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Swank may return this week for Deacons
Standout kicker has missed six games with pulled quadriceps muscle, but has been cleared for full practices
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Kicker Sam Swank of Wake Forest pulled a quadriceps muscle on Oct. 6.
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Published: November 19, 2008
Little did Coach Jim Grobe of Wake Forest know when he made fun of the injury that sidelined kicker Sam Swank that the joke would be on him.
"As dumb as I am, when he first hurt himself I used to kid him that, ‘When's your date for coming back, Thanksgiving?'" Coach Jim Grobe said yesterday at his weekly press conference. "Now I've turned out to be a prophet. It might be a Thanksgiving return.
"So I'll learn to keep my mouth shut I guess. You get what you ask for."
Swank, Wake Forest's all-time leader in points and field goals made, has been sidelined since pulling a quadriceps muscle Oct. 6. Grobe said yesterday that there's a chance that Swank -- who has missed six games despite being listed as day-to-day -- will make his long-awaited return Saturday against Boston College.
Swank kicked field goals of 35 yards in Monday's practice. And he wasn't kicking a volleyball, as he did three weeks ago, or a NERF ball, as he did last week.
"He's actually kicking real, for real footballs now," Grobe said. "I don't think he's back. I don't think he feels as good as he did before he got hurt.
"But he's back in the mix now. It's just fun to see him back out there."
Swank will compete this week with redshirt freshman Shane Popham, who is 7 for 12 on field-goal attempts in Swank's absence. Grobe said that assistant Billy Mitchell, who coaches the kickers and punters, will probably extend Swank's range during the week.
The decision of how much to use Swank, and when, will not be made until the end of the week.
"He's been cleared to do everything," Grobe said. "He ran gassers (Monday night) with the team. He's kicking footballs. He's doing all that kind of stuff.
"Now it's just a matter of whether he's physically capable of performing well. I don't think the injury is an issue. I think it's leg strength, and not having done it for so long, that will be more or a factor than anything else.
"What we're doing now is comparing Shane with Sam to see if Shane has just got the stronger leg and is more consistent -- those kinds of things. So we're just kind of looking at him this week."
One thing Swank will not do -- probably for the rest of the season -- is punt. Popham is averaging 39.4 yards a punt. Swank averaged 37.6 yards over the first four games.
Swank has been the Deacons' regular kicker since 2005 and took over as the punter in 2006 to replace Ryan Plackemeier. He was first-team All-ACC as a kicker and honorable mention as a punter in 2006.
"I don't think we're going to punt him again this year," Grobe said of Swank. "Shane's doing a nice job punting the football. That would be the best-case scenario, if Sam could get back to full speed as a kicker, then we could use Shane to punt.
"And that would be a pretty good combo."
Grobe has called the injury to Swank one of the most frustrating of his coaching career. He designed this year's strategy to rely heavily on the strength of the defense and the kicking game, and at the time of the injury, no one expected Swank to miss six games.
"I made fun of him last week, talking about kicking beach balls and NERF balls and all that kind of stuff," Grobe said. "But you get to the point where you can't dwell on it anymore. It's depressing to dwell on it.
"So you might as well laugh about it."
Grobe said that there's no doubt in his mind that Swank has been too injured to kick.
"Sam Swank has been more miserable than Jim Grobe, not being able to kick a football," Grobe said. "For me personally as a coach, I've been really disappointed that we haven't had Sam. But I think he's been more disappointed than me. And that's the way you want guys to be. But he feels great responsibility to the team.
"I've never kicked before, but I don't think a kicker is really capable of coming back while he's still injured. You just don't have the leg strength and probably not the ability. It's hard enough to get that ball through the uprights when you're 100 percent. I can't imagine trying to do it when you're not 100 percent. It's not an easy solution."
Safety Alex Frye and defensive tackle Michael Carter, neither of whom traveled to N.C. State last week, will be suspended for at least the rest of the regular season. The official reason is a violation of team rules, but several people familiar with the program said that Frye missed a practice last week and that Carter was involved with in an incident at his dorm that was reported to campus officials.
Both are sophomores, and Grobe said he will talk to them about their futures with the program after the regular-season finale against Vanderbilt. Frye backed up safeties Chip Vaughn and Kevin Patterson. Carter played behind Boo Robinson and John Russell.
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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