news-record.com

WINSTON-SALEM -- Two weeks ago, back when we had it all figured out, tonight's Clemson-Wake Forest football game was the nominal Atlantic Division title contest. Then the Tigers lost to Maryland, which turned around and got blanked at Virginia. The Demon Deacons did their part to promote anarchy by falling to Navy -- at home.

At the risk of sounding like revisionist historians, some now say a little smudge on the silver isn't so bad.

Between the 97-person entourage of ESPN, the 40 NFL scouts and a movie production crew, it's OK to wonder if the Bailey involved tonight is the Deacons center named Trey or Mr. Barnum's business partner.

"There are a lot of things that can distract you, and you have to focus on the target," Wake coach Jim Grobe said this week. "You can worry about everything from the weather to the pregame meal, and the bottom line is you still have to tee it up at 7:45."

The arrival of the national TV folk is almost an afterthought. A statue of the Deacon mascot will be unveiled in honor of the $47 million renovations that have seen Groves Stadium become BB&T Field. The talent evaluators are coming from 25 of the NFL's 32 teams, their eyes on linebacker Aaron Curry and cornerback Alphonso Smith of the Deacs and tailback James Davis of the Tigers, all of whom may be first-round picks.

Hollywood is coming to campus to get stadium shots for "The Fifth Quarter," the story of former Deacons linebacker Jon Abbate, who helped the 2006 team win the ACC title months after his younger brother was killed in an auto accident.

Is that enough for you?

"It is a big game, but at the same time you've got to take a little out of it," Wake linebacker Stanley Arnoux said. "You've got to focus on the things you've been focused on every week."

Along those lines, Grobe said his team has nothing to gain by obsessing over the Tigers, but that's a tall order because Clemson is the only ACC team to defeat Wake in each of the past two seasons.

The Deacons played seven ACC teams in 2006 and again in 2007. They went 0-2 against Clemson and 11-1 against the other six.

Remember the Tigers' Gaines Adams scooping up a botched field-goal attempt and taking it back for a touchdown two seasons ago? Clemson, down 17-3 at the snap of that play, won 27-17.

"When you saw them running toward the end zone, you knew the momentum was going their way," said Chantz McClinic, another senior linebacker for Wake.

Last season, the Tigers handed Wake its most lopsided defeat in three years, 44-10.

"The biggest thing is not the Clemson thing; it's that we went down there last year and got embarrassed," Grobe said. "It wasn't even fair. I don't know what the final score was, but it could have been bigger than it was. They owned us."

The truth is that neither recent defeat was that costly to Wake, which won the league crown in 2006 and wouldn't have made last year's championship game even if it had won in Death Valley.

The Deacs have active winning streaks of two or more games against five league foes: Maryland, Florida State, N.C. State, Duke and North Carolina. There's no precedent for this. The one and only time they've even approximated that sort of run was 1987-88, when they dispatched UNC, Duke and Georgia Tech.

Clemson was the consensus choice to win the ACC title in 2008 until it blew a 10-0 lead to the Terrapins, who became the chic pick for about 45 seconds. The Terps proceeded to put up nothing Saturday night at Virginia, which was coming off a 28-point loss at Duke.

The Deacons? The excitement of a 3-0 start was muffled slightly when they became the first ranked team to lose to the Midshipmen since 1985.

"There doesn't seem to be a slam-dunk, runaway champion in either division," Grobe said of the ACC race.

And if that's the case, tonight's winner can't get too comfortable.

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