By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

Less than two days after attaining probably the biggest athletic achievement in school history, Wake Forest University football players were back on campus facing semester exams.

“The say there’s always a price you have to pay for success, and I guess this is one of them,” said Whiteville’s Jess Powell by phone from the campus library Monday afternoon. “There hasn’t been much time to celebrate because we had to come right back and be ready for exams.”

Powell, a junior political science major at Wake Forest, is a reserve strong safety and special team member for the 2006 Atlantic Coast Conference champion Demon Deacons. Coach Jim Grobe’s WFU squad pulled out a 9-6 victory Saturday over Georgia Tech in Jacksonville, Fla., in the ACC title game to complete one of the most amazing “Cinderella” seasons in major-college football history.

Wake Forest, now carrying an 11-2 record and its first ACC football title since 1970, will go against once-beaten Louisville in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 2 in Miami.

“So far things have gone pretty well for us in Florida,” said Powell, who was three-year standout as quarterback and punter at Whiteville High School before graduating in 2004, “so we’re looking forward to going back. “

Along with last week’s conference championship win, the Deacons claimed a 30-0 shutout over Florida State at Tallahassee.

“I don’t think anybody associated with Wake Forest felt that the football team would ever play another game in January,” said Powell, the son of Coburn and Terri Powell. “But now it has happened. It’s going to be tough playing a team with the talent and depth that Louisville has, but we’re looking at it as another huge challenge for our program.”

Prior to the season, Wake Forest was predicted to finish last in their conference division. However, the Deacons won it outright, shooting down Boston College, Florida State and Maryland along the way, and coming within a fluke play of knocking off Clemson. The Deacs also claimed wins over Big Four rivals N.C. State, North Carolina and Duke. Their only other loss came against Virginia Tech. Ironically, both Deacon losses came on their own Groves Stadium turf in Winston-Salem.

This season marks the first time that a North Carolina team has won an ACC football championship since 1989 when Duke shared the title with Virginia.

“This team has a lot of inner strength,” Powell said. “We’re a small school, and because of that, all us players know each other well and know what’s going on with everybody. Coach Grobe has done a great job and we’ve pulled together from the start.”

Powell said the one of the most amazing things he has ever experienced was seeing more than half of the 80,000 fans file out of Florida State’s Doak Campbell Stadium well before the end of the game.

“Who would have ever thought something like that would happen, especially against Wake Forest,” he said.

While Powell’s playing time has been limited this year (seeing kickoff team action in the North Carolina, Florida State and Georgia Tech games), he has dressed out for all 13 games and anticipates much more playing time next fall.

Powell enrolled at Wake Forest in 2004 as a preferred football walk-on. He played “scout-team” quarterback his first year, and started making a transition to the defensive side of the ball last spring.

Powell said Monday that me hopes to make a visit with his family in Whiteville during Christmas before the team flies to Miami on Dec. 26.

“I haven’t been home since July, so it be nice getting down there for a little while,” he said.