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Deacons hoping to make true believers out of Nole fans

Is Wake Forest bound for the ACC title game? They'll take another big step towards Jacksonville if they come up winners this Saturday before a prime time TV audience. ChantRant helps you prep for the big showdown with some audio insights from Deacon country.

Dave Glenn of  the ACC Sports Journal has the lowdown on Wake vs. FSU in this interview on a Greensboro sports talk station.

And for a player's take, listen to Wake senior safety Patrick Ghee talk about his game winning interception against B.C. and the Deacs surprising 8-1 record.

"We've lost four ballgames that we could have won as easy as we lost (Dadgum it!)"

     Audio highlights from Bowden's ACC media conference call. Listen to Bobby fret about an improved Virginia team, and confirm that "it's Xavier's ball game." He also reveals what pro scout's told him about NFL material on this year's roster, and the struggle to redshirt as many kids as possible — including those who don't want to sit out a year.

UVA's Jameel Looks Like The Real Deal

Reprinted with permission from ACC Nation:

 Sewell snares his first pelt
Jameel Sewell's numbers weren't the greatest - but the redshirt freshman quarterback wasn't worried about that as much as he was the numbers on the scoreboard.

"It feels good to have a win. I'm just worried about the win," said Sewell, who led Virginia on a game-winning 80-yard drive in the fourth quarter of its 14-7 victory over North Carolina State last weekend in Scott Stadium.

Sewell, who took over as starter four games into the 2006 season, was 3-for-4 for 35 yards on the drive after completing just nine of his 18 pass attempts for 96 yards through three and a half quarters to that point.

He also checked off into a different formation and blocking scheme on the play that gave UVa. its eventual winning margin — a 17-yard touchdown run to the right side of the offensive line by senior tailback Jason Snelling with 1:31 to play.

"I had to go away — it was a certain look that we got, and I went away from the pressure so that we could get a better look and get our linemen able to move," Sewell told "ACC Nation" after the game.

Sewell also made his presence felt as a runner - he gained 45 yards on 10 carries and ended up with 22 net yards on 12 official rushing attempts on the afternoon after yardage from two sacks was factored in.

"With me being able to run the ball, I can try to get out on the edge a little quicker — because once I make that fake, they're going to go to the big boy, they're going to go to J-Snell, so it gives me a free opportunity," Sewell said.

Snelling, who had 99 yards on 20 carries against the Wolfpack, said opposing defenses definitely give Sewell the respect his speed on the edge has earned him. "It helps the whole offense as well as me out in the running game just to have that dual threat. Him being out there getting on the perimeter on bootlegs and stuff like that, his running ability just opens up our offense tremendously," Snelling told "ACC Nation."

Sewell's presence is being felt in another way - in giving the coaching staff more options to call plays from their thick playbook. It had been a necessity to simplify things as much as possible early in Sewell's tenure, but ..."Me, personally, it's given me a lot of confidence," sophomore tailback Cedric Peerman told "ACC Nation." "From the first day that he was coming in, I knew that he was going to do a great job for us, and he was going to be a great quarterback for this offense. He's just stepped it up big."

"His leadership role that he's taken on the offense has helped us tremendously," Snelling said of Sewell. "He's a big part of our success on the offense. He's our leader and commander on the offense. We rally behind him. Him making plays like that, it definitely makes the offense perform well."Virginia coach Al Groh, as usual reserved in offering praise, nonethless threw a few bones in Sewell's direction after the State game.

"There had been quite a few series there — I'm sure you all observed the same thing — where things were a little rough for Jameel," Groh said. "The reads were coming slow, the passes weren't on target. But if you want to be a tough-minded, competitively tough-minded team, the quarterback has to be tough-minded. And that means they have to come back from some circumstances where things weren't going their way and step up when the moment's there. He did an excellent job of that, and as a result, he hit a couple of those throws early that got things started.

"You judge a quarterback by his pelts - and Jameel had some rough throws in there that were probably a factor in our not putting drives together. But when he really had to — he's got one of those really important pelts, a fourth-quarter drive," Groh said. "That's one of those deals that every quarterback's got to do — you know, be able to step up at that particular moment. And now he's done one." - by Chris Graham

Cavs have come a long way from early season struggles

Wouldn't you know it? The Cavaliers go from feeble to feisty just in time for their weekend trip to Tallahassee. Chris Graham of the ACC Nation, who follows the Cavs as Publisher of the Augusta Free Press, wrote this guardedly optimistic column after Virginia beat N.C. State last Saturday:

Things Starting To Come Together? After the 31-21 loss to Conference USA foe East Carolina earlier in the month, things were looking pretty bleak for Groh and his team.

Virginia stood at 2-4 with losses to ECU and equally unheralded Western Michigan standing out among the four — and fans were calling for Groh's head. A strong performance in a 28-26 loss to Maryland on Oct. 14 signaled that a possible turnaround was around the corner. Back-to-back wins over North Carolina and N.C. State now have fans thinking about bowl possibilities.

"We really, to a large degree, have played the '06 season with the '07 team," Groh said after the State game. "Certainly, we'll miss players who were so big today for us — like Jason (Snelling) and Tony (Franklin) and Deyon (Williams) and Fontel (Mines) and so forth. But that's pretty much the team - plus quite a few very talented young players that I'm not using this year who will be added to the mix. So certainly it's going to have long-range value, because very few players who got that confidence today are going to leave.

"The worst thing a coach can do is kid himself — you know, and just be optimistic because that's the way you want to feel," Groh said. "But when you see players who have talent, who are working hard, who believe in what you are asking them to do, then it's easy to believe in them. Hey, look, we've got a long ways to go.

"We didn't win any championships today, but we're making progress. We're better than we were last week. Last week, we were better than the week before. Next week, if we're going to have a chance to get a similar result, we're going to have to be better than we were today."

Coming Soon To A Field Near You: The "Baby Bus"

He's big, bruising, and some say the spitting image of Jerome Bettis. Meet Jason Snelling, Virginia's major weapon and the fourth leading rusher in the ACC. Last Saturday he battered N.C. State's defense for 99 yards. And if he looks more like a fullback, that's because he is — or was, until Alvin Pearman and Wali Lundy went to the NFL. Now he's the Cavs tailback who can move the pile like a fullback when he needs to. As well as put fear in the eyes of DBs who get in his way after catching a swing pass. This story from the Richmond paper will tell you more about what to expect when the "Baby Bus" makes his next stop Saturday at Doak.