Sports > December 6, 2007

By Martin Rickman | Staff writer

Wake Forest, in back-to-back bowls for the first time in team history, accepted an invitation Dec. 2 to play in the Meineke Car Care Bowl Dec. 29 at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

The Demon Deacons, 8-4 on the year and tied for second in the Atlantic Division of the ACC, will be facing the UConn Huskies, winners of nine games this season and co-champions of the Big East Conference.

The Huskies, ranked 25th in the BCS standings as of Dec. 2, had arguably their best season as a program in D I-A, exceeding all expectations with their second-winningest season in school history.

The University of Connecticut had a chance at the Orange Bowl, playing at West Virginia Nov. 24 but crumbled losing 66-21.

They had a season much like the Deacs’, finishing seventh in the nation in turnover margin and winning a number of close games, including wins of 21-17 against Louisville and 22-15 against early South Florida.

The Deacs are 1-1 all time against UConn, beating them most recently 24-13 last season.

The teams share two common opponents, Duke and Virginia, and the Huskies lost to Virginia by the identical score of 17-16.

With the teams almost mirror images of each other, reliance on taking care of the football and field position will be the keys to the game. The Huskies have a good two-headed rushing attack in Andre Dixon and Donald Brown II and have a Swank-like kicker in Tony Ciaravino, who was 21 of 26 on field goals this season.

“We’re both young as far as success,” Wake Forest Head Coach Jim Grobe said. “They beat the socks off us a few years ago and we went up there and won a close game last year. But, they’re a lot better than they were last year.”

The game in Charlotte, while not the most enticing or lucrative locations among others like Nashville and Orlando, provides one of the most interesting matchups of the ACC bowls. While ACC Champion runner-up Boston College will be taking on a more than suspect Michigan State team and Florida State will be facing 6-6 Kentucky, the Deacs stand to play a pretty good football team in a game just 80 miles down the road.

“For us, Charlotte, Nashville, Boise, Champs, we were just hopeful with any of those,” Grobe said.“We’re not a spoiled football team, I know our coaches aren’t spoiled and I think our fans aren’t.”

A win would make this the second-win ningest season in Wake Forest history, and the Deacons, hard-pressed to match last year’s miracle Orange Bowl season, were more than adequate at standing up to the pressure of playing every team as the defending ACC Champions. A popular question at this week’s press conference was who would win in a matchup between last year’s and this year’s teams.

Redshirt junior cornerback Alphonso Smith said, “Last year’s team was really lucky. If we play last year’s team 10 times, we win eight, they’d beat us bad in one game, and they’d win one in OT.”

Other players like redshirt junior safety Chip Vaughn agreed, saying, “This year’s team has better team chemistry, we’re more battle tested, we’ve been in the dogfights.”

The Deacs will need their chemistry as the game in Charlotte will definitely be a tough fight. While last year, it appeared that the team was able to take in the sights and sounds of Miami, this year should be just another football game for the Demon Deacons.

“Last year I think we were happy to be in a bowl and this year is a straight business trip for us,” Vaughn said.

With what should be a big home crowd on hand, the Deacs will kick off against UConn at 1 p.m. Dec. 29 on ESPN.