five" conferences, Grobe specialized in taking second-level recruits and beating traditional national powers. The stench of impropriety that often accompanies such upstarts never surfaced.

In Wake Forest's glory season of 2006, the Demon Deacons went 11-3, won their first Atlantic Coast Conference championship in 36 seasons and earned a berth to the Orange Bowl.

Think Rice, if it were allowed into the Big 12, winning the conference title.

Grobe was the consensus national coach of the year. He had succeeded where storied predecessors failed. The list included John Mackovic, who would coach at Texas; Al Groh, who went on to coach the New York Jets and University of Virginia; Bill Dooley, who had spent a decade at North Carolina; and Jim Caldwell, an NFL coach with the Indianapolis Colts and DetroitLions.

Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, an icon in the business, declared his conference rival, "the best coach in the ACC."

Naturally, Grobe became a coach in demand at bigger, more traditionally powerful football schools.

His name was linked to openings at Nebraska, Arkansas, Clemson and Alabama. Grobe says he had serious discussions with all. Whether he was actually offered those jobs can be left to those who parse semantics. Alabama, he concedes, decided to go with Nick Saban. Grobe was a serious candidate at the other schools.

But he could never bring himself to leave Wake Forest. He remembered the anguish he suffered when he left Ohio University for Wake Forest. Telling his players was excruciating.

Always in conversations, he demanded to bring his entire coaching staff, every last assistant. When he