Wake Forest Athletics News
|
Gold Rush: 100% Cotten
May 19, 2003 By Stan Cotten Consider this scenario: In January, Ron Wellman was forced to hire a new football coach to replace the departed Jim Grobe. And as you read this, the Deacs are without a basketball coach and athletic director because Skip Prosser is at home in Pittsburgh and Ron Wellman resides in Knoxville. Wake can't hire another basketball coach, because that task falls to the athletic director - which the Deacons don't yet have. Nightmare? You bet. But it could have happened. I saw it happen in Huntington, W. Va., during the 1995-96 athletic year when Marshall University football coach Jim Donnan left for Georgia, Thundering Herd basketball coach Billy Donovan departed for Florida and athletic director Lee Moon headed west to Wyoming. I was so traumatized I defected to Wake Forest. Marshall obviously recovered - especially on the gridiron. But Marshall is not Wake Forest. And that, in no way, is a knock on the Herd. I think had the exits been filled in Winston-Salem this year like those in Huntington seven years ago, the Deacs' road to recovery in the ACC would be much bumpier. The momentum the Deacs had gained under Grobe by back-to-back winning seasons and a Seattle Bowl win over the early-in-the-season Top 10 Oregon Ducks would have been dealt a cruel blow. Grobe leaving might have created the impression that the Deacon football program was simply one to be used as a launching pad. Momentum and opportunity lost. Had Prosser been lured to Pittsburgh, one might have gotten the impression that Prosser felt the Deacs were as high as they would ever get. Gone would have been ACC Player of the Year Josh Howard and the man who was named ACC Coach of the Year after taking Wake Forest to its first regular season title in over 40 years. How can you recover quickly from that? And had Wellman followed Grobe and Prosser out the door - well that's like the doctor calling the time of death and exiting stage right. So what message is sent by the Deacs keeping Grobe, Prosser and Wellman? Or rather all three staying? Something big and worthwhile is going on at little old Wake Forest. The Demon Deacons have taken a huge collective step forward with the entire athletic program. Grobe, Prosser and Wellman are the most visible, and the fact that their addresses will remain in Winston-Salem speaks volumes. Expanding Horizons Wake Forest cast one of seven votes recently in favor of expansion of the ACC from its current nine-team status to a 12-team league. The announcement came less than a week after the ACC celebrated its 50th anniversary on Thursday, May 8th, at the Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro - the site where the league first formally announced its formation. It came out during the reception that there were two schools that wanted to join the original nine back in 1953. Any guesses who they were? Florida State and Miami. As interesting as that little nugget is, the highlight of the gathering was when ACC Commissioner John Swofford was at the podium and expansion was being bantered around - Swofford's cell phone rang. Miami calling back? Timing is everything. Pick Three So which three schools would you like? My picks: Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech. I'm warming to the idea of South Beach in February. Boston is Boston - a fact Deacon fans will discover Aug. 30. And the Hokies have a great shot at developing decent rivalries with the Big Four schools due simply to Blacksburg's close proximity. I think expansion will be great for ACC football. How it will affect basketball is a concern - especially with regard to the ACC Tournament. Time will tell. |