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WINSTON-SALEM -- Principal Skinner is back in charge.

Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner, who says he doesn't watch "The Simpsons" and is therefore unaware of the character who bears his surname, said Thursday he has been cleared to start Saturday's game with Maryland. He missed the previous two contests with a mild shoulder separation.

"We'll see how it goes," he said. "We went through the normal routine starting Monday. I went through a full week of practice and feel pretty good about it."

Skinner, the 2006 ACC rookie of the year, threw for 236 yards in the season-opening loss at Boston College before leaving with the injury. Brett Hodges, another redshirt sophomore, took over with mixed results. He was asked to throw only 12 passes in last week's 21-10 win over Army. Wake's defense scored once and special teams produced another touchdown. While the Deacons consider Hodges a legitimate ACC quarterback, there is no question they'd prefer to have their No. 1 guy on the field.

"I think he's ready to go," coach Jim Grobe said. "He had a good Tuesday and a good Wednesday. With shoulder pads on, that's where you judge your quarterback. We'll start him and see how he does. I think he's as close to full speed as he's going to be.

"The biggest thing is seeing the speed of the game and seeing the different defenses. Orchestrating the offense is going to be his biggest concern."

Skinner is back in time for a key game that may define Wake's degree of difficulty in returning to a bowl. The stakes aren't as high as they were in the teams' most recent meeting, which was in effect the ACC's Atlantic Division title contest, but falling to 1-3 would leave the Deacs with a small margin for error.

"We've lost to two real good teams in Boston College and Nebraska, but the bottom line is that we're 1-2 and we've got our backs against the wall a little bit," Grobe said.

The Terps (2-1) have beaten Villanova and Florida International and lost to West Virginia.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rdaniels@news-record.com