CLEMSON - It only took Clemson quarterback Cullen Harper a few moments to move past Saturday's big win and hone in on a game even bigger.

Harper threw for three touchdowns and ran for a fourth in the 20th-ranked Tigers' 44-10 victory over Wake Forest. More importantly, Harper's play helped Clemson (8-2, 5-2) set up a Death Valley showdown with Boston College next week for a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game.

''It's the biggest game we played in here in a while,'' Harper said. ''It's all on the line next week.''

Much of that is due to Harper's record-setting season - one that could travel through Jacksonville, Fla., site of the league championship next month.

''We just got to stay focused and take care of business and not self-destruct,'' Harper said.

That could be difficult.

Clemson won six ACC titles from 1981-91, but none since. As orange-clad fans rushed the field after the game, the public address announcer reminded them that ''next Saturday night is going to be huge.''

The stadium's scoreboard flashed ''C-U next week for the divisional championship.''

''We have everything in front of us,'' Clemson linebacker Cortney Vincent said. ''The key is to prepare like we did this week.''

For Wake Forest (6-4, 4-3), its second consecutive loss means a likely end for defend- ing the ACC crown it won a year ago. The Demon Deacons opened their season with a loss to Boston College.

''It's not something we want to think about right now,'' Wake Forest quarterback Riley Skinner said. ''We've been proud to win the ACC and we want to do it again.''

That goal collapsed this year when Clemson gave much of the 81,500 at Memorial Stadium a reminder of how it used to handle the Demon Deacons.

The Tigers were 45-6-1 against Wake Forest from 1950-2002, with several victories, like the 82-24 win in 1982, coming by blowout margins.

Things tightened considerably the past few seasons, and Jim Grobe's Demon Deacons have split the past four meetings. Even when Clemson won, it came in nail-biting, edge-of-your seat fashion - remember Gaines Adams' blocked field goal return touchdown that turned things around in the Tigers' 27-17 victory last year?

This time, Harper and the Tigers didn't give Wake Forest the chance to cause trouble. Clemson scored on its first four possession to lead 24-7 midway through the second quarter.