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Final home game for Skinner
Wake Forest's big senior class is also gunning for a 4-0 record against Florida State
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Published: November 14, 2009
The 22 seniors on Wake Forest's football team are guaranteed only two more games in their careers.
To have any shot at a third, all they have to do is defeat Florida State for the fourth straight year.
"We really don't have as much a want to win as a need to win," Coach Jim Grobe said.
So much attention has been paid to Riley Skinner, the senior from Jacksonville, Fla., who with a victory today at BB&T Field (noon, ESPNU Ch. 143) would become the first quarterback to beat the Seminoles four straight seasons. But Skinner is the first to say that the day is not all about him, and that it will take far more than just him to stop a four-game losing skid that dropped the Deacons to 4-6 overall and 2-4 in the ACC.
FSU is 4-5 (2-4 ACC) with a home game against Maryland and a trip to Florida still ahead.
"With a lot of family and friends, it's going to be an emotional game for our seniors," Skinner said. "We've had a pretty big senior class that has stuck together for the most part. It's going to be pretty neat to take the field with them Saturday for the last time at home."
For Wake Forest, the stakes couldn't get much higher. The Deacons must win to have any chance at the six wins required for a fourth straight bowl.
With a victory, the seniors will become the class with the most career wins (33) in school history. With a loss, they will seal their fate of closing their final season with a losing record -- Wake Forest's first since 2005.
The seniors -- Trey Bailey, Cline Beam, Joe Birdsong, Chris DeGeare, Brandon Ghee, Jeff Griffin, Kevin Harris, Matt Hartford, Jonathan Jones, Chris Langley, Michael Lockett, Ryan McManus, Barrett McMillin, Dominique Midgett, Ted Randolph, Mike Rinfrette, Boo Robinson, John Russell, Skinner, Anthony Williams, Geoff Wissing and Ben Wooster -- will be honored with their families during an on-field ceremony scheduled for 11:30. The key, Grobe said, will be to carry the emotions of the day throughout the game.
"I think it's a good thing for our players to feel a little sense of emotion, if you can maintain it for four quarters," Grobe said. "I've never liked teams that come out all jacked up for four or five minutes and then the air goes out of the balloons. You want you guys to be emotional, and I think our seniors would be very emotional Saturday.
"But you can be so emotional that you don't play your best."
The Seminoles will be breaking in a new quarterback, redshirt freshman EJ Manuel, after regular starter Christian Ponder suffered a season-ending shoulder separation at Clemson last week. Manuel, a ballyhooed 6-4 recruit in 2008 from Virginia Beach, Va., has played in three games this season, and has completed 1 of 4 passes.
"He's been working very attentively ever since he's been here," Coach Bobby Bowden said. "This year he's been getting the same amount of reps that Ponder got, except he was working with the second unit.
"He's a very intelligent young fellow, and he's got good physical tools, and I'm anxious to see what he can do."
Two Deacons knocked out of last week's loss at Georgia Tech -- junior linebacker Lee Malchow and sophomore tight end Cameron Ford -- will miss at least the rest of the regular season. Malchow broke his lower leg, and Ford had a high ankle sprain.
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
727-7323
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