WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- This whole bowl preparation thing has the potential to be exceptionally boring and taxing all at the same time.

After three weeks of two-a-day practices and 13 games in 14 weeks, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons find themselves in the middle of one long break between their ACC championship victory Dec. 2 and their Jan. 2 Orange Bowl game against Louisville.

Granted, it's not 30 days in the hole. Just 30 days without a bowl.

"You take a month off and you don't know what's going to happen," Grobe said. "You come back and hope you've got the right plan. But once the ball is kicked off in a bowl game, it's a roll of the dice. I don't think you can find one coach who has the definitive answer."

Every coach has friends in the business across the country, but statistically speaking, relatively few head coaches can offer specific counsel on time management at a BCS bowl. And that really is an issue, because very few bowls require participants to arrive a week before the game, as the Deacs must do.

That's why Grobe phoned Virginia Tech's Frank Beamer, whose 1999 team played Florida State for the national championship in the Sugar Bowl. How much do you practice while on campus? How often do you practice in the bowl city? What time of day do you practice?

Grobe said his presumptions meshed pretty well with Beamer's suggestions.

n Rule 1: Scout the opponent's tendencies and develop general strategies in the same time frame you would for a regular-season game. The difference is in the presentation to the players, which doesn't have to be as frenzied as a typical week in October.

"It's the same plan we'd have for Louisville if we were preparing for a week," Wake quarterback Riley Skinner said. "That may be the reason he gave us time off."

n Rule 2: (Skinner gave it away.) After a week of twice-daily, on-campus practices, let the players go home for Christmas. Those who live relatively close to school will reconvene here to travel by charter flight to Miami. Long-distance travelers, 26 players in all, will go on their own by car or plane. The NCAA allows for reimbursement of travel costs of whichever is greater -- the trip from home to the game or from school to the game.

"It's kind of different not traveling with the team," said Skinner, who will fly from his home in Jacksonville, Fla., to Fort Lauderdale. "It will be weird, but it won't be bad. I just hope nobody gets lost."

n Rule 3: Once in the bowl city, practice once a day and do so in the morning. This serves two purposes: It gets the work out of the way and it creates an incentive for players to meet curfew at night so they'll be fresh for the following day's workout.

"It's about like herding cats," Grobe said. "The hard thing for me as a coach is to remember these guys are pretty much unsupervised in the evenings they're here at Wake Forest. They do what they want. So you've got to hope they'll handle being in another location as well as they handle being here on campus."

n Rule 4: Be aware of the logistical issues, but don't obsess.

How long does it take to get to the practice site? Can you tape practices and evaluate them as you would at home? These things can be handled in advance and should be.

"Too many things to list that can be problems," Grobe said. "It does bother you."

Of course, there are worse fates for a college football team at this time of the year.

"It's rewarding now to be in the position where we are, the position where everybody wants to be," Grobe said.