100% Cotten
Deese Still Standing.
Nov. 9, 1999
by Stan Cotten
More 100% Cotten
Wake Forest receiver Jammie Deese looked around Kenan Stadium following the
Demon Deacons' 19-3
win over North Carolina and smiled. Victory had finally happened. For the
first time in his career, and in
his last chance to experience a win over the Tar Heels, Wake Forest used a
rock solid defense and kicker
Matt Burdick to get the job done.
Winning was especially sweet for the Laurinburg native who had offered up
some bulletin board material
for the Tar Heels earlier in the week with comments about his dislike for
Carolina. The Tar Heels were
waiting for him.
"No doubt," smiled Deese after the game. "They had seen or heard about my
comments and were going
after me."
"But it's a team effort. My comments were as an individual. I knew as a
team we would come out, fight
and scratch and give 'em all we could."
"I didn't expect anything less from Carolina, though," Deese added. "To
their credit they played hard,
aggressive, physical football. It was a great game, and we'll take it
anyway we can get it. We had a lot of
guys step up and make plays today."
For sure. Rhamen Love-Lane scored the game's only touchdown on the first
and only catch of his career.
Matthew Burdick was 4-4 on field goal attempts. And the Deacon defenders
were nearly flawless in
allowing the Tar Heels only 131 total yards, the fewest by a Wake opponent
in almost 40 years. Deese
didn't care how it happened, just that it did.
"It's such a great feeling to be 5-4," said the Deacon senior. "He
(Burdick) stepped up and nailed 'em for
us. Whenever we're creating distance between our score and their's, that's
positive and keeps
momentum going our way."
Entering the season Deese was in sight of becoming the ACC's all-time
leading receiver and eclipsing the
standard set by former teammate Desmond Clark. With the Deacs' revamped
offense and focus on the
running game, Deese has seen much fewer balls in the air. He won't break tha
t record. But following the
win over Carolina, he didn't seem to care.
"I knew coming into the season we were going to run the ball more," Deese
confessed. "I'm not
disappointed. I mean I'd like to get the ball more, but we're 5-4 and it
feels great. If we don't throw the
ball any more and finish 7-4, I'll be the happiest guy on the team."
The road to 7-4 starts with 6-4 and a win over Duke. Deese knows that won't
be an easy task. Wake
visits Durham this weekend for a 1:30 start against the Blue Devils.
"Duke is an improving team," says Deese. "They're gonna scrap and fight.
We've got to step up to the
next level."
"We're 5-4, but we've been there before and not taken the next step to get
over the hump. We're going to
have to go in there and take one away because they're hungry."
The Deacons have a bad taste in their mouth from last year's tilt with the
Devils. Wake had a 13-9 lead
going into the final quarter at Groves Stadium. But Sims Lenhardt's fourth
field goal of the game inside
the two minute mark provided the final margin of victory as Duke won a close
one, 19-16.
But with a chance to secure a winning season, Wake should need no other
motivation. Remember what
Deese said, "It feels great to be 5-4."
Think how much better 6-4 would feel. See you Saturday on the radio.
