Wake Wins ACC Title, Trip to Orange Bowl

Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner, left, runs for second-quarter yardage, as Georgia Tech's Kenny Scott, right, moves in to make the play during the ACC Championship football game, Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006, in Jacksonville, Fla.(AP Photo/Steve Cannon) (Steve Cannon - AP)

"Obviously, it's my responsibility to get this football team ready to play and we didn't do well enough today to win the game," Gailey said.

Nonetheless, the blame will be put on Ball, and maybe rightfully so.

He was awful for the second consecutive week. He was 9-of-29 passing for 129 yards, with two interceptions. He was 6-of-22 for 42 yards last week in a loss against rival Georgia and threw two interceptions.

The senior refused to talk after the game.

"I think with every quarterback, every time you can get pressure and get contact on him, you get in their head a little bit," Abbate said.

Ball's best passes were three deep balls down the sideline that resulted in pass interference penalties.

Tashard Choice ran 21 times for 100 yards, and Calvin Johnson caught eight passes for 117 yards. But Johnson also had two key drops. The second one came on a deep pass that he tipped into the hands of Swanson for the game-turning interception.

"That was huge," Grobe said. "That was right after the defense got so pumped up. That's where I looked over to the defense and I expected to see them tired and kind of sucking wind. They were dancing around and bumping into each other and ready to go."

Georgia Tech will return to Jacksonville for the Gator Bowl in four weeks _ something Gator Bowl officials had hoped to avoid.

ACC commissioner John Swofford even said at halftime that the Gator Bowl would be allowed to select another conference team, essentially giving the bowl permission to overlook a rule that would force the bowl to select Georgia Tech (7-1 in conference play) over Clemson, Boston College or Maryland (all 5-3 in the league).

But the Gator Bowl relented after a week of complaints and invited Georgia Tech back following the game. The Yellow Jackets accepted and probably will face either defending national champion Texas or a team from the Big East.

Wake Forest, meanwhile, will head to Miami.

"I think it's a great opportunity for us to prove one more time what this team is about," Abbate said.