100% Cotten
11/17/1999 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 17, 1999
by Stan Cotten
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When the football season that now finds its leaves changing and falling from the trees was in its spring, expectations in the Wake Forest camp were high. There was no question that this was the most talented and deep Demon Deacon team in perhaps seven years. There was every reason to believe that the Deacs would, for the first time since the 1992 Independence Bowl victors, rack up more wins than losses and take a giant step toward program recovery.
Ten games in, the jury is still out. But with a win over the visiting Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Saturday, the verdict will be reached. Win and live. Lose, and the sentence could be just about anything.
But the chance of beating Joe Hamilton and Tech is there. There's an air of urgency in Winston-Salem.
"You could see that even toward the latter part of this season," says Coach Jim Caldwell. "There's no question about that. And that's good."
Hopefully that urgency felt by the players and the notion that, without a win, the seniors will leave without ever having had a winning season will get the Deacs over the hump.
"All I can think about are the four and a half years that I've been through with the rest of this senior class," says running back Morgan Kane. "I think of everything we've been through, and I think that every one of the seniors is gonna let it all out in this game with Georgia Tech. I think it's gonna be one of the games we'll remember for the rest of our lives."
"It definitely will be a cooker out there," adds quarterback Ben Sankey, referring to the pressure of Saturday's tilt with the Jackets. "I can't even imagine the intensity right now. There's a lot of pressure out there, but the good thing about it is that we have one more time to do something about it."
Kane agrees.
"The football gods have been good to us. They've given us one more chance to do what we came here to do, and that's turn this program around and have a winning season."
Saturday will bring pressure on two fronts for Kane who sits at 63 yards shy of 1,000 for the season. If he can get to that plateau he'll be the first Deacon back there since John Leach (1,089) in 1993. Then there's the chance at a winning season.
"Number one, having a winning season is the most important thing to me," says Kane. "Number two, once we get that win, passing the 1,000 yard barrier would be great."
"We've had three chances before this to become bowl eligible. It's a shame that it has to come down to this last game to see if we can go to a bowl or not. We're gonna put everything on the line this game. We're gonna do everything we can."
The coach puts it this way.
"We are gonna pull out all the stops," says Caldwell. "Just to make sure that we do whatever we can to win this ballgame by any means necessary."
Asked to elaborate, Caldwell smiled and said, "No."
And so we wait for Saturday. We wait to see what fate delivers. It would be cruel for this group of men, players and coaches alike, to come one step short. They deserve better.
Watch it with me. See you Saturday on the radio.
