today or that post tomorrow.

Coach Prosser, you are missed.

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Many of you may have been following the coverage coming out of the ACC's Football Kickoff, essentially a three-day event for the media to talk to conference officials, coaches, and players (and of course play some golf).

It is an event I would have loved to attend, but wasn't able to because of my summer job (and I'm not sure they would let me anyway). I've tried to do my best to keep up with everything coming out of all the interviews happening there, but to be honest I haven't been able to read everything.

Nonetheless, I have noticed (and I've seen many Wake fans point it out) that there haven't been many features on Wake while most other schools have gotten more coverage. The one notable exception to that is this great piece Gregg Doyel did on coach Jim Grobe.

I've seen plenty of people complaining about the lack of coverage (most specifically on the Scout boards regarding ESPN's ACC blogger Heather Dinich) and I think people are losing perspective in their complaints.

Yes, Wake should be one of the best teams in the ACC this season, but I haven't seen anyone in the media say otherwise.

The fact is, a national media outlet like ESPN has to cater first and foremost to the teams that bring the most readers to the site. Just because Wake is going to be good this year doesn't mean the general public wants to read about it. Florida State could go 7-7 every season and there would still be more people interested in them in the preseason than a great Wake Forest team.

Why are the Red Sox and Yankees on TV all the time when they aren't the best teams in the baseball? Obviously because the most people want to watch them.

There is a reason Old Gold & Blog is the only independent site covering Wake Forest when every other ACC school has more than one. Even so it's a pretty good day when a few hundred people visit the site. There just isn't that large of a fan base who are interested enough to constantly follow the Demon Deacons.

If you're interested in the ACC at-large then I think Heather and the others at the Kickoff did a great job of covering everything being talked about there. Many stories about various issues in the conference included Jim Grobe's thoughts and comments, but when it comes to stories specifically about Wake, it just isn't always practical.

Wake is getting plenty of preseason respect, and I look forward to seeing the team prove that respect is deserved on the field. I'll do my best to keep providing good Wake coverage between now and August 28, and hopefully I can make it to the 2009 Kickoff to give Wake the coverage it deserves.

Right now I'm just going to enjoy the excitement surrounding this 2008 season.

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I intended to write a couple of posts so that I could put one up today and another tomorrow, but things got crazy and it just didn't happen. I'm leaving this morning for a four day church retreat. Feel free to discuss the Deacons if you feel like it, or just dissapear until Monday if you prefer.

I know it isn't really the weekend yet for most of you, but I hope you all have a good weekend!

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I hope this finds you all begining an excellent long weekend!

I'm guessing most of your plans don't include Old Gold & Blog, and that probably good since most of mine don't either.

I'll be taking a break from the preview until Monday, so unless there's some sort of breaking news this should be it until then. Enjoy the time with family and friends and I'll see you back here in a couple of days.

Happy Fourth!

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Change of plans. In the last 24 hours I've been informed by my boss that he lost several leaders for his high school mission trip and needs me to come. I'm getting on a bus this morning and headed to New Orleans until the night of the 30th. I also have a quick middle school trip the 1st through 3rd of July.

It will definitely be an awesome trip, but it's going to make it more difficult to get parts of the preview up every day as I had originally planned on doing. I'm going to do my best but we'll just have to see how it works out. I love getting new content up every day for you guys but you'll have to bear with me if it doesn't quite work out that way. I'll do my best, and I would expect to see a post previewing the defense up on Monday.

Prayers for the high schoolers I'll now be with and the middle schoolers I'm leaving behind are much appreciated!

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I'm back home in Houston having completed our mission trip to Tecate. It was a successful trip and we did a lot of good work in a local neighborhood. We added a room to a house for a young mother and her children, as well as rebuilding two playgrounds and a soccer/basketball court for local kids. The middle schoolers we brought with us had a great time, worked hard, learned a lot, and we got home without any injuries or other problems. Thanks to all of you who were praying for us while we were gone.

I've done my best to catch up today on everything that's been going on Wake-athletics wise and I'm pretty sure there hasn't been much. What I would like to do over the next couple of weeks is preview the football season ahead of us. I've been saying I wanted to do this for awhile but haven't really made it happen, so I'm going to lay out a bit of a schedule so that we can get this done.

What I don't want is for this to be just me spouting off some thoughts and that being that. I'd love for it to become somewhat of a conversation with input from all of you in the comments section and a discussion of some kind.

The way I'd like to do this is to start by taking three days to talk offense/defense/special teams, then 12 days going through the schedule and talking about each game. I'll offer my thoughts and then solicit yours. I'm not going to promise that this will happen in 15 consecutive days due to the variability of my schedule right now, but we'll try to get through it in a reasonable period of time. If we want to spend some time talking about the rest of the ACC at some point then we can do that too. We can play it by ear.

Hopefully you all like this idea and will participate, because this will be much more interesting and insightful if there is lots of participation. If you have any ideas or recommendations to improve the plan, let me know.

