Grobe trying to add depth on offensive line

By: By Dan Collins | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: August 19, 2008

One day before the final dress rehearsal of the preseason, Coach Jim Grobe of Wake Forest was still reassigning roles.

The Deacons will scrimmage at BB&T Field today at 7 p.m., at which time at least one player who has spent the last five months at defensive tackle will find himself on offense. Grobe mulled over all the candidates and yesterday afternoon settled on redshirt freshman Dennis Godfrey.

"He's the one who makes the most sense at (320) pounds," Grobe said. "Typically the hardest place to play for a big guy is the defensive front.

"If you can play on defense you've got to think you can flip over and play on offense. And you go from being a decent athlete to a real good athlete.

"So we'll see."

The fact that Grobe is making the move three weeks into preseason camp is telling. The Deacons entered preseason practices as stacked as they've ever been at defensive tackle, with starters Boo Robinson and John Russell backed by Michael Carter, Ted Randolph, Michael Lockett and Godfrey. But depth on the offensive line was a problem even before reserves Ryan Britt, Gage Crews and Boomer Peterson were recently limited, or completely sidelined, by injuries.

Britt, a redshirt freshman center, had an MRI on Saturday that proved inconclusive. He may have a partial tear of an anterior-cruciate ligament that can be repaired through rest and treatment, so no surgery has been scheduled at this time.

Crews, a junior guard, has been bothered by a sore back, and Peterson, a junior tackle, by a bruised shoulder.

Grobe said that Garrick Williams, a freshman who arrived in January and participated in spring practice, has been moved from tackle to center.

"I think he's going to be fine," Grobe said. "Gage Crews, we wanted him to get his weight down a little and he didn't, and he's having problems with his back right now. And when your back is bad you can't condition like you should, and you can't lift (weights) like you should.

"And Boomer Peterson has got a bruised shoulder. I think he's full-go again, but we'll see how that goes. So some of the older guys that we were hoping would step up a little bit are banged up and not totally healthy. And some of the younger guys we're trying to play in there are going to be good players, but they just need to mature.

"We're three-deep at defensive tackle right now. I'm not sure we're real smart to keep a couple of pretty good third-team tackles in there when maybe one or two of them could go over and help us on the offensive line."

Godfrey committed before the 2006 season, but didn't enroll until 2007, after legal problems had been resolved. He was a star tight end at Lee County High School in Sanford and wanted to play that position at Wake Forest before agreeing to move to defense last spring.

Grobe said that even though Godfrey is now assigned to assistant Steed Lobotzke, the offensive-line coach and offensive coordinator, he may eventually return to defensive tackle. A precedent is Mike Rinfrette, a fullback who moved to linebacker last season and back to fullback in the spring.

"You forget, but here's a guy who's got four years of eligibility left," Grobe said of Godfrey. "He might be a little bit like Mike Rinfrette. He might go play guard this year and then go back and play (defensive) tackle next year -- or play guard for two years and go back and play (defensive) tackle."

Grobe said that the main purpose of tonight's scrimmage will be to prepare the younger players for what to expect on the day of a game. The Deacons will go through an abbreviated pre-game routine.

"We probably don't need to do it for old guys," Grobe said. "But we'll got to the stadium early enough to take groups out on the field.

"I don't know how long we'll scrimmage. My guess is not very long. It's just basically so when we get ready for the first game our guys will have their pre-game routine down a little bit. We'll try to get a little work out of it obviously. We don't want to waste our time.' "

■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.