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Deacs ranked 20th in poll
Grobe says its too early to tell how good his team is
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Coach Jim Grobe’s Deacons did well in their opener, compared to some other ACC teams.
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Published: September 3, 2008
Since Jim Grobe arrived in 2001, Wake Forest has gone from a program that many thought didn't belong in the ACC to one now looked upon as the conference's saving grace.
The Deacons certainly saved the conference some further embarrassment yesterday when the new Associated Press Top 25 poll revealed that Wake Forest, for the first time ever, is the only ACC team ranked.
Grobe said that it's nice to hear positive things said about himself and his program. But he considers any conclusion drawn this early in a season to be premature.
"We're in a mode where we don't know how good we are," Grobe said yesterday. "Nobody who has played one game has any clue how good they are right now.
"Probably three or four games into the season everybody will have a better feel for how good they are."
Nevertheless, since last Thursday Grobe has been hearing the reviews of the Deacons' 41-13 season-opening victory at Baylor. They've been glowing, especially when compared to what is being written and said about the rest of the conference.
N.C. State, Virginia Tech, Virginia and Clemson all lost their openers, Virginia by 45 points to Southern Cal and Clemson by 24 to Alabama.
The Deacons improved three spots from last week to become the ACC's top-ranked team for the first time since they finished No. 18 in the final poll of 2006, the year they won the ACC championship and played Louisville in the Orange Bowl. That's a lot of momentum to carry into Saturday's home opener against Ole Miss, which Grobe can only hope turns out as well as most people expect.
The Rebels, in their first game coached by Houston Nutt, opened Saturday with a 41-24 home victory over Memphis.
"Ole Miss got after them pretty good," Grobe said. "Memphis was in a bowl game last year (the New Orleans Bowl against Florida Atlantic) so I just expected that that would be a little bit closer than it was."
Grobe said he was especially impressed with a secondary of senior Dustin Mouzon and junior Cassius Vaughn at cornerbacks and senior Jamarca Sanford and junior Kendrick Lewis at safeties. Mouzon and Lewis intercepted passes against Memphis, which ended up with 24 completions on 44 passes for 265 yards.
"They're very talented, they're very well coached and they give you a lot to look at with different coverages and things you've got to be aware of," Grobe said. "They're a real physical secondary. Once you catch the ball they're going to challenge you and try to take it away from you and knock you around.
"It's just kind of what you would expect from an SEC team, They've got lots of kids who can run fast and will get after you physically."
Nutt came to Ole Miss from Arkansas, where he coached for 10 years. He uses an unconventional offensive formation featuring a direct snap. At Arkansas it was called the Wild Hog. At Ole Miss, it's the Wild Rebel.
The ball is usually snapped to Dexter McCluster, a 5-8, 165-pound junior wide receiver who against Memphis carried six times for 64 yards and caught four passes for 28 yards.
"They kept Memphis on their toes and Memphis could never quite get a bead on them," defensive tackle John Russell said. "And it's going to be important for us, when we see stuff like that, not to panic and to keep cool heads and keep playing."
This will be the Deacons' second opponent in two weeks with a new coach, coming one week after Art Briles debuted at Baylor.
Grobe said that the Deacons at least have Ole Miss' game tape against Memphis to study.
"We actually try to prepare for our first three our four games in the offseason," Grobe said. "So we've looked at a lot of film on everybody.
"But the problem with the new coach is, even if you know what he's done in the past, he's going to have some new thoughts with new personnel. We were really scrambling with Art Briles last week because we hadn't seen anything of them on film with Baylor.
"At least we've seen a game with Ole Miss. Now that doesn't mean they'll come in and do half the stuff they did with Memphis, but at least we've had a chance to compare what they did at Arkansas with what they did in one game against Memphis.
"We'll still be scrambling a little bit."
Grobe said that the team suffered no injuries of consequence at Baylor. Jordan Williams, who didn't catch a pass in limited action, continues to improve from a pulled groin and may have a more expanded role this week.
"I think he's healthy," Grobe said. "He looked really good (Monday) night. He was bouncing around and smiling again. He went through a period where he was not smiling. And if he's not, something's wrong.
"Our problem is your typical problem if you've got a number of kids at any one position. It's finding enough reps."
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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