Wake Forest aiming for first 3-0 start in nearly two decades

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Posted 2:11PM on Tuesday, September 12, 2006

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Chip Vaughn knew the answer before someone finished asking the question: When was the last time Wake Forest started a season with three straight wins? The Demon Deacons safety was well aware that a victory over Connecticut this week would give his team its first 3-0 start since the 1987 team began 5-0 under coach Bill Dooley. ``It's just a big step forward from ... all the close games we lost,'' Vaughn said Tuesday. ``We're starting to turn that corner. If we start Saturday and get this win, it'll just keep building.'' That Wake Forest is 2-0 for the first time since 2003 is noteworthy enough, given that coach Jim Grobe's team is playing without quarterback Ben Mauk, who broke his right arm in the opener and is out for the season. ``Somebody had said Moby Dick was a minnow the last time they started 3-0,'' Grobe said. ``You've got UConn standing in your way and they're a really good football team, so I don't want to make to big a deal out of that.'' The Demon Deacons have opened the season against two of the worst teams in Division I-A Syracuse, which has a school-record 11-game losing streak, and Duke, which was shut out by I-AA Richmond in its opener. ``We play each team like it's USC,'' receiver Kenneth Moore said. ``You've got to come ready to play. I think that when we get later in the season and we play a team the critics think is really worth it, I guess, we'll show that we are a good team and we can compete with the best.'' At the very least, a win over UConn would put the Demon Deacons halfway toward the six victories required for bowl eligibility and put Wake Forest in the mix for its first postseason berth since 2002. That's a better fate than the '87 team received. Playing in the days of fewer bowls, those Deacons were stuck at home for the holidays. ``We'll be three games away,'' Moore said. ``But I'm not trying to settle for six games. I'm trying to win 14.'' If the Demon Deacons can beat Connecticut, they'll have a realistic shot at being 5-0 in September entering their Oct. 7 home game against a Clemson team picked in the preseason to contend for the Atlantic Coast Conference title. Wake Forest follows its trip to East Hartford, Conn., with games at struggling Mississippi and at home against I-AA Liberty. ``We're on our way,'' Moore said. ``When we get continuing to win and continuing to play hard, I think that we'll understand. We know that we have athletes. We know that we can be good. We just have to continue to win to show that.'' (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)