I am trying to find the obscure NCAA Records that you likely are not aware of and then couple it with the school that set the record really not celebrating it. You may know about this record, but you likely don’t. If you do know about this record, awesome, but keep it quiet so you don’t spoil it for anyone else.

If there is one thing you know about the Sickos Committee, you know we love safeties. We drop everything and show you every single safety we can find. Hell, we even made a graphic and gifs for our Safety Alert.

Now you likely know the Division I record for safeties in a single game was Montana State vs. Weber State, where the poor Weber State long snapper had to snap in horrible cold/sleet/snowy conditions and basically airmailed a four snaps over the punter’s head, leading to four safeties in a single game. Funny thing, too, is that Montana State didn’t record another safety for the entire rest of the year. They finished the year with four safeties scored. If you don’t remember this happening, I am going to embed the thread of safeties below. Enjoy. 

In FBS, there have only been three safeties scored in a single game by four different schools (Penn State, Arizona State, North Texas and Bowling Green). For this record, I will note, two other IAA/FCS schools have matched this record for safeties scored in a single year, Jackson State in 1986 and Monmouth in 2005 but none really matched the Sickos nature of this particular season I wanted to reexamine.

However, I want to focus on the FBS record for the most safeties scored in a year because the year started off with a Safety for Wake Forest. This set off the…

Again, there is nothing on the Wake Forest Wikipedia page showing they set a record for the most safeties in a season. 2001 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Football Wikipedia

Let’s set some background for Wake Forest. They were previously coached by Jim Caldwell from 1993 to 2000. Caldwell only had one winning season, finishing 26–63. In that one winning season in 1999, the Deacons finished 7-5 with a 23-3 win over Arizona State in the Aloha Bowl. In 2000, Caldwell’s Wake finished a dismal 2-9, unable to build off the Aloha Bowl victory. After the season, Jim then left Wake Forest to go be the quarterbacks coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers under Tony Dungy in 2001 and he was off on his NFL path.

Wake Forest hired Ohio Head Coach Jim Grobe to lead the Demon Deacons. The very first score of the Jim Grobe era was a Safety. They took a 2-0 lead against in-state rival East Carolina. And these two points were the very margin of his first victory as a Wake Forest head coach.

The headlines in the Raleigh News and Observer painted a hilarious picture of Jim Grobe as the VILLAIN.

It was a most peculiar safety too. Wake blocked a David Garrard pass and then Garrard batted it out of the end zone. An illegal batting penalty for a safety how strange… What a Sickos start to the Season of the Safety.

The next week, Wake defeated another in-state opponent in App State to start 2-0. They did not register a safety in this game. Wake then lost a tough game against Maryland 27-20 at home. No safety was registered in this game either.

The next week they traveled to Tallahassee to face Florida State. A tall task for Jim Grobe’s Deacons. They fell behind 48-14 after three quarters. Wake scored 10 points in an extremely Sickos way to make the final score a seemingly normal 48-24.

They just added a touchdown and field goal right? Wrong.

Florida State took out the starters and the safeties arrived for the Deacons. They forced an intentional grounding safety from backup QB Adrian McPherson to start the 4th Quarter scoring. The Deacons then added another touchdown but missed the 2 point conversion. The final score of the game was when Wake blocked a punt and the ball trickled out of the back of the end zone for the second safety of the game. Wake was 2-2 but they had scored three safeties on the year.

The next week, Wake lost a close battle with another in-state rival, NC State, 17-14. No safeties were registered in this game. The next week, Wake battled with another in-state rival, Duke, and took a 28-0 halftime lead. The Blue Devils then rattled off 28 3rd Quarter points and tied the game at 35-35 early in the 4th Quarter. The Deacons got a touchdown and hung on to a 42-35 win with a late interception. Wake was 3-3 with 3 safeties on the season.

Wake traveled to Clemson for another hard-fought game. However, an underthrown fade pass was intercepted in the end zone with 2:09 remaining, sealing the 21-14 win for the Tigers. No safeties here. Wake climbed back to 4-4 with a 21 point fourth quarter to defeat Virginia 34-30. Again, no safeties in this game, however this win ended a 17 game losing streak to Virginia.

The next week, another in-state rival and another wild, insane game for the Deacons, with the help of their 4th safety on the year. Wake was down 24-0 to North Carolina at halftime. Wake cut the lead to 24-14, but the Tarheels extended it back to 31-14 at the end of the 3rd Quarter. A furious Deacon rally of 18 straight points was aided by a safety when a long snapper snapped the ball over the punter’s head, slicing the Heels lead to 31-26.

Wake took the lead with 1:17 left and hung on to win 32-31. Another safety gave Wake another win. Wake was 5-4 on the year with 4 safeties registered on the season.

The next week, the Deacons faced Georgia Tech. And wouldn’t you know it, they got another safety in the SAME WAY THE NEXT WEEK TO MATCH THE SAME SCORE THEY HAD THE WEEK BEFORE!

Georgia Tech snapped the ball over the punter’s head and out of the end zone in the 4th quarter, and Wake then trailed 31-26 in the fourth quarter… Could they do it again???

Unfortunately, Georgia Tech wasn’t going to play along and scored on the next drive to make it 38-26. The Jackets hung on to win 38-33.

Wake fell to 5-5 with 5 Safeties on the Year.

Wake ended the season with a win over NIU 38-35 to finished 6-5 but they didn’t make a bowl game. It was quite a Sickos start for the Jim Grobe era at Wake Forest, which peaked with the most Sickos ACC Championship in recent memory in 2006. A 9-6 win over Georgia Tech with a Kicker as the game’s MVP.

The 2001 Wake Forest Season of the Safety Stats

An amazingly Sickos Season to set an FBS record for most safeties in a season, with this seemingly forgotten NCAA record. Also, I found it pretty strange that Wake Forest played FIVE Schools from North Carolina and registered FIVE Safeties on the year. Albeit, they didn’t get a safety on all five North Carolina schools.

Finally, here is our Linktree, we have a ever-changing rotation of affiliate links and codes. Check them out to get awesome discounts. They range from coffee, tea, Dungeons and Dragons merch/dice, steak subscription boxes, work out resistance bands, webcams, video editing equipment, adult beverages and as always Homefield Apparel.