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Where I Come From: All-time favorite Wake Forest football players

By Martin Rickman
This post is sponsored by EA Sports NCAA College Football 2011

We all have them--those players whose jersey we'll be wearing long after they are gone. The players that you remember the time and place you met them, stories about them, or you hold onto their autographs. The players that single-handedly won you $1000 when you were NFL betting in Vegas. They could be obscure--like my complete fascination with Mark Grace--or superstars, like Albert Pujols or LT. And when it comes to college football, you tend to treasure those guys because they're there playing for four years--or less, and they're gone.

When I think about my favorite Wake football players, I look no further two players who graduated with me--Alphonso Smith and Aaron Curry.


Read more after the jump and leave your favorite players in the comments.

This was just an easy decision for me. Yeah, Riley Skinner would have been a good choice, or Ricky Proehl even, but it was my relationship with AC and Phonz that made this a no-brainer. They were really the first players I interviewed on a consistent basis on my "beat" for the paper. That meant a lot to me.

 

I was right there when they said they were staying after the Car Care Bowl. I got a great story about Kenny Moore out of Phonz when he told me about how he knew Kenny was a player when he would finally catch balls against him. I got another great quote when he said that the 2007 team would beat the 2006 team 9 out of 10 times, but that the '06 team would win that one game because he would get an interception for a TD in the 4th quarter.

And AC was just terrific as well. His comments the day the team won the gold jerseys were priceless. And when KP finally got the Deacs first defensive TD after a bunch of games in the senior season, he explained "When I saw it, I knew he had a chance and I was just like, 'run you crazy black man, run!'" They were just extraordinary characters, terrific football players and wonderful people. I'll always remember media days every week, with Mountain Fried Chicken,Dan Collins in attendance and AC and Phonz smiling and having a good time.

So when it finally came to Draft Day, I had never been that excited. AC almost slipped to the Browns and I was going ballistic. Phonz got drafted in the 2nd. It was truly a special day. I know both had a tough time their rookie seasons, but I'm willing to bet good money that they'll perform at a higher level. Their work ethic is tremendous and they truly have NFL skills.