I expect to be back tomorrow with our first installment looking at the offense. See you then.

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Later this morning I'm leaving with 55 middle schoolers for Tecate, Mexico. We'll be down there on a mission trip serving the community in various ways and I'm confident it will be an awesome experience. Any prayers for our trip would be much appreciated!

I will not have any kind of internet access, however, so things will be dormant here until the 17th. Hopefully no big Wake-related news will occur and I'll pick things back up when I return. Until then be safe and enjoy the summer.

Zach

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On Thursday Street & Smith’s announced Ron Wellman as the A.D. of the Year. As previously mentioned, Wellman had been nominated along side Connecticut’s Jeff Hathaway, Kansas’ Lew Perkins, and Ohio State’s Gene Smith.

One of the cool things about an award like this is that it really is an award that says as much about our school and our entire athletic program as it does about Wellman. Obviously he’s been an incredible leader and has found the right people for the right jobs, emphasized the right things, and led the program to highs it hasn’t previously known. Still, he could make all the right decisions and not seen these kinds of results. Everyone in the program has done their part to make Wake the success it is.

All of us who are members of the Wake Forest family should take great pride in having Wellman leading the program. Anything is possible, but Wellman truly seems to be a “Wake Forest Guy,” who doesn’t seem to be the type that will leave. He has never given any hint that he would want to ride success like this to a job at a bigger school, but rather remains committed to this program. Whatever his reasons, the fact that he does this makes me like him that much more.

The 2007-2008 athletic season, for which Wellman won the award, has had both good and bad moments, yet Wellman’s leadership has been evident throughout. It started with Wellman’s excellent handling of Skip Prosser’s tragic death, and continued into a successful fall that included a 9-4 football campaign and a good run in field hockey. The month of December included the retention of football coach Jim Grobe, a National Championship in men’s soccer, and a Meineke Car Care Bowl victory. The spring has included the end of an exciting basketball season (which could have been more successful but was not a terrible disappointment all things considered) and some very good performances in golf and tennis.

I hope and expect Ron to stick around for the long haul. It’s an exciting time to be a Deacon fan, and he has a lot to do with that. Thanks for all your hard work, and keep it up.

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Hopefully you all had a great Memorial Day! I happened to notice, as I went to write this post, that it is the 300th post I've made to Old Gold & Blog. As fun as it has been to write, I don't think I would have been able to keep it up the way I have were it not for the support I've gotten from all of you, the readers. Big thanks to all of you!

This summer I'm working with middle schoolers in a church youth group. It's going to be a lot of fun, but we're going on several trips that will keep my away from a computer for several days at a time. I'm leaving tomorrow and won't return until Friday afternoon, so there won't be any updates until then.

With the baseball team having been knocked out of the ACC tournament their season is almost definitely done, leaving only a bit of golf and tennis left to be played for this year. We'll probably spend the rest of the summer talking about the upcoming football season. Either way, I'll be back this weekend to get back at it.

Enjoy your week!

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The voice of the Demon Deacons, Stan Cotten, has suggested giving a name to the Demon Deacon mascot. You can read the full article here, but basically he thinks the Deacon needs a name other than just "the Demon Deacon."

I hadn't ever thought about it or really even noticed it, but Wake does seem somewhat unique in not having a name for the mascot. Just about every other mascot that I can recall off the top of my head does have a name.

I know that a change like this would be somewhat unpopular to our school's community, who seems to balk at just about any change, but I think I would actually support a name for the Demon Deacon.

The options presented by Stan are: Deac, Preacher, Bones, Peahead, Pic (for Brian Piccolo), Arnie, Skip.

I'm running a poll over in the right column (those of you who read the site via RSS or Email are encouraged to come visit the site and vote) to see what everyone thinks about this.

If you have any thoughts, ideas, or a name that isn't one of the given options please leave them in the comments section below! If any additional option gains any steam I'll try to add it to the poll.

Final Results (171 votes):

Deac - 7 (4%)

Preacher - 5 (2%)

Bones - 67 (39%)

Peahead - 2 (1%)

Pic - 3 (1%)

Arnie - 2 (1%)

Skip - 33 (19%)

Shouldn't be named - 52 (30%)

Some of those percentage calculations seem a bit fishy to me, but those are the final results.

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Pretty awesome, check it out.

This is certainly a great honor for Ron Wellman, the athletic department, and the school as a whole. I don't know a whole lot about the award, but given the type of year Wake athletics have had, and the general progress of Wake Forest in this realm, Wellman is certainly deserving.

The other finalists are Jeff Hathaway of Arkansas, Lew Perkins of Kansas and Gene Smith of Ohio State.

Let's see...Hathaway couldn't beat out Wellman for Jim Grobe, and Smith couldn't put a soccer team on the field that could beat Wellman's. Kansas has certainly had a good year - impressive success in both football and basketball (I don't know much about their other sports). In my mind it's got to be down to Perkins and Wellman, but then I again admit to knowing very little about the criteria for this award.

It would be great to see him win, but it's a great honor either way.

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