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WINSTON-SALEM -- Here's a college football rule of thumb to follow in the future: when an inexperienced team with a lot of time to prepare goes up against an experienced team trying to do a cram job, go with the experienced squad.

Wake Forest proved that emphatically when it thumped a North Carolina team coming off its bye week, 37-10.

The Demon Deacons (6-2 overall, 4-1 ACC) were laughing and relaxed afterward, but during the week they were more than a little nervous about facing pass-happy UNC (2-6, 1-3) just seven days after going up against run, run and run some more Navy.

"We had a lot of thinking to do," Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe said. "It was tough to turn right back around and get back into pro-style offense."

The Demon Deacons thought about how to get their defensive line back into pass-rush mode after a game in which all the keys they'd followed were run-based. The Wake coaches thought about how to mix coverages after playing just a base coverage against the ground-oriented Midshipmen. They thought about how to limit the big-play abilities of the Tar Heels' wide receivers.

"I don't know if we've been any more nervous about a group of receivers all year than we were with North Carolina," Grobe said.

Despite all that, Grobe still preferred to be in his situation than the one UNC was in.

"I've been at Wake Forest seven years and I've never liked the way we've played after an open date," he said.

The youthful Tar Heels backed up that opinion and then some. UNC had been on an upward arcing learning curve all season and had nearly knocked off a top-10 South Carolina team Oct. 13. Then came its bye week, and an expected blessing turned out to be much more of a curse.

"Two weeks, and to lose like this, it's a shame, it's embarrassing," UNC senior defensive end Hilee Taylor said. "I don't know what it is, but we're going to find out what was missing."

Whatever was missing resulted in three turnovers that led to 13 Wake Forest points. It also led to nine penalties, five of which were false starts by the offensive line in the first half.

"Their linebackers made good calls and moved the defense right before the snap happened," UNC center Scott Lenehan said. "Guys aren't hearing the snap count and they're going off the defensive movement."

The Wake linebacker who always seemed to be making the right movements was junior Aaron Curry. He picked off T.J. Yates' first pass, setting up a Sam Swank field goal that made Swank the school's all-time leading scorer. Then he put the exclamation mark on the game early in the fourth quarter when he read Yates perfectly, stepped in front of a short pass at the Wake 23 and raced 77 yards for the game's final score.

It was a sweet moment for the Fayetteville native who'd felt snubbed by the Tar Heels coming out of high school.

"I was on another level," Curry said. "It's kind of personal, being from North Carolina. They didn't even look at me."

Curry' score was the ninth time this season that the Demon Deacons have scored a non-offensive touchdown. No. 8 came early in the second quarter, after a Connor Barth field goal cut Wake's lead to 10-3. Deacons speedster Kevin Marion then took the kickoff, raced through a gaping hole on the right side of the field and went 98 yards for a score that looked ridiculously easy.

"Oh man, nobody even touched me," Marion said. "It was just great blocking by our special teams."

It was yet another example of the team with the shorter prep time out-executing the team with apparently too much time on its hands. It also killed any momentum UNC might have built.

Marion did it again in the fourth quarter, after the Tar Heels scored their only touchdown of the game to make the score 23-10. This time he returned Barth's kickoff 83 yards, to the UNC 14. Josh Adams scored on a run on the very next play.

"I think we've made a lot of improvements," Grobe said. "I think we're a better football right now than we've been at any time of the season."

That means the Demon Deacons are once again a serious threat to win the ACC title. The rest of the conference had better be prepared, because as Saturday showed, Wake certainly will be.

Contact Jim Young at 373-7016 or jyoung@news-record.com

North Carolina 0 3 0 7 -- 10

Wake Forest 10 7 6 14 -- 37

Wake--FG Swank 23

Wake--Adams 6 run (Swank kick)

NC--FG Barth 38

Wake--Marion 98 kickoff return (Swank kick)

Wake--FG Swank 22

Wake--FG Swank 46

NC--Rome 11 pass from Yates (Barth kick)

Wake--Adams 14 run (Swank kick)

Wake--Curry 77 interception return (Swank kick)

A--33,023.

North Carolina Wake Forest

First downs 18 13

Rushes-yards 30-77 40-138

Passing 236 131

Comp-Att-Int 26-33-2 13-16-0

Return Yards 0 108

Punts-Avg. 5-42.6 5-40.0

Fumbles-Lost 2-1 1-0

Penalties-Yards 9-60 5-60

Time of Possession 30:44 29:16

Individual Statistics

RUSHING--North Carolina, J.White 6-31, Tate 3-18, Elzy 5-18, Houston 4-17, Little 2-12, Foster 1-(minus 2), Yates 9-(minus 17). Wake Forest, Adams 18-82, Andrews 7-44, Bryant 3-13, Caparelli 4-7, Skinner 8-(minus 8).

PASSING--North Carolina, Yates 26-33-2-236. Wake Forest, Skinner 12-15-0-133, Hodges 1-1-0-(minus 2).

RECEIVING--North Carolina, Nicks 9-87, Pianalto 6-55, Rome 4-37, Tate 3-31, J.White 3-20, Quinn 1-6. Wake Forest, Moore 4-41, Brinkman 3-53, Tereshinski 2-22, Bryant 2-3, Adams 1-14, Marion 1-(minus 2).