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WFU Notebook: Grobe wants back to just hit holes
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Published: September 19, 2008
■ Through two games, Coach Jim Grobe hasn't seen enough from a running game that generated 156 yards on 44 carries at Baylor and 81 yards on 31 carries against Mississippi.
And one reason for that, Grobe said, is that his backs might be seeing tacklers who aren't really there. He said that starter Josh Adams and Brandon Pendergrass need to accelerate faster into holes.
"I think our backs have done too much dancing around,'' Grobe said. "We're back there sometimes giving ghosts the dead leg. We're four yards deep in the backfield making people miss, and there's nobody back there.
"So we need to make a decision and get up through the creases. When they are there, we need to get through them."
Adams, last season's ACC rookie of the year, has 80 yards on 26 carries. Pendergrass has 83 yards on 22 carries.
■ Wake Forest would really be in a tight spot at tight end without freshman Andrew Parker.
Although junior Ben Wooster is playing well in his first season as a starter, the Deacons' depth at the position was all but depleted when Cameron Ford sprained an ankle during preseason practice. Ford, a redshirt freshman who was expected to handle the back-up's role, has been slow to return to form.
"I would say he's not 100 percent physically yet, but probably less ready mentally," Grobe said. "He's still not playing real good technique-wise, and at times he has to think too much. We've just got to keep bringing him along. It's typical of young guys.''
Ford's injury presented an opening for Parker, one of three Deacons who have played in their first season. The others are guard Joe Looney and center Chance Raines. Looney and Raines enrolled in January and practiced during the spring. Parker, who is from Jacksonville, did not.
"Thank goodness Andrew is playing really well,'' Grobe said. "He's doing a nice job for us.
"For a freshman, it's a pretty amazing job actually.''
■ Grobe said he always finds himself in a quandary when he's watching other ACC teams play nonconference opponents. He wants the ACC teams to win but not look scary-good doing it.
"I think that's kind of the way it is,'' Grobe said. "You don't like seeing your conference getting hammered in the press if you're not playing well out of conference. But at the same time, when you see them win, it makes you a little nervous. You go, ‘Oh gosh, this is going to be a little tougher game than I thought it was going to be,' or it validates how tough you thought it was going to be."
"It's a little bit of both. You'd like to see the ACC be successful. You just don't like to see them be successful against you."
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