Grobe's return a sign of how far Demon Deacons have come

GREENSBORO, GA.

Jim Grobe was as good as gone. News outlets were reporting last December that he would leave Wake Forest to coach Arkansas. Through his disappointment, linebacker Aaron Curry remembers feeling happy for his coach, and thinking: "He deserves it."

Grobe had done the near-impossible and turned little Wake Forest into a veritable ACC football power, with 20 wins in two years, an Orange Bowl appearance in 2006 and a Meineke Car Care Bowl victory in 2007. If he'd felt he'd reached the ceiling of what was possible at Wake, who could blame him?

But Grobe doesn't feel that way, and that's a big reason why he turned down the Arkansas offer and came back for his eighth season at Wake.

"If I didn't think we had the opportunity to get better, to improve, I would move on. I think we can be better at Wake Forest," Grobe said Monday at the ACC's Football Kickoff.

Voters at the annual pre-season media event seemed to agree, picking Wake to finish second in the Atlantic Division. Wake received the third-most votes overall, the first time that has happened since 1977.

Curry called the December day when Grobe gathered the team to announce that he was staying, "The best day in Wake Forest history.

"That showed us he respected us as players and he respected Wake Forest as a program," he said.

Wake is getting respect from all corners these days. Last year's nine-win season showed that an 11-3 mark in 2006 was no fluke.

Grobe has gone about it methodically, redshirting each incoming class to maximize player development, running a misdirection offense that keeps opponents off-balance and stocking the defense with speed all over the field.

Off-field improvements have proceeded at a measured pace as well. Quaint Groves Stadium, capacity 31,500, has been spruced up several times in recent years. Deacon Tower, the third phase of a six-phase renovation, will open this season with club seats and box suites. Salaries for assistant coaches have increased, as has the recruiting budget.

"I really truly don't have one thing that I'm not happy with at Wake Forest right now," Grobe said.

The culture has shifted, gradually but noticeably. This year's senior class is on track to be the first in Wake history to leave with a winning ACC record. They arrived in 2004, determined to leave their mark, Curry said.

"Our goal was to change something. We didn't care what it was. If all we did was change the uniforms from our freshmen year to our senior year, we made a change and that'll start something," he said.

Wake had enjoyed some success before the class arrived, winning 18 games in Grobe's first three seasons. But the Deacons couldn't get over the hump in conference play. Things bottomed out in 2004, when Wake fell to 1-7 in the ACC.

Cornerback Alphonso Smith red-shirted that season. He remembers thinking that "all this losing" had to stop.

"I came from a winning high school," Smith said. "The first week in practice I got in, like, three fights. I just came in with an attitude that I was used to winning and I was really competitive.

"I was going to leave my mark right here and right now."

Four years later, they have. Students who once ignored them now stop them to chat.

"Every time I bump into somebody, they expect us to win, to go to another bowl game," Curry said. "When we first got there it was like, 'Hey, if we could just break even. If we could just break even that would be a start.'"

Grobe called the higher expectations flattering. He confessed, though, that he preferred the old days.

"If I had my druthers, I think I'd rather be picked sixth," he joked. "That worked out pretty well a couple years ago."

Ed Miller, (757) 446-2372, ed.miller@pilotonline.com