You won't find Nicky Ezell or Jon Kislingbury on Wake Forest's depth chart or on Coach Dave Clawson's roster. But the driving duo just might be the MVP's this week. The two were responsible for taking the Demon Deacons' equipment in an 18-wheeler across the country some 2,800 miles to Palo Alto, California, for Saturday's 3:30 p.

m. game with Stanford. The trip is one of the longest Wake Forest has ever made for a regular-season game and Ezell and Kislingbury were up to the task.

"They do a tremendous job and have done it for a long time," said Brian Daniels, who is the director of football equipment for the Demon Deacons. "They are both retired police officers and they just love what they do, and they do it in a professional manner. It's also pretty cool they are going back to California where they were police officers in another life.

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The truck bed, which was donated a few years ago by prominent alum Johnny Foster, travels to road games with Ezell and Kislingbury doing the brunt of the work to make sure the equipment arrives before the team. While the team gets there on a chartered flight, it's Ezell and Kislingbury making the long, slow trip to the West Coast. The two left early Wednesday morning.

Taking turns driving, they made the trip in approximately 40 hours. "They trade off sleeping in the rig because there's a small bed in there," Daniels said. Wake Forest uses a local leasing company for the rig that hauls the trailer around all season lo.