JIM GROBE

Age:  56

School:  Wake Forest

Alma Mater:  Virginia, 1974

Conference:  ACC

Salary:  $1,200,000

Official Bio:   www.wakeforestsports.com

Years Coaching:  13

Career Record:  79 - 72 - 1  .520

Years at School:  7

Record at Wake Forest:  46 - 39  .541

2007 Record:  9 - 4   .692

2007 Cost per Win:  $113,444

Attorney/Agent:   

Contract: 

December 2008 Buyout:  $1,200,000

Coaches Hot Seat Analysis

Jim Grobe is a very good football coach, but we are going to find out over the next few years watching Grobe at Wake Forest if he is a great football coach.  In 2002 a couple of us here at Coaches Hot Seat were living in Seattle and got to see Grobe's Wake Forest team whip Oregon in a bowl game, and we vividly recall thinking as we left that game that the Deacons looked like a very good coached team.  When Grobe and Wake Forest fell back to three straight losing seasons (2003-2005), we wrote it off to the difficulty of winning at Wake Forest, but in 2006 the Deacons surprised the world by winning the ACC, and now it looks like Grobe has been building a real football program in Winston-Salem.  One of the great things about going to college football games is the ability to see so many different college campuses, and Wake Forest is a very unique place among schools with I-A football programs.  Wake Forest has an idyllic campus and is one of those places that seems ideally tuned to the pursuit of education, and fits the description by John Masefield of English universities as quoted by President Kennedy in his speech at American University in 1963, "There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university," wrote John Masefield in his tribute to English universities -- and his words are equally true today. He did not refer to towers or to campuses. He admired the splendid beauty of a university, because it was, he said, "a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see."  What really excites us at Coaches Hot Seat is that the Wake Forest administration realizes that you have can have both a very good institution of higher learning, and a very good athletic program and football team.  It is not just the mind that must be stretched at college, but the body as well, and far too many people in positions of power at universities today have forgotten the importance of a well-rounded person to a just society.  In Kim Towsend's terrific book, Manhood at Harvard, "William James and Others" he wrote about the primary task for men at early-20th century Harvard was: "They had to learn to be men.  They had to grow down to be men."  Townsend in his book went on to quote Harvard graduate Ralph Waldo Emerson when he wrote, "A modern day reader of "Self-Reliance" might assume that when Emerson said, "Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of it's members," he was speaking only of men, but we are obsessed by gender.  Emerson was not.  His vision was broad and embracing, "We want men and women who shall renovate life and our social state," he said in the same essay."  We could not agree more and believe that it is critically important for both men and women to learn to be strong citizens in our Republic, and when we see a school like Wake Forest that embraces the importance of both the mental and physical part of life it makes us feel more confident about our country's future.  Stressing the importance of both the mental and physical parts of everyone's life is exactly what every great university should be doing, and Wake Forest University is doing just that. 

Jim Grobe has taken advantage of the opportunity that he has been given over several years at Wake Forest to build a very good football program, and we were not surprised that last December he almost (well, he did jump for a few hours) jumped at the opportunity to coach in the SEC at Arkansas.  Maybe after sleeping on it, Grobe realized how much work he had put into the Wake Forest football program, and how close they were to building a sustainable and winning program in Winston-Salem.  In the end, Arkansas got a very good coach in Bobby Petrino, but it would have been very interesting to see Grobe in the SEC, especially at a place like Arkansas that has the opportunity to recruit such great athletes.  Now that Grobe is at Wake Forest for what it seem like the rest of his career (maybe 10 more seasons), the question is what can he and Wake Forest do in the ever toughening ACC conference.  In the ACC Atlantic division Florida State is in flux, Maryland is treading water, Boston College is an unknown, but NC State seems to be rising, and Clemson is on the cusp of becoming a football power.  Wake Forest and Grobe are now at a crossroads where they can either continue to improve, or be eclipsed by other teams in the ACC, and the 2008 season will go a long way to determining the conference pecking order in the coming years.

