Wake Forest doesn't necessarily have more to play for than other football teams in the ACC.
But the Deacons do have more to play.
Because of a quirky schedule that featured two open dates in the first six weeks, the Deacons have eight games remaining. Eight conference teams have seven left, N.C. State, Virginia Tech and Maryland only six.
The downside for Wake Forest is that it's hard to find a rhythm or continuity amid all the starting and stopping. The upside is it gives Coach Jim Grobe and his staff more time to identify and work to correct the problem areas before too much damage is done. And no area has been more of a problem going into Thursday's home game against Clemson than the offensive line. Wake Forest, coming off a 24-17 home loss to Navy on Sept. 27, is 3-1 and 1-0 in the ACC. Clemson, coming off a 20-17 home loss to Maryland on Sept. 27, is 3-2 and 1-1.
"You probably wouldn't like the open dates if you were hitting on all cylinders in every area," Grobe said. "But I think from our perspective, especially with the youth we're trying to play on the offensive side of the ball, the more we practice and the more we work, the better our kids should get.
"Probably from a defensive perspective and a special-teams perspective, just playing straight through would have been fine. But I think with the young guys we're trying to get going in the right direction on offense, probably the extra time to practice and correct mistakes has been good for us."
Grobe only has to look as far back as last season to see how dramatically the face of a team can change in a matter of weeks.
The Deacons lost their first two games of 2007 while attempting to establish an effective rushing offense. But by the time they rushed for 178 yards in a comeback victory against Maryland in their fourth game, they were rolling.
They won nine of their last 11 to finish 9-4.
Given the loss of center Steve Justice to graduation and guard Chris DeGeare to academic ineligibility, this year's line had more to prove. That's why Grobe worked his team so hard last week, when the Deacons scrimmaged in full pads Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
They also practiced in full pads last night, but Grobe plans to scale back for Tuesday and Wednesday.
"I told the players -- and they know this, they just forget it sometimes -- that when things aren't going good we're not going to put our head in the sand and pout and whine and complain," Grobe said.
"We're going to work harder.
"We've just kind of gone back to work a little bit. We're just trying to be a good football team. You've got to work at that. It's not easy."
Grobe said he doesn't plan to make any major changes in personnel along the offensive line. So far the regulars have been juniors Jeff Griffin and Joe Birdsong at tackles, junior Barrett McMillin and sophomore Russell Nenon at guards and junior Trey Bailey at center.
Freshman Joe Looney has been rotating at guard, but the tackles had played most of the way before Birdsong was ejected in the second quarter of the loss to Navy.
One potential move had to be shelved when Dennis Godfrey, a redshirt freshman