Sports > September 10, 2003

By Mike Scott

Senior Reporter

The Demon Deacons’ 38-24 win over then-No. 11 N.C. State Sept. 6 was without a doubt one of the biggest wins in the program’s history. We saw that the Deacons can run the ball, we saw that sophomore Cory Randolph can run the Deacon offense efficiently, and we saw that the Deacons are capable of playing with anyone in the conference. But, as much as that one game revealed, this Saturday’s matchup with Purdue may very well reveal more about this team than the win over the ’Pack.

In no way am I trying to discount what the Deacons have done in their first two games this season. The win over Boston College was impressive enough, and the dismantling of the Wolfpack was one of the better things I’ve seen in my years as a fan. But two games does not make a season, and this team still has to prove it can play quality football on a consistent basis.

Before this season started, ESPN.com’s preview for the Deacons was less than optimistic: “Finishing seventh in the ACC would be a feat for the Deacons, because it would mean, in all likelihood, staying on top of Duke plus at least one other school. Anything more than that is asking a lot of this inexperienced, talent-shy roster.” As laughable as this prediction seems at the moment, it was in no way an anomaly — most people would have said that another seven-win season would be a good accomplishment for this team. Right now, it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to imagine the Deacons already having seven wins when they face Florida State in their eighth game of the season.

The looming question, then, is about the team’s attitude — do these players feel that they’ve answered all questions about their ability, or do they realize that, as much as they have accomplished so far, it won’t mean anything if they don’t keep playing the way they have?

Two years ago the Deacons also started 2-0. But they followed that early season success with three straight losses on their way to a 6-5 record. Now, this year’s wins have been much more impressive than the ones two years ago, which came against East Carolina and Appalachian State. But, if the Deacons repeat that year’s history in their next three games, this team will have accomplished more than the 2001 squad only in the warm memories these two upsets will give fans in the coming years.

What the two wins have really brought to this university is an opportunity. Starting this Saturday, the Deacons can go about proving that they’re for real, the new rankings are accurate and their victories so far have to do with a lot more than catching lightning in a bottle. According to the current evidence, the Deacons are a much better team than Purdue. They should be able to handle the Boilermakers, even though Purdue will likely be extremely fired up due to their losses to Bowling Green last week and to the Deacons last year. If the Deacons take Purdue seriously, if they play like they have shown they’re capable of playing, it frankly won’t matter if the Purdue players dip into Bill Romanowski’s medicine cabinet to get prepared for the game. If the Deacons are really as good as their play in the first two games suggests, they will be ready to play on Saturday, and they will win on Saturday.

But if the Deacons are satisfied with what they’ve done, if they buy into the hype, if they believe everything that’s being said about them, then they will lose to Purdue, and, by doing so, put themselves back where they started the year. Head Coach Jim Grobe has done an even better job so far this year than in his previous two years on the job. But now he faces an obstacle borne of his own success — after two momentous wins, how does he keep his players hungry? With a team that suddenly finds itself a media darling and a strong favorite, how does he keep his players playing like they’ve got something to prove?

Beating Boston College and N.C. State means that this team has some ability. Now the Deacons are like a character in one of those “Choose Your Own Adventure” comic books. With choice one, they continue the pattern of the past, become complacent after their two upset victories, believe they can walk over Purdue and in doing so fall flat on their face, taking a step backward in the wake of two giant steps forward. Then there’s choice two. If this team can prepare and play just as hard as they have in the past two weeks, they will beat Purdue and go a long way toward showing that they can play on a high level every week, they belong in the national rankings and Grobe has built a program ready to compete in the ACC now and in the future.

Me? I think they’ll beat the Boilermakers, in large part because of the man in charge. As the last line of the ESPN.com prediction said, and, as the Deacon players have so far proved this year, “to bet against Grobe is to make a foolish bet.”