Gold Rush: Deja Vu All Over Again?
12/5/2002 12:00:00 AM | Football
Dec. 5, 2002
By Sam Walker
Coach Jim Grobe has been around long enough to understand the fickle world of college football. So as fans deal with the "what could have been" scenarios, Grobe deals with what is. That is why he can live with a 6-6 bottom line for the 2002 season. He may not like it, but he can live with it because he knows that week by week, and game by game, his team gave everything it had, and the chips fell where they did. So a bowl game is a possible, but not probable, ending to a season that included disappointments and some exciting moments.
"I told our kids today that I think we played 12 games as hard as we could have played," Grobe said following the 32-14 loss at Maryland in the final regular season game. "We probably won a couple we could have lost and probably lost a couple we could have won. But overall, I think we played about as hard as we could. I think we're an exciting team, a team that doesn't quit. I think we'd be very deserving (of a bowl game) because I don't think there's a team that's worked harder than our kids have. Maybe we can slide in some place. Now we're kind of at the mercy of the bowls. But I think our kids would love to play another football game."
Having already earned bowl eligibility, Wake Forest found itself in a familiar place. It is the same place it was in last season after earning six wins to become bowl-eligible. The Deacons again sat at six wins with a chance to either improve to 7-5 or even its record to 6-6. Grobe and the entire Wake Forest team knew 7-5 and a season-ending victory on the road at Maryland would improve its bowl chances.
The reality of it all came down to Wake Forest against ACC foe Maryland with a lot on the line for both the Terps and the Deacons. Maryland was hungry to have back-to-back 10-win seasons and for a probable Peach Bowl bid. If there were a good time to play Maryland, it would have been early in the season. And with senior quarterback James MacPherson nursing shoulder and ankle injuries, freshman Corey Randolph stepped in and played admirably. Calvin Pace, the Deacons' best defensive player, didn't play a snap against Maryland, and a host of other defensive personnel was injured as well. Maryland, coming off a loss to Virginia a week earlier, played like it had something to prove and jumped out to an early 21-0 lead.
"We just really played poorly in the first half, and that's all I can tell you," Grobe said. "I thought on both sides of the ball we knew we had some injuries, and we needed to make some things happen, and we didn't in the first half. We had hoped to play four quarters like we did in the second half. I thought our kids came out and were more focused, we didn't have as many guys on the ground, and we started hitting some throws and running the ball. Overall I couldn't be prouder of the way our kids fought. They didn't get their heads down and quit, but we just got into too big a hole.
"I was hoping for a game like the Carolina game last year. We talked to the kids about coming out and scoring a couple and make it interesting, and when the thing got 27-14, we were feeling pretty good and 30-14 still felt good, so our kids played as hard as they could. I can't take anything away from Maryland's football team because I think they're pretty good."
Looking at the season as a whole, it is easy to talk about what could have been. Wake Forest "stubbed its toe" as Grobe put it when it was stopped just inches from a two-point conversion that would have given it a victory at Northern Illinois in the season opener. But the Deacons stayed above water with a 27-22 victory over East Carolina the next week.
The only game in which Grobe didn't feel his team competed was the N.C. State game where a rolling Wolfpack team went on to a 32-13 win. Yet the Deacons came through with a clutch victory at Purdue and finished the first four games at 2-2.
After Wake Forest got into the meat of their conference schedule, it won games it probably should have over Duke and North Carolina and earned a big victory over Georgia Tech in Atlanta. But the Deacons lost to Virginia and Clemson in games they dominated for the most part. A victory in either of those league games would have greatly strengthened the Deacons' bowl chances.
Wake Forest held its biggest lead ever against Florida State, but some injuries to key personnel weakened the Deacons in the second half, and the Seminoles went on to a 34-21 win at Groves Stadium. The Deacons, after two off weeks, drove for the winning touchdown in the waning minutes against Navy and became bowl-eligible. But Wake Forest was further weakened by injuries and didn't have time to recover by the time of the Nov. 30 game at Maryland.
A bowl game remains an uncertainty, which means a group of seniors wait to see if their collegiate football careers are now over. The majority of offensive starters are seniors such as James MacPherson, Fabian Davis, Tim Bennett, Blake Henry, Jax Landfried, Ovie Mughelli, and Ray Thomas. On the defensive side of the ball Calvin Pace, Montique Sharpe and Rod Stephen are seniors. The group is one that bought into Coach Jim Grobe and his staff and helped to make the past two seasons successful.
"I was proud of our team in the second half because our team pulled together, and I think the seniors had a lot to do with that," Grobe said after the Maryland game. "I think our older guys quit worrying about what the score was and played hard and helped to rally the younger guys. A lot of staffs come in and can the older guys and go with the youth movement. We didn't do that, and I'm thankful we didn't because we have a lot of nice kids. I had fun watching our kids play in the second half, so that's why I'm hoping we have a chance to play another one. I've really been blessed to coach a group like this. I thought last year's group was special, and I think this year's is too."