Big Game, Sure: But loser won't be dead yet

Two years ago, virtually no one projected Wake Forest's 27-17 loss against Clemson as a prelude to the ACC championship, yet that's what happened.

Last year, virtually everyone interpreted Clemson's 44-10 romp over Wake Forest as the key to a division title, but Boston College promptly swiped the sheet music and sauntered on down to Florida.

Two recent home-field nosedives -- Wake Forest against Navy, Clemson against Maryland -- sapped some of the hyperbolic energy from the Winston-Salem showdown tonight. Even so, the 7:45 game still has the fit and feel of a potential midseason title bout.

Coach Jim Grobe of Wake Forest downplays the de facto possibilities, citing the ACC's erratic early tendencies.

"As I see the league right now, I don't see a favorite," Grobe said. "I don't see anybody that can't get beat any Saturday. There doesn't seem to be anybody that's just a slam-dunk, runaway champion right now. I don't think in either division you're looking at one team and saying: ‘Well, nobody's going

to touch those guys. They're going to get it.' Our guys got a great wake-up call with Navy. I'm sure Maryland got a great wake-up call with Virginia."

The wake-up calls keep putting poll voters to sleep. The highest-ranked ACC team, Virginia Tech, checks in at No. 18 after surviving two league games by a field goal, winning at Nebraska and subduing the bothersome Hilltoppers of Western Kentucky.

Yes, those Hilltoppers.

The AP ranks Wake Forest No. 21 and North Carolina No. 22. Unless they collide at the ACC championship in Tampa, Wake and Carolina will not play each other for the second time in four expansion seasons, the most pronounced disruption in the series since 1907.

Clemson opened the schedule ranked No. 9 and probably dropped out of the entire poll before halftime of its 34-10 quit fit against Alabama. The Tigers returned briefly, then dribbled away an 11-point lead against Maryland.

Linebacker Chantz McClinic delivers the official Wake Forest position on Clemson's visit: "I don't think any ACC game is more important than any other ACC game."

In a convoluted way, he has a point. The Deacons (3-1, 1-0 ACC) could incur their first conference loss, which would reduce the value of knocking off Florida State on the road but leave them upright for the rest of the Atlantic Division race.

Clemson (3-2, 1-1) and Coach Tommy Bowden probably can't afford another defeat, which would amplify primal screams in the fire-that-Tiger jungle. Still, a team with two ACC losses can carry on in this division, based on the short history. The three division champions so far: FSU 5-3, Wake Forest 6-2, BC 6-2.

Maybe Clemson stirs up fewer motivational protons than Navy, which intercepted four Riley Skinner passes, recovered two fumbles and dominated the scrimmage line during its 24-17 upset.

"No loss is a good loss," McClinic said. "The Navy loss would hurt anybody. The loss kind of told us that, hey, we're not as good as we think we are."

The shocker reinforced linebacker Stanley Arnoux's first principle of careless football: "Humble pie is a day away."

The rushing totals -- Navy had 292 yards on 51 carries; Wake Forest, 43 yards on 31 carries -- deepened Grobe's worries about the offensive line. With center Steve Justice and four other starting linemen gone, the Deacons' running game has plummeted from best in the ACC (193 yards a game during Grobe's seven previous years) to 11th.

Although a four-game sample is too small for large conclusions, the numbers still jump off the stat sheet: 339 net yards, 2.4 yards a carry, 85 yards a game. Josh Adams, the top ACC freshman last season, has averaged 38 yards. Running inefficiencies tilt the mix toward quarterback Skinner, the league's career leader in accuracy (69.3 percent) and the 2008 leader in total offense (244 yards a game).

Grobe's offensive trademark, the run, has gone somewhere to hide, the first time he can remember that happening at Wake Forest or Ohio (or, for that matter, Air Force, where he spent 11 seasons working under Fisher DeBerry).

He vows that the Deacons will beat their heads against the wall, trying to run better. Sometimes there's a fine line between exasperation and resignation, which you can almost detect in Grobe's voice.

"We may be an air-it-out football team," he said, "and we may not be able to do anything about that. We'll see. I might have blinders on right now, but I think we can get better."

He may not know what to do about kicker Sam Swank's sore thigh or the line's sorely needed blocks or anything substantive until sundown tonight.

By the time someone finally turns off the lights early Friday morning, the team left standing will lead the division and catch a whiff of title possibilities, however faint.

■ Lenox Rawlings can be reached at lrawlings@wsjournal.com.