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The other 'big' game
By Tim Peeler, Special to CNNSI.com Now that the Florida State-Clemson game is far less important than it might have been, it won't overshadow the long-awaited Bagel Bowl. That's what some ardent fans are calling Saturday's game between winless Duke (0-8 overall, 0-5 ACC) and Wake Forest (0-7, 0-5), a game which, under current NCAA rules, one of the two teams is required to win. Others prefer the name "Battle of the Bads" or the "ACC Game of the Weak." Whatever it's called, the outcome of the game will certainly come down to whoever wants it least. "Yeah, we have heard all the jokes," said Wake Forest center Vince Azzolina. "You just have to take it in stride and have some pride about yourself -- thick skin and broad shoulders. We'll just keep working hard, that's all you can do." It's harder for some players to do that. "It is not a joke to us," Deacons linebacker Ed Kargbookorogie said. "The game is very serious to us. It's an opportunity to compete and win. When you first hear all the talk, it hurts because the game is so important, so vital to me and to us and to everybody involved. Regardless of how everyone else is perceiving the game, it's still a chance to do what I love -- play the game." Never before have two winless ACC teams met this deep into the season. In 1967, 0-5 North Carolina beat 0-3 Maryland 14-0 and the Terrapins finished the season 0-9, one of four ACC teams to go through a season without a victory. Wake Forest was 0-10 in 1957 and '62 and Virginia was 0-10 in 1959 and 1960. Duke is the only ACC team to ever finish a season 0-11, which the Devils did under Fred Goldsmith in 1996. It's a feat the current Blue Devils don't want to repeat and certainly one the Demon Deacons don't want to match. Wake Forest, which has lost two in a row to the Blue Devils, had a week off to prepare for the game. Meanwhile, Duke lost its ninth consecutive game, tied with Arkansas State as the second-longest losing streak among NCAA Division I-A schools. "They've beaten us the last two years and so we want to beat Duke pretty bad," said Demon Deacons sophomore James MacPherson. By the way, if you like disaster flicks, the game will be televised as part of the ACC's regional television package. "It will be interesting to see how they present it [on television]," Duke coach Carl Franks said. "It could be a really good football game. It also puts a little added incentive in the game for both teams. Everyone will get to watch you play." If they dare.
On to Bowden Bowl IIClemson's loss to Georgia Tech last weekend ended the possibility of a showdown between two BCS hopefuls. The Tigers can win the ACC championship and earn a BCS berth, but they will have to beat the Seminoles at Doak Campbell Stadium, something no ACC team has done since FSU joined the league in 1992. And there is hardly any chance that the ACC will get two teams in the BCS."[Losing to Tech] took a little of the glamour off it," Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden said. Second-year Clemson coach Tommy Bowden says it was a matter of time before an opponent exposed the Tigers' weaknesses and handed them a loss. In fact, he considers the loss some kind of weird blessing. "Had we gone to Tallahassee undefeated, we might have thought we were better than we are," he said. "The last few weeks we've played teams with better talent and become exposed. Hopefully, that will help us to get focused."
Watkins' redemptionFor a brief time last spring, Kerry Watkins wasn't a member of the Georgia Tech football team. The sophomore wide receiver told Yellow Jackets head coach George O'Leary he was quitting the team to concentrate on baseball and track.The Louisiana native was upset that he was listed behind senior Jon Muyres on the post-spring depth chart and also a little frazzled after a year of fighting the difficult academic demands at the famed engineering school. So he walked away. For about a week. But after a long talk with O'Leary, Watkins decided football was important to him after all, and he asked to be reinstated to the team. Boy, is O'Leary glad he said yes. Watkins, after struggling through seven disappointing games, made a spectacular one-handed catch in the end zone with seven seconds to play as the Yellow Jackets stunned No. 4 Clemson in Death Valley. Watkins ran the exact same route as he did five weeks earlier at N.C. State, when he dropped a fourth-down pass in overtime that ended the Jackets' 30-23 loss. This time, he slipped at the beginning of his route, recovered and got past Clemson defender Darrel Crutchfield to make the dramatic grab, his sixth catch of the game and his fifth touchdown of the year. "That was the best catch of my life," Watkins said. "I didn't even see it until it was about three yards away from me. I reached up and caught it. It was one of those last-minute reactions."
At what cost?Sure, playing Duke has been good for teams looking for college football victories. But it turns out that playing the Blue Devils could also be dangerous.The most recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine says that Duke football players suffering from food poisoning on Sept. 19, 1998, passed on a rare virus to Florida State players during the game after vomiting on the sidelines and in the locker room before the game. The Duke players caught the virus from infected turkey sandwiches they were served the day before the game. Game films not only showed the Duke players still had vomit on their jerseys, but -- warning: graphic material ahead -- also held their mouthpieces in their hands and then touched Florida State players. It's the first documented case of a virus being transmitted on the playing field. The Seminoles weren't affected too much: They won the game 62-13, despite having 11 offensive players come down with the virus. No defensive players were infected.
Nowhere to hideHow bad are things for North Carolina coach Carl Torbush? He said if he had to dress up for Halloween on Tuesday, he would probably go as the "Disappearing Man."The Tar Heels have lost four in a row and travel to 5-2 Pittsburgh this weekend. "This is a must win; we've got to win this game," said sophomore defensive end Julius Peppers. "In a situation like this there's only two things you can do: Either give up and give in to the pressure or keep fighting. We're a team that's going to keep fighting. We're not going to give up."
Bradley passes awayBob Bradley, Clemson's long-time sports information director and colorful athletics historian, passed away Tuesday, three days after receiving the Order of the Palmetto, the highest honor a citizen of South Carolina can receive. He was 75.Bradley, whose name is on the press box at Clemson's Memorial Stadium, worked 502 consecutive Tigers football games from October 20, 1955, to October 14, 2000, until the bone cancer he had been fighting for three years brought on pneumonia and an irregular heartbeat. Bradley will be buried on Cemetery Hill, which is located behind the stadium and overlooks the press box that bears his name. Tim Peeler covers the ACC for the Greensboro (N.C.) News & Record. Check back every Wednesday afternoon for his latest CNNSI.com insider
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