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WINSTON-SALEM -- So here's the logic, and it sure sounds good: If you beat up on the other teams in your state, you'll win recruiting battles for the best local talent, an absolute prerequisite for success in any college sport.

Anybody got a problem with that?

Of course not. Contradicting such self-evident truths would make any football coach look not only stupid but would be demeaning to the locals as well. So Wake Forest's Jim Grobe has no choice but to say today's home game against North Carolina has long-term recruiting implications. But for the Demon Deacons, none of the apparently obvious rings true.

Wake's 20-5 record against the rest of the state's teams during Grobe's tenure hasn't mattered in recruiting. And the alleged failure to get a proportionate share of the Old North State's best hasn't exactly been catastrophic. When the Deacons won the 2006 ACC championship, did they accept the trophy begrudgingly, chastened by the knowledge that -- gasp -- a guy from Jacksonville, Fla., completed a pass to a fellow from Chattanooga, Tenn., which set up the winning field goal by another Jacksonville man? Nope.

As a small, private school, Wake has never totally captured the minds of the state's youth, who grow up dreaming of becoming Tar Heels or members of the Wolfpack. Wake goes after football players just as it seeks all students: nationally.

According to the database at Rivals.com, the South Carolina Gamecocks signed as many elite North Carolina players (12) as Wake did in 2003-07. (The service ranked the top 25 players in some years and the top 30 in others.) The Tar Heels got 38 of those guys and have gone 18-36 in that time. The Deacs (29-26 lately) have followed their ACC title -- their first since 1970 and the first by any North Carolina school since 1980 -- with a five-game winning streak and a 5-2 overall record entering today's game.

This isn't a new thing. From 1990 through last season, 40 Demon Deacons earned All-ACC recognition of some sort. Only nine played high school football in this state. Specifically:

l The 1992 team, which won the Independence Bowl, had six all-conference players. Four were from Virginia, one hailed from Massachusetts and one came from Florida.

l The 2002 Seattle Bowl champions boasted of wide receiver Fabian Davis from Charlotte, offensive lineman Blake Henry of Towson, Md., and future NFL defensive lineman Calvin Pace of Douglasville, Ga.

l Of the 10 eventual All-ACC signees during Grobe's tenure, only defensive backs Josh Gattis of Durham and Patrick Ghee of Fayetteville were North Carolinians.

In the ACC championship game victory over Georgia Tech and the Orange Bowl loss to Louisville, 26 players started at the various positions, including kicker, for the Deacs. Seven of them were in-state recruits. In other words, Wake Forest did quite well without satisfying the presumed mandate of concentrating recruiting efforts in its back yard.

All politics, they say, is local. Not so with recruiting when tuition costs the same for in-state and out-of-state students and when the talent pool elsewhere just might be larger.

That talent pool is especially deep in Florida, which produced nearly four times as many of the Rivals.com nationally acclaimed players as North Carolina did in the 2002-08 recruiting classes. North Carolina delivers the top players in proportion to its overall population and to its participation numbers in high school football, but Florida is off the charts. The Sunshine State accounts for 13 percent of the Rivals.com premier national prospects, but 6 percent of the U.S. population.

And that's why everybody establishes a beachhead along the beach. And inland, for that matter. As long as it's Florida.

While recruiting is a team effort involving position coaches, Wake's point man for most of Florida is assistant coach Tom Elrod, a 32-year-old former Deacons walk-on with strong connections. Wake has nearly as many scholarship recipients from Florida (25) as from its own state (26).

"He was the best recruiter by far who I got to meet with," said John Russell, a defensive tackle from Jacksonville. "He's really down-to-earth, and he knows the players really well."

But this doesn't mean in-state recruiting is irrelevant to Wake Forest.

Starting tailback Josh Adams, a redshirt freshman from Cary, is a two-time ACC rookie of the week and the future of the ground game on a team long known for rushing. Adams said history -- more than the school's proximity to his home -- really swayed him.

Kenny Okoro of Dudley High committed to the Deacs this month, and linebacker Dominique Midgett, another former Panther, started in last week's victory at Navy.

So far, Okoro is the only Rivals.com-rated player from the state to commit to Wake this year despite the recent success. But if the Deacons don't win the numbers game of in-state recruiting, they likely won't care.

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