Notre Dame at Wake Forest is the Champs Sports Bowl Game Of The Week
This season, pick who you think will win the Champs Sports Bowl Game of the Week and WIN! Answer the question on the Capital One Bowl Facebook page before Saturday’s game. If you pick correctly, you’ll be entered into a drawing to win two tickets to the Capital One Bowl on January 2, 2012!
First-time meeting.
Notre Dame looks to finish strong in the final stretch of the season as the team travels to Winston-Salem to face Wake Forest this Saturday. Despite being all but eliminated from BCS contention, the Irish are a favorite to compete in the Champs Sports Bowl, according to expert projections. Wake Forest also has a shot at the Champs Sports Bowl as the ACC race remains wide open behind current one-loss division leaders Clemson and Virginia Tech.
Jonas Gray and the Notre Dame rushing attack lit up the scoreboard in last Saturday’s 56-14 thrashing of Navy in South Bend. Gray recorded three of the Irish’s seven rushing touchdowns, the team’s best scoring output on the ground in 19 years. All-American receiver Michael Floyd also got in on the action, scoring on a 10-yard lateral late in the third quarter. Floyd’s day was even better through the air. The junior reeled in six catches for 121 yards and a touchdown. In all, four Golden Domers posted rushing scores, while the defense held the nation’s fifth best ground attack to more than 100 yards below its season average of 309.
Five uncharacteristic turnovers doomed Wake Forest against North Carolina last weekend, as the Tar Heels never trailed en route to a 49-24 win in Chapel Hill. The Demon Deacons had committed only five turnovers all season coming into the game. Quarterback Tanner Price doubled his interception total on the year by throwing three picks against the Tar Heel defense and was subsequently pulled in the second half. Chris Givens, who was fourth in the nation with 127 receiving yards per game, managed only 42 yards on the day. Wake still controls its own ACC destiny, however, as the Deacs face off with conference leader Clemson in Death Valley a week after their showdown with the Irish.
Extra point:
*Notre Dame and Navy will take their rivalry overseas next year when two of college football’s oldest programs compete in the Emerald Isle Classic in Dublin. The Coca-Cola Classic (formerly the Mirage Bowl) was one NCAA football’s most prominent international series, played annually in Japan from 1977 to 1993.
Expert Picks
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Michel Champagne currently serves as Chairman of Florida Citrus Sports, where his duties include leading Team Selection Committee. He is the Vice President of Operations and General Manager, Orlando Region for Bright House Networks. |
| Pick: Notre Dame Season Record: 9-5 |
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Greg Warmoth spent 11 years as the weekend sports anchor for WFTV Channel 9 in Orlando before switching to the news desk in 1997. He currently anchors Eyewitness News Daybreak, Eyewitness News This Morning on TV-27 and Eyewitness News at Noon. |
| Pick: Notre Dame Season Record: 7-7 |
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Marc Daniels hosts The Beat Of Sports on ESPN 1080 AM in Orlando every weekday morning from 9:00 – 11:00 a.m. Daniels has over 20 years of experience on the air and is most well known as “the Voice of the UCF Knights” for all football, men’s basketball and baseball games on the UCF ISP Sports Network. |
| Pick: Notre Dame Season Record: 8-6 |
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Jerry Greene spent 33 years as a sportswriter at Florida Today, the Pensacola News Journal and the Orlando Sentinel before retiring in 2009. He now co-hosts The Beat of Sports with Daniels and contributes to ESPN.com’s Page 2 section. |
| Pick: Notre Dame Season Record: 6-8 |