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Skinny Deacon makes impact
Malchow starts for WFU after walking on, building strength
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Published: October 30, 2009
Just when you think there's no longer any room for Everyman in the extraordinarily fast, ultra-physical world of college football, along comes a Lee Malchow.
Malchow, a junior linebacker/defensive end for Wake Forest, has something noteworthy in common with most of the fans who will show up Saturday at BB&T Field to see Wake Forest play No. 18 Miami.
They never had a scholarship offer to play college football coming out of high school. Neither did Malchow.
Not one, not even from an NCAA Division II school.
So what was Malchow (pronounced Mal-Co) doing on the field last Saturday, making his first start at rush end against Navy? Besides making seven tackles and for the most part defending the Veer option the way it should be defended, he was realizing a dream.
"It's been fun," Malchow said. "It's been a lot of fun.
"I just wanted to play, and the coaches were nice enough to give me a chance to earn a spot."
A quarterback and linebacker at Aquinas High, a Catholic school with 320 students in Augusta, Ga., Malchow got a break when a friend of his family and former youth coach contacted defensive coordinator Brad Lambert of Wake Forest.
Lambert, who coached at Georgia from 1996 through 2000, agreed to look at some film of Malchow.
He saw enough to invite Malchow to Wake Forest as a preferred walk-on.
"He was a good high-school player," Lambert said. "He played quarterback and middle linebacker, and you saw him run a little bit. And it was physical on defense, so I said, ‘Sure we'd love to have him come.'
"You never know for sure how they're going to turn out, but he's just an everyday guy."
Most recruiters probably thought Malchow was too slight to play college football. At 6-5 and 200 pounds when he arrived at Wake Forest, he probably was.
But Coach Jim Grobe saw a solution to Malchow's problem in Ethan Reeve, the strength and conditioning coach.
"With Lee, what Brad liked about him -- other than he knew the motor and effort and all that kind of stuff -- was he was tall with a good frame," Grobe said. "And with the Doctor of Strengthology, Ethan Reeve, working with him a little bit, (Lambert) thought maybe he could develop into something.
"Again he's a kid who's kind of a self-made guy as far as his work ethic and weight room. He was really skinny when he got here. He's still really skinny, but he's strong skinny. It's fun to see those guys develop."
During his first three seasons at Wake Forest, including the first as a redshirt, Malchow managed to work his way onto the practice field day after day at outside linebacker. Teammates couldn't help but take note.
"He's always been a hard worker, staying positive, always in the film room working extra," said Scott Betros, a redshirt freshman linebacker. "It's hard to keep a guy off the field when he does all that."
The weight-room work produced 30 solid pounds and landed Malchow on the depth chart, as second-team strong-side linebacker behind senior Jonathan Jones.
That was enough for Grobe to put Malchow on scholarship.
"I think sometimes as a coach you find a kid and you fall in love with him character-wise and attitude-wise," Grobe said. "You want to be nice to him, so you're thinking, ‘How can I find a way to give this guy something?'
"But what we really do, and it's my commitment to Ron Wellman, is I'm not going to waste his money. We're not going to reward players with scholarships unless they can help us."
Malchow paid dividends last week when he was converted to rush end to start against Navy's triple option. Grobe said that Malchow has moved back to outside linebacker for this week's game against Miami, but he mentioned that Malchow might well end up back at end for the Nov. 7 game at Georgia Tech.
Regardless of what Malchow accomplishes the rest of this season and next season, he already has made a mark.
So why did Lee Malchow think he could play college football when so few others did?
"I guess it wasn't too smart by me," Malchow said, grinning. "But I guess I thought I could, so I just tried out and stuck with it."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
727-7323
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