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Deacs to work on hanging onto the ball in scrimmage
Several freshmen could see playing time this season
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Published: August 9, 2008
The pads will pop a little louder when Wake Forest has its first scrimmage of the preseason today at 8 p.m. at BB&T Field.
The Deacons have been practicing for seven days, the last three in full pads.
But Coach Jim Grobe said there are degrees of contact in the contact sport of football.
"I think we just need to compete," Grobe said. "The backs need to go to the ground a little bit -- as well as the receivers.
"We get lulled to sleep at practice because the defensive guys do typically back off the guys carrying the ball. So they need to get tackled to the ground a little bit and see if we can hang on to the football."
The Deacons will open the season Aug. 28 at Baylor, where Grobe doesn't want to see a recurrence of the problems his team experienced against Louisville in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 2, 2007. After having lost one fumble in the previous seven games, the Deacons lost two in a 24-13 setback.
Kenneth Moore and Richard Belton both fumbled the ball away. Louisville recovered Belton's fumble at its 13.
"When we practiced for the Orange Bowl, we weren't able to tackle our backs because they were all beat up," Grobe said. "Once they started getting tackled, it was hard to secure the football.
"One of the things we'll try to do is just go over and have some live competition, and hopefully the offense can take care of the football and the defense can improve a little bit on their assignments."
The starting lineup of the defense seems set, with eight of the positions manned by redshirt seniors. The eight are ends Matt Robinson and Anthony Davis; linebackers Aaron Curry, Stanley Arnoux and Chantz McClinic; safeties Chip Vaughn and Kevin Patterson; and cornerback Alphonso Smith.
And although the offensive line lost four starters, Grobe spent spring drills settling on a lineup of Joe Birdsong and Jeff Griffin at tackles, Barrett McMillin and Russell Nenon at guards and Trey Bailey at center.
"You hear coaches talk about it all the time this time of year, but you really kind of want every position up for grabs," Grobe said. "Certainly some of our veteran fifth-year guys, you'd like to think that as long as they stay healthy those positions aren't up for grabs. But you never know from one day to the next who's going to be healthy.
"So it's really important for us to start to develop an idea of where our depth is."
One area of particular interest is wide receiver. Moore is gone after setting an ACC record with 98 catches last season. Senior Chip Brinkman, listed as one starter, will miss at least the first half of preseason with a pulled hamstring, and sophomore Jordan Williams, listed as his backup, has missed practice this week because of a pulled groin.
Trainer Don Steelman said he expects Williams back soon but probably not by tonight.
Senior D.J. Boldin and sophomore Marshall Williams are listed as first and second team at the other wide receiver position. Other scholarship receivers hoping to make an impression tonight are junior Casey Hill, redshirt freshmen Danny Dembry and Devon Brown and freshmen Terence Davis and Chris Givens.
Grobe said that the scrimmage will provide a showcase for the freshmen. Although he is known for redshirting most freshmen, Grobe said his main goal is getting the best players on the field.
Besides Davis and Givens, guard Joe Looney, cornerback Kenny Okoro and tight end Andrew Parker are battling for playing time at positions that remain thin.
"One of the real issues is we've got about five or six true freshmen who look really, really good," Grobe said. "So we're going to keep looking at them.
"I don't have a problem playing them if they're the real deal and they can get 20 or 30 snaps a game."
Grobe said he wants to be sure he has the right players in the right positions, raising the possibility of a revised depth chart by early next week.
"We could come out of Saturday's scrimmage and get together Monday in our meetings and feel like we've got to move people around," Grobe said.
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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