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Deacons will be replacing key veterans
EVERY FALL: HOW'S THE OFFENSIVE LINE?
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Coach Jim Grobe is concerned about a lack of depth on the offensive line again this season.
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Published: August 1, 2008
Wake Forest's 2008 football season will begin with today's first practice, and lo and behold, Coach Jim Grobe is fretting over the physical condition and depth of his offensive line.
"Coming out of spring practice we felt like we'd have a chance to be decent one-deep," Grobe said Wednesday. "The big question we had was, ‘Who are the backups going to be?'
"I think that's still a question."
As though redshirt junior Jeff Griffin has never heard that in his four years of playing offensive tackle at Wake Forest.
"Every year, I think it's a question mark for every team," Griffin said. "How's the offensive line going to be?"
Grobe was wondering aloud about his offensive line four days before the Deacons opened last season against Boston College.
"I don't feel real good," Grobe said on Aug. 28, 2007. "I'm not real pleased with our backups right now.
"I think there's a definite difference between our starters and our backups."
The sentiments echoed those from the previous August when he assessed the progress of the line while preparing for the season opener against Syracuse.
"I've got five right now that we feel good about, and we're just trying to find out where the backups are at," Grobe said on Aug. 15, 2006. "We're trying to piece together a line from there."
It bears noting that the Deacons answered Grobe's questions well enough to win 20 games in the two seasons, quite an accomplishment for a program that before 2006 had never won more than eight games in a season.
But the case can also be made that the loss of center Steve Justice, guard Matthew Brim and tackle Louis Frazier to spent eligibility and guard Chris DeGeare to academic shortcomings left a line as untested as any in Grobe's eight years at Wake Forest.
Griffin, the veteran of the group, has started 16 games, and junior tackle Joe Birdsong and junior guard Barrett McMillin have started seven each. Neither of the other two linemen running first-team, center Trey Bailey and guard Russell Nenon, has ever started a game in college.
But that doesn't concern Grobe as much as the need to find suitable backups. The Deacons will begin practices with redshirt freshmen Doug Weaver and Michael Hoag listed as second-team tackles, redshirt junior Boomer Peterson and freshman Joe Looney as second-team guards and redshirt freshman Ryan Britt as second-team freshmen.
The other offensive linemen are redshirt junior Gage Crews, redshirt sophomore Cannon Gaskin and freshmen Chance Raines, Garrick Williams and Gabe Irby.
Although Grobe emerged from spring drills concerned, he was buoyed by seeing offensive and defensive linemen make strides during the months between spring practice and fall camp.
"Those positions are so physical," Grobe said. "They have another two or three months to mature, more time in the weight room and they can kind of get more comforble with the plays we are running."
Grobe is not generally inclined to play freshmen, but may have to make an exception with Looney. Besides being physically mature for 17, Looney also had the benefit of spring drills and weight-room sessions with Ethan Reeve, the strength and conditioning coach, after enrolling last January.
Looney, who made first-team all-state during his career at Lake Worth (Fla.) High School, is 6-3, 295 pounds.
"A lot of that's up to Joe," Grobe said. "I think he has the ability. A lot of those kids are considered true freshmen, but it's a little different when you've had a whole spring under your belt with Ethan, to go through 15 spring practices. We kind of see Joe Looney a little differently than the rest of the incoming freshmen."
The average weight of the linemen who started last season against Boston College was 309 pounds.
The average weight of the five who will begin today's practice as starters is 288.
Griffin said that the reduction was by design of Steed Lobotzke, the Deacons' offensive coordinator and line coach.
"Coach Lobo, in the spring we went on a little plan," Griffin said. "Every day after practice we were doing extra work, just to get our legs right and also lose a couple of pounds. Our offense, we're not sitting there powering people. It's all misdirection, like anybody in the country knows. You've got to be able to run, be able to move, be able to cut.
"That's why he wants us all around the 290, 285, 300 range -- somewhere in there."
The Deacons will begin practice at 5:15 today and 3:15 on Saturday. In a change of plans, the Deacons will also practice Sunday at 3:15.
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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