Deacs end year with win, become bowl-eligible
By Mike Scott
Assistant Sports Editor

Grab your beer and cigarettes, put on an ugly shirt and cut your hair into a mullet, the Deacons are going bowling … maybe.

The Demon Deacon football team became bowl eligible thanks to a 38-35 victory over Northern Illinois Nov. 24 at Groves Stadium. While they may not end up with a place to play in the postseason, the win culminates a remarkable turnaround in Head Coach Jim Grobe’s first season, as the team tripled its win total from last year’s 2-9 campaign, finishing with a winning record at 6-5.

“It feels special (finishing with a winning record),” Grobe said. “Certainly not many people expected us to do that in our first year. It’s a tribute to our players. I feel like this season began back in the winter. We challenged them pretty hard. Every week these kids gave a great effort. As much as I’d like to say it’s coaching, these kids are the ones that made it happen. I think we had just a couple sluggish practices and we never had occasion to question their effort.”

While the finish capped off the end to a great season, the game remained in doubt much longer than it should have, as the Deacons held 17-point leads three times in the game, only to see the Huskies cut each one to three.

The Deacons started the scoring on their first drive, as they took the ball 70 yards in 13 plays before stalling at the Huskie 10-yard line. Junior placekicker Tyler Ashe then converted on a 27-yard field goal attempt to draw first blood for the Deacons.
After a strong defensive series, the Deacs struck gold again, this time traversing 47 yards in 10 plays, culminating in a 14-yard touchdown pass from junior quarterback James MacPherson to senior receiver Tarence Williams. The score gave the Deacs a 10-0 lead with 2:34 left in the first quarter.

After three holds, the Deacons got the ball back with 14:47 to go in the second quarter. The Deacons moved in their usual methodical way from their 19-yard line to the Northern Illinois 47 in six plays before MacPherson found junior wideout Fabian Davis for 47 yards and a touchdown to go up 17-0.

The Huskies would finally answer five minutes later. A Demon Deacon personal foul at the end of a punt gave the Huskies great field position at the Deacon 33-yard line. They did not squander the opportunity, completing a six-yard touchdown pass on the sixth play of the drive to pull within 10 points with 4:50 remaining in the half.
The Deacons would come back strong, going 59 yards in 11 plays on their next posession, finishing with a two-yard run by sophomore Fred Staton to take a 24-7 halftime lead.

The second half was much the same, as the Deacs twice jumped ahead by 17 and the Huskies cut each of those leads to three points. In the end, the defense came up with a big stop in the Huskies’ final posession, stuffing a run and forcing three incompletions, allowing Tarence Williams to eat up yards, running out the final two minutes of clock and preserving the three-point victory. Williams finished the day with 35 carries for 142 yards, pushing him over 1,000 yards for the season. Grobe credited
Northern Illinois for keeping the game close.

“I give credit to Northern Illinois,” he said. “They came out in the third quarter and we got into a dogfight with a good football team.”

The Deacons needed to beat Northern Illinois to gain bowl eligibility after falling to Georgia Tech 38-33 Nov. 17 at Groves Stadium. Despite falling in the end, the Deacons hung with the favored Yellow Jackets until the very end.

“I couldn’t be happier by the effort of our kids,” Grobe said. “We just didn’t make the plays when it counted. Bottom line is that we lost to a very fine football team.”
Playing cath up for most of the game, the Deacons cut the deficit to five points with 1:38 remaining, as Tarence Williams’ one-yard touchdown run capped off a 17 play, 80-yard drive and made the score 38-33 Gerogia Tech with 1:39 left in the game.
The Deacons failed to recover the ensuing onside kick, but had a final chance with 41 seconds to play. But, MacPherson was intercepted, ending the threat.
Williams had a typically strong game, carrying 22 times for 86 yards and two touchdowns.

So, after a great season, what is the Deacons’ reward? They get to wait. With four other ACC teams already qualified for the postseason and North Carolina and Clemson likely to become so with wins this weekend, it appears that the Deacons may be the odd man out, as the conference only holds six automatic bowl berths. With the Tigers facing lowly Duke and the Tar Heels clashing with SMU, it appears that the Deacons will not gain one of those six berths, and it is unlikely that they will receive an at-large bid from a bowl.

Whether or not they end up in a bowl, the Deacons have much to be proud of after this season. Not only did they win six games, which is a vast achievement considering their previous year’s record, they were within a touchdown in all but one of their five losses. And these were not cupcake teams they were facing. A seven-point loss to a top-10 Maryland team, a three point loss to N.C. State, a seven-point loss to Clemson and the close defeat against Georgia Tech showed that the Deacons are competitive in the ACC. Only in their defeat at the hands of Florida State was the game not in doubt down to the end.

With all that in mind, the Deacons end their season with their heads and their hopes high.