Wake Forest seniors prepare for final home game

Posted 5:52AM on Wednesday 10th November 2004 ( 20 years ago )

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Each week, Wake Forest cornerback Eric King follows the same pre-game ritual. He gets a new pair of gloves and new wristbands and then straps on some headphones to listen to rap music. Before coach Jim Grobe delivers a final message, King finds a quiet corner and prays. King has used the routine through 39 straight starts, and he plans to use it again Saturday. Only this time, it'll be his final home game for the Demon Deacons. ``I'll probably have to calm myself down a little bit,'' King said Tuesday. ``It's not one of those type things where I'll have to get ready for this game.'' Wake Forest (4-4, 1-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) meets North Carolina (4-5, 3-3), with both teams still needing two wins to become bowl eligible. After this week, Wake Forest finishes with games at Miami and at Maryland. ``We do expect to win two of these last three games and go to a bowl,'' King said. That attitude is something new to the program, which has finished with a winning record in the ACC just five times since the inaugural season of 1953. The change started when Grobe took over in 2001. In the four seasons before Grobe arrived, Wake Forest was 17-28. The team is 22-22 since then, with a win in the 2002 Seattle Bowl, only the sixth bowl game in team history. Now, they may be on the cusp of more success. ``We were searching for wins when I got here,'' King said. ``The program's come a long way. I'm so proud to be a part of that. We started a path, and the other guys have jumped on.'' King, a member of Grobe's first recruiting class, has become somewhat of a symbol for Wake Forest. A bit undersized at 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds, he has overachieved in his four years. He got his first start in the fifth game of his freshmen season, and he hasn't been out of the lineup since. There have been some close calls, including one this season when he suffered a concussion against North Carolina State. He missed part of that game, then was held out of contact drills the next week during practice. But he started the loss to Virginia Tech, even though he really didn't feel well until the day before the game. ``All week I was having headaches, and I didn't want to tell the trainers,'' King said. ``By Friday, I woke up and felt great, and I was able to hold up pretty good.'' The efforts of King and his classmates certainly have been appreciated by Grobe. ``This is a group of seniors that I enjoy,'' he said. ``For them, I think it would be very fitting to see them go out and win their last home game.'' They'll need a better effort than the one they put up last season against the Tar Heels. Wake Forest lost 42-34, an embarrassing performance that led to a three-game losing streak to finish the season. Instead of qualifying for a bowl, the Deacons stayed home for the holidays, left with unsettling thoughts of what went wrong. ``I think everybody's head just wasn't in the right place,'' cornerback Warren Braxton said. ``Maybe we just didn't focus because of all the bowl talk. We didn't finish strong. ``This year, we're going a really good job of focusing on one game. That's all I'm thinking about now, Carolina.''

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/11/147824