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WINSTON-SALEM – The tree in front of the Wake Forest football offices was leafless, but it was not bare Thursday morning. The celebratory Charmin in the withered branches decreed that Jim Grobe will remain as Wake Forest’s coach rather than take off for the University of Arkansas.

“It’s tradition,” said Grayson Hodnett, a junior from Gastonia who instigated the impromptu paper party. “We do it to celebrate our biggest victories every year, and right now, I’d say retaining Jim Grobe is one of the biggest victories Wake Forest will ever have. So we had to.”

Grobe has turned down overtures from the University of Arkansas, Wake sources said today, rendering moot a torrent of media reports in that state that prematurely proclaimed him the newest leader of the Razorbacks. He was scheduled to meet with his team at 3 p.m. and to speak briefly with the media at 4:45 p.m. today, shortly before the Demon Deacons practice.

Wake athletics director Ron Wellman did not specifically address any other situation this morning but said he did not anticipate needing to fill Grobe’s job any time soon.

“I know Jim told me this morning, ‘I’m the Wake Forest football coach, and I’m happy about that,’ “ Wellman said.

Asked if he believes Grobe will be coaching the Deacons in the coming weeks, Wellman said, “And I’m hoping he’ll be our coach for several years from now.” On Feb. 27 of this year, Grobe signed a new 10-year contract through the 2016 season; a few hours later, he accepted the Bobby Dodd Award as the 2006 national Coach of the Year for leading the Deacs to their first ACC title in 36 years.

The Deacs are scheduled to practice this afternoon in preparation for their Meineke Car Care Bowl appearance against Connecticut in Charlotte on Dec. 29. Practice was never canceled or amended.

"There’s no reason to think it won’t be (held)," Wellman said.

Jeff Long, who is running the Arkansas search and who will officially become the school’s athletics director on Jan. 1, said this afternoon that he hasn’t offered the job to anybody.

"The search for a head football coach at the University of Arkansas is ongoing," Long said. "While I have been involved in detailed discussions with candidates, no formal offer has been extended and no agreement has been reached."

Less than four hours after Grobe concluded a business-as-usual Wake practice Wednesday evening, media outlets throughout Arkansas proclaimed his imminent arrival as Razorbacks coach. One, the Arkansas News Service, still had this up on its Web site this morning: "Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe is going to be the next football coach at the University of Arkansas and is likely to be introduced today."

But as the reports continued and migrated into some North Carolina outlets, one thing was missing: Grobe hadn’t told his staff or his players anything about the matter. Speaking only in general terms, the 55-year-old coach had consistently promised he would inform those closest to him before leaving for any other job.

When 9 a.m. came and went and no team meeting had been called, speculation here grew that he would spurn Arkansas, which was expected to offer him a financial package in excess of the $1 million he earned in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006.

"If they hadn’t even scheduled a press conference or said anything about that, then I figured – hopefully – it wasn’t going to happen," said Krystle Kline, a student from Centreville, Va. In response to a question about the University of Michigan opening on Monday, the coach declined specific comment but established two general criteria necessary for his departure. One of them, he said, was not entirely about the other school. He said any other offer would have to convince him it provided a more energizing and challenging opportunity than the one he has undertaken for the past seven years.

In that time, Wake has achieved what most called implausible: It has succeeded while still the third-smallest school among the 120 institutions in NCAA Division I-A play. And so the stories leaked and flooded the Internet.

"I tried to go to bed last night, but I pretty much lay awake sleepless because I was tortured by the fact that Grobe might be leaving us," Hodnett said. "My friends will attest."