The Wake Forest football team has played 12 games this year, but it still doesn't know whether to pack it up for the season or to get packed and ready to play one more. This is the situation the Deacs face after finishing the regular season with a bowl-eligible six victories. However, due to a less-than-stellar 3-5 record in conference play, the team finds itself on the doorstep of the postseason, but without an invitation to join the bowl party just yet.

The Deacs are in danger of missing out on a bowl bid for the third consecutive year and the second-straight time while meeting the six-win qualification to earn a bid. If this happens, the team doesn't have to look any further than their record against ACC opponents, which ranked them No. 7 in the nine-team league.

This could have been easily improved if the team had been able to close out its opponents better. Most disappointing were the losses to Virginia, Clemson, and Florida State.

In each of these games the Deacs seemed to have control of the outcome at a certain point, but wound up letting all three of these contests slip away.

"We are trying to not spend a lot of time thinking about bowl games, but now we are in a situation where it counts," Head Coach Jim Grobe said. "Last year we were bowl eligible and didn't get a bid, so hopefully this year our situation will be a little bit better."

These and all of the other losses were in the past as the team traveled to Maryland for its final regular season game Nov. 30.

A win over the nationally- ranked Terps would have all but guaranteed the Deacs a bid to a bowl.

Maryland scored early and often as the team ran up a 27-0 lead at halftime over the shell-shocked Deacs.

The Terps amassed 371 yards of total offense in the first half. Junior Scott McBrien accounted for most of these yards by himself as he smoked the Deacon defense with his arm as well as with his feet.

Wake Forest's defenders couldn't stop whatever the Terps' quarterback did as he threw for 257 yards and two scores, while rushing for 41 yards in the first half alone.

Meanwhile, the Deacon offense struggled, totaling only 140 yards of offense and scoring zero points.

In the second half things picked up for the Deacs as they scored 14 unanswered points on two rushing touchdowns by senior Tarence Williams to get within striking distance.

The Deacs also drove deep into Maryland territory early in the fourth quarter, but the drive was stalled thanks to a costly false start penalty.

In the end, Maryland's dominating first half was too much to overcome, as the Deacs fell 32-14. After the game the Terps received their official invitation to the Peach Bowl, but will the Deacons get any love?

"You don't want this to be your last game, especially if you're a senior," Williams said. "We want to be in a bowl game, especially after what happened to us last year and us being bowl eligible."

The Deacons did however help their postseason chances the previous week when they hosted Navy in the final regular season home game Nov. 23. Though the heavily favored Deacs struggled, they were able to come from behind to win in dramatic fashion.

Trailing 27-23 after a Navy touchdown with 4:11 remaining, the Deacs impressively drove down the field knowing that they needed to win to become bowl eligible.

They got this win when senior wide receiver Fabian Davis ran it in from five yards out with 53 seconds to give the Deacons a 30-27 victory.

Redshirt freshman Matt Wisnosky also played a key role nailing three field goals. For his performance, Wisnosky was named ACC Specialist of the Week.

The Deacs will have to wait to hear if they will get a bowl bid now after finishing the second consecutive season with six wins under coach Grobe.