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WINSTON-SALEM -- As anybody with a cursory interest in recent ACC football knows, Wake Forest has built itself into a player in this strange new world by developing talent over the long term. Redshirting is so prevalent that you'd swear Black and Gold have added a third partner in the Demon Deacons' official color scheme.

But it's not that simple. Holding true freshmen out of competition only ensures they'll be eligible to become fifth-year seniors one day. It doesn't guarantee they'll stick around long enough to serve as elder statesmen, and that's the really eye-catching part of the Wake story.

It's also the biggest reason the Deacons fully expect to post their third consecutive winning season. They haven't done that since 1950-52 -- when their league was the Southern Conference, their campus was in Wake County and only one-third of American homes had televisions.

The Deacons redshirted 17 true freshmen way back in 2004, and 13 of them (76 percent) are still around.

"We have a special bond with each other," fifth-year linebacker Aaron Curry said. "We know there's no need to doubt whether we're going to play hard or make the right decisions on the field."

The Wake Forest roster has 32 players in their fourth or fifth year of eligibility. And, no, that's not typical.

Throughout college football, most first-year players sit on the bench, their egos somewhat soothed by the NCAA policy that gives athletes five years to play four. They assume they'll ultimately recoup the lost season. That doesn't happen as often as you might think. Aside from Wake, only about 55 percent of ACC players redshirted in 2004 are still in the league.

The 2008 Deacons expect to start eight fifth-year seniors. On defense. Five ACC teams have fewer than eight fifth-year players on their entire rosters.

Attrition isn't always a sign of trouble. Some players -- N.C. State's Mario Williams in 2007, for example -- leave after three or four years on campus because they're good enough for the NFL. They're the exception, however.

In order to stockpile graybeards, a program needs a convergence of factors.

* Patient players. Wake's tendency to redshirt is hardly a secret these days. Deacons coaches are up front about it in recruiting, which is why no true freshman is shocked when informed he's on the shelf.

"Meeting the coaches and sitting down with them, you know it's a family-oriented team," Wake linebacker Stanley Arnoux said. "When a young man comes in for a visit, just being in an environment like this is all it takes."

Arnoux is flanked at linebacker by two other members of the signing class of 2004, Chantz McClinic and Curry. McClinic is among the many who know a thing or two about patience. He made only 11 tackles in his first three years as a Deacon, but he didn't transfer. Wake has had the lowest attrition rate in the conference in the past five years.

* Player development. If a veteran team wins, its older guys have improved to the point where newcomers haven't usurped them. And make no mistake: Recruiting is risky and player improvement is far from a given.

Even North Carolina coach Butch Davis, who signed the bulk of the team that won a national championship at Miami earlier this decade, admits as much. As a result, he says he's not averse to playing six or seven rookies every year.

"If a kid doesn't play as a freshman, four or five years from now, what's the likelihood that you might out-recruit that particular kid? I'm not particularly concerned about 2011 or 2012," Davis said. "I'm worried about 2008. We'll worry about the future when the future gets here."

* Patient administration. When Grobe's fourth and fifth teams at Wake went 4-7, school officials didn't panic; they viewed the avoidance of a 2-9 season as a sign of progress.

This is where Wake Forest, the third-smallest school among the 120 in the NCAA's highest football classification, is especially rare. Most programs in the BCS structure can't tolerate that kind of risk.

"As you look at matches of coaches to universities, I don't know that anybody is a better match than Jim Grobe and Wake Forest," athletics director Ron Wellman said.

And so they'll take the field Thursday night at Baylor (8, Fox Sports Net) ranked No. 23 and with 11 of their fifth-year men on the depth chart. All 11 might be starting if not for injuries to wide receiver Chip Brinkman, currently bugged by a hamstring, and fullback Richard Belton, who missed most of last year with a knee injury.

Only along the offensive line, which includes -- gasp! -- five true or redshirt freshmen among its top 10 members, are there signs of inexperience. The Deacons are so old that one of them, defensive end Matt Robinson, is in his sixth season. He's still around because of two serious injuries, a special exemption from the NCAA and the love of a game.

"It's great to know you can trust the person next to you and that you can hold him accountable for his play on the field," Arnoux said. "And the people behind them have someone great to look up to."

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