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WINSTON-SALEM -- With its next win in 2007, Wake Forest will post at least four victories in seven straight seasons, a streak that sounds thoroughly trivial and worthy of sarcastic applause. But the Demon Deacons (3-2) never have done it since they began playing ACC football in 1953.

You have to go back to 1938-52 -- a stretch starting with the second of Peahead Walker's teams and running through Tom Rogers' second Deacons squad -- to find four or more victories in seven or more consecutive years.

Back then, getting to three victories in October didn't trigger dreams of bowl games because there weren't many bowls. Now the Deacons are halfway to a destination that is almost certain for two-thirds of the ACC. The opportunities to play in a bowl have expanded greatly with the growth in the NCAA's top division and the relaxation of eligibility requirements in the past decade.

It's obvious that nothing will come easily to Wake, which held off Duke 41-36 on Saturday after owning a 34-9 lead in the third quarter. Yet since Jim Grobe became coach, the team has reached the point where victory is at least plausible every time out.

That's especially noteworthy this week, when No. 21 Florida State (4-1, 1-1) comes to Groves Stadium for a Thursday night game on ESPN. A few years back, the avoidance of humiliation was really the primary -- if unstated -- goal for most Seminoles opponents. That was surely the case for Wake, which lost to FSU by an average score of 57-8 in 1993-97.

But now? Wake's ACC title season of 2006 got really serious when the Deacons astonished the Noles 30-0 at Tallahassee, a result that should take fear out of the equation from Wake Forest's perspective.

The Deacs' final six opponents -- Navy, North Carolina, Virginia, Clemson, N.C. State and Vanderbilt -- are collectively 18-16. Regardless of the outcome against FSU, breaking even in the second half of the season would make Wake bowl-eligible, which is not the same as bowl-certain. The Deacs almost certainly will need seven total victories or a collapse by Georgia Tech (3-3, 2-2) to make it.

Wake Forest has had two overriding constants this season, only one of which can reasonably be expected to continue. That's the play of Kenny Moore, one of two major college players with 200 or more rushing yards and 300 or more yards in receiving. (Chad Hall of Air Force, with 327 on the ground and 325 through the air, is the other.)

Moore, who has 245 rushing yards and 360 receiving, is on pace to break Torry Holt's ACC record of 88 catches in a season, set in 1988. With 7.6 a game, the third-highest figure in ACC history, he's on track for 91 if the Deacs don't make a bowl game and 98 if they do. (In Holt's day, statistics in bowl games didn't count.)

But the Demon Deacons can't expect the defense to keep scoring points for them. With Saturday's score against Duke, Alphonso Smith has returned three interceptions for touchdowns, one short of the NCAA's single-season record. Only against Nebraska have the Deacons failed to take back a pickoff for a score.

"I didn't feel like we were as strong as we needed to be, but we made plays," Grobe said after the victory at Duke. "Your goal is to score on defense once in a while, but we seem to be finding ways to do that a lot, and I hope that continues."

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