The Week Grobe’s Misery Index Peaked
It was well-hidden by his perpetual grin and unfailing good nature, but Jim Grobe felt the knives in his belly all last week.
“I’ve probably not had a more miserable week of coaching than this past week,’’ Grobe said after yesterday’s 31-10 victory over Maryland.
See, fans and sportswriters, like you and I, judge a team by what it has done on the field. Coaches, paid to worry, assess an opponent by what it might do on one given day.
When he looked at Maryland, he saw past the 2-8 record and six straight losses to a team with the full complement of talented players.
“Fridge recruited well,’’ Grobe said more than once last week in reference to Ralph Friedgen, the coach who was replaced last December after 10 seaons as the Terps’ coach. “Maryland’s got players.’‘
And when he looked at Wake, he saw a team that had made three straight attempts to win a sixth game needed to be bowl eligible, and had come up empty each time. He wondered if the frustrations were taking their toll.
“I knew Maryland was very talented and I knew they could easily come in here and beat us if we didn’t play,’’ Grobe said. “I think our entire coaching staff will tell you that after these three losses to three really, really good football teams we felt like it would be really easy for us to come out and be flat – because all these last three games that we’ve lost have been so emotional. We had a chance to beat Notre Dame. We had a great chance to beat Clemson and we didn’t do it.
“And we were as a coaching staff scared first of all because Maryland is good team and well-coached, but secondly we were afraid we would come out and not play very good.’‘
Grobe knew a win, besides stopping the three-game skid, would leave the Deacons open to exciting possibilities. Besides giving Wake a fifth ACC win for only the fourth time in school history, and clinching the fourth bowl appearance in six seasons, the Deacons, by beating Vanderbilt in next week’s regular-season finale and then winning the bowl, could still have an eight-win season. What a remarkable feat that would be, especially coming off last season’s 3-9 fiasco.
But again, coaches are paid to worry, and Grobe knew what lay in store this week if Maryland were to steal one at BB&T Field.
If last week was miserable, I asked in the post-game, could he imagine what would this week be like coming off a fourth straight loss? The Commodores gave rival Tennessee all it wanted and more before losing 27-21 in overtime in Knoxville. But the loss dropped Vandy to 5-6, which means it has to win in Winston to have any hope of making a bowl.
“I can’t,’’ Grobe said. “I don’t even want to think about it. That’s why I was so miserable this week.
“I know Vanderbilt’s playing really, really good and they’ve had some really big wins. They’re going to be a real challenge for us. I felt like this was our best opportunity. We needed to get a win today and then we’d worry about Vanderbilt when we get back together (Sunday).
“But the thing was that so hard was knowing that Maryland was going to come in here and fight and we were worried about their quarterback and his ability to run. He’s really scary. So we were worried about that, and then just trying to give them a plan and hope they find enough energy to get out there and win a football game.
“Because we certainly didn’t want to be 5-6 trying to get to a bowl game next week.’‘
It bears repeating that Wake has won five ACC games this season for only the fourth time in school history. Cal Stoll’s ACC champs of 1970 finished 5-1. The Deacons needed another 36 years to win five conference games again when they finished 6-2 in winning the ACC title of 2006. The 2007 team finished 5-3, barely missing a second-straight trip to the title game.
Bill Dooley was Wake’s best coach of the ACC era before Grobe showed up, and he never finished better than 4-3 in league play. Grobe has won five conference games three times in the past six years.