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WINSTON-SALEM — Kenny Okoro was minding his own business Saturday afternoon when he saw an entire football game coming his way. He'd been waiting all week.

Okoro, a redshirt freshman from Greensboro in his first collegiate start, intercepted a pass in the end zone to end N.C. State's final drive and preserved Wake Forest's biggest win of the season. Just as he assumed he would.

After a week that saw Wake alter its entire makeup as a team, making a series of moves that finally unleashed senior quarterback Riley Skinner, the Deacons left Okoro on his own. Saturday became the freshman's education and an entire season in 60 minutes, ending only when Skinner ran out of passes and State ran out of time in a 30-24 Wake Forest win.

For all intents and purposes, the game was in Okoro's hands all along. But with about two minutes to play in a game that had already lasted the entire afternoon, State's quarterback sensation Russell Wilson threw his last pass. A packed stadium saw exactly what Wilson saw -- Okoro on an island all by himself with a wide-open receiver running into the end zone.

"I was waiting," Okoro said.

This was only the game of the year for the Deacons. After sputtering to a 2-2 start and having lost its first conference game a week earlier, Wake went into the State game with nothing to lose. Or everything to lose, depending on the perspective.

For the past few weeks, the Deacons had loosened their control of Riley. For the past two weeks, the senior had set career passing marks as Wake went away from the Jim Grobe tenets of gravity-bound football.

"We want to keep running the football, but we've got to use Riley," he said. "We're just not very smart if we don't."

Skinner threw three touchdown passes and finished with career marks in pass attempts (45) and yards (361) and set the school record for touchdown passes. His 45th career scoring pass probably changed Wake from a running program to a passing program for good.

And that meant this week's decision to start Okoro at cornerback could be a fateful one. For a while Saturday, things didn't look good.

"They were picking on me," Okoro said. "It just made me mad."

Wilson, who became the first freshman all-conference quarterback in ACC history last season, went after the Dudley graduate. Wilson repeatedly threw Okoro's way as State revealed its best plan — to pick on the kid. Grobe knew it would happen. And with another freshman, Dominique Tate, playing cornerback for the first time in his life, the Wake coach knew he was taking a big chance.

He had no choice after injuries and a mid-week suspension of safety Alex Frye left Grobe considering rebuilding his secondary with the big game looming. He said he was worried about the confidence of young Tate. But not Okoro.

"That's not a problem with Kenny Okoro," Grobe said. "He doesn't have a problem with confidence."

The game had a carnival atmosphere, and with the county fair across the street it was fitting the horizon included a giant Ferris wheel as a backdrop. Wilson probably didn't notice as he dropped back to pass with just more than two minutes left in a wild game. The teams had traded touchdowns and field goals and matched each other penalty for penalty. Wake held its own and felt confident that Skinner could outscore the Wolfpack as its young defense held on for dear life.

State figured it could take Okoro when it needed to. With daylight running out and the Pack trailing by six, it was time. Wilson dropped back and scrambled until he saw receiver Donald Bowens breaking free on a slant to the end zone. Okoro was behind him. Wilson threw hard and high, but his 43rd pass of the day was a little too hard and a little too high.

All week, Okoro said, it was as if Wake was a different team, a team with more swagger, a team willing to make drastic changes on the fly and leave it up to each player to do his job. In the end, it was Okoro's time.

"I felt like they'd been picking on me the whole game," Okoro said. "I knew my time would come, though. When I saw the ball in the air, I knew it was time."

The ball sailed high to the back of the end zone where the freshman from Greensboro was waiting. He leaped and made the interception, the play of the game in the biggest game of the year.

"I'd been waiting for it," he said. "I'd been waiting all week."

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com