North Carolina State University Athletics
Wake Still Waiting
9/23/1999 12:00:00 AM | Football
Wake Forest football fans are patient people. Just call it desire without expectation. While there is a desire to have winning seasons, the expectation level doesn't quite rise to the level of what is seen at other schools. Perhaps that's why Deacons athletics director Ron Wellman has given head coach Jim Caldwell a long leash.
Heading into this Saturday's contest against NC State, Wake is 1-1 this season. In six plus years under Caldwell, the Deacons are just 18-50.
And while he continues to receive a strong vote of confidence from Wellman and school administrators, Caldwell must still deal with questions about his future at Wake Forest.
"It's important for us to focus in on the things we can control and keep coaching as hard as we can," Caldwell said. "Our players don't sense any uncertainty (about his status) because there is no uncertainty. We have a long season ahead of us and we've got to get better."
After opening with an impressive 34-15 victory at Army, the Deacons reverted back to their old ways in a lopsided 35-7 loss to Virginia last week.
Heading into this weekend's contest against the Pack, Wake sits at the bottom of most of the ACC's defensive categories, including total defense, rushing defense and scoring defense. The Deacons' first two opponents have also converted on over 55% of their third down tries.
Offensively, a concerted effort to make improvements in the running game is paying off so far. Wake Forest has run for an average of 200 yards in its first two games and tailback Morgan Kane is the ACC's rushing leader. The change in philosophy is a far cry from the pass happy days of recent years.
"We're not strictly a drop back team like we used to be," Caldwell said. "Number one, our talent lends us to more of a run-oriented attack, but then also we just felt that throwing the ball as much as we did, as often as we did, created more opportunity for turnovers, tipped balls---which caused interceptions. Errant throws and things like that kept us out of the end zone. If you run the ball, you don't have that many problems in those areas."
With five of its next six games at home, Wake Forest is about to enter a telling stretch in its season. It all begins when NC State invades Groves Stadium on Saturday.
