Associated Press
The college football notebook …
WINSTON-SALEM ó Wake Forest can’t afford to dwell on the heartbreaking way its ACC championship game hopes slipped away.
Not when the Demon Deacons still haven’t even qualified for a bowl game yet.
They’re putting all their emphasis this week on beating struggling Maryland, ending their three-game losing streak and finishing out with consecutive victories.
“It’s disappointing, because everybody wants to have a shot at the ACC championship,” quarterback Tanner Price said. “To be so close and come up short is very frustrating. But we still want to make it to a bowl game, and it can still be a good season if we finish strong.”
Wake Forest’s last loss was its toughest. The Demon Deacons (5-5, 4-3) blew a two-touchdown lead in the second half against No. 7 Clemson and lost both the game and any chance of winning the division on the Tigers’ last-second field goal.
Wake Forest’s fourth chance at that elusive victory No. 6 comes against Maryland (2-8, 1-5), which has lost six straight and hasn’t beaten a Bowl Subdivision team since the opener.
SHANNON SPEAKS
CORAL GABLES, Fla. ó Nearly a year ago, everything changed for Miami coach Randy Shannon. He was fired by his alma mater,the place he had been for virtually every bit of his adult life.
Time has healed most of that wound.
In an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press, Shannon discussed his past, his future, how the Hurricanes look under new coach Al Golden.
He’s ready for the next challenge.
“I needed this year to sit out,” said Shannon, who was fired last Nov. 27. “I needed to learn something new.”
Shannon has been spending time at Alabama, TCU, North Carolina, UNLV, Oregon, Iowa State and Minnesota, packing up for a week at a time to embed with those programs and soak up knowledge.
HOW OLD ARE YOU?
STILLWATER, Okla.ó For Brandon Weeden, all the interest in his age is starting to get old.
The 28-year-old quarterback got a lot of Heisman Trophy chatter over the weekend when he threw for 423 yards and five touchdowns in Oklahoma State’s victory over Texas Tech while Stanford’s Andrew Luck and Boise State’s Kellen Moore both lost for the first time this season.
Weeden just wishes less of the attention was on how old he is. Weeden played five years of minor league baseball after high school, then started his college career at Oklahoma State. He said people have posted complaints on Twitter and he’s frequently peppered by questions about his age when someone new interviews him.