Coaches Hot Seat Bottom Line

We predict that Jim Grobe and Wake Forest will have a 11-1 record in 2008.  Wake Forest starts the '08 season in a very interesting place, deep in the heart of Texas against the Baylor Bears.  Baylor is under first year coach Art Briles, and this could be an interesting game for a half or so, but we see Wake Forest pulling away to get a win in the 2nd half.  After one game, Wake Forest is 1-0.  Week 2 is another intriguing game for the Deacons, as another first year coach in Houston Nutt at Ole Miss brings his Rebels to Winston-Salem.  Nutt has a lot of work to do at Ole Miss, so Wake Forest should get a pretty easy win in this game.  After two games, the Deacons are 2-0.  The ACC season begins in week 3 for Wake Forest with a trip to Tallahassee to play Florida State.  Two years ago Wake Forest crushed FSU 30-0 in Tallahassee in a coming out game of sorts for Grobe's Deacons, but this year's game should be a little closer than that.  We see Wake Forest getting a 10 point win or so in this game, which would run their record to 3-0.  In Week 4 another first year coach (that is 3 now) in Ken Niumatalolo at Navy is on the schedule for Wake Forest, and this should be a pretty easy win for the Deacons.  After four games, Wake Forest is 4-0.  Week 5 brings what might be the game of the year in the ACC, as Tommy Bowden brings Clemson to Winston-Salem for a possible ACC Atlantic division title tilt.  In 2006 Wake Forest had Clemson on the ropes and basically just gave away a game to Clemson through a series of fumbles and miscues, and both teams and coaching staffs will remember that game very well.  In a battle royale, that goes right to the end of the game, we see Wake Forest getting the win over Clemson, which takes the Deacons record to 5-0.  Week 6 will be a very difficult trip to College Park to play Maryland, which is a very tough place to play if the Terp fans are into the game.  We see another very close game, with Wake Forest getting the win, which would take their run to 6-0.  Wake Forest has another difficult road game in week 7, with a trip to play Miami in Randy Shannon's second year in Coral Gables.  Miami no longer plays in the Orange Bowl, and that might make trips to Miami a little easier on visiting foes, and we see Wake Forest getting up early in this game and winning by a couple of touchdowns over the Hurricanes.  After seven games, Wake Forest is 7-0.  In Week 8 David Cutcliffe brings his Duke team to Winston-Salem, and no doubt Cutcliffe will tell his players and staff that Wake Forest is the kind of football program we can build at Duke.  The Deacons will have way too much for the Blue Devils, and Wake Forest will run their record to 8-0.  Virginia visits Wake Forest in week 9 and this will be a very difficult game for UVA to win, with Wake Forest now very focused on a run to the ACC Title Game.  In a closer game than expected, we see the Deacons getting a win this game, which takes their record to 9-0.  Week 10 will be a big game for Wake Forest, as they travel to Raleigh to play what should be a very good football team in NC State by this time of the season.  In what should be a great ACC game, we see the Wolfpack coming out on top to send the Wake Forest record to 9-1.  Boston College travels to Winston-Salem in week 11, and the Deacons will be looking to avenge a surprising loss to BC in '07.  We see Wake Forest pulling away from BC in the second half to get another ACC win, which takes their record to 10-1.  Wake Forest ends the season in an odd way with a game against SEC foe Vanderbilt at home.  Vandy has been playing some pretty good football in recent years under Bobby Johnson, but they have not broken through like Wake Forest has, but the SEC is a much more difficult place to maneuver for private schools than the ACC.  If Vanderbilt was in the ACC they might well be challenging for the ACC title along the lines of Wake Forest, but we still think Deacons will have an advantage in this game.  With a win over Vandy, Wake Forest finishes their regular season with a record of 11-1.

A 11-1 regular season record by Wake Forest, especially if it includes a win over Clemson, would send the Deacons back to the ACC Title Game for the 2nd time in three years as the representative of the Atlantic Division.  If the season does play out as we see it, then Wake Forest would win the 1-loss tie-breaker over Clemson, and that would be a devastating conclusion to the season for Tommy Bowden and the Tigers.  That possible result really points to the importance of the October 9, 2008 Thursday night game between Wake Forest and Clemson.  That game could well decide the ACC Atlantic division, and what a great spot for a nationally televised ESPN game with the entire country tuned in.

Jim Grobe has done a great job turning around the Wake Forest football program, and 2008 could be another big year for the Deacons, but they are going to have to step-up their play from '07 both at home and on the road if they want to win another ACC title.   

2008 Coaches Hot Seat Prediction:       11-1

Will Jim Grobe be back for the 2009 season?      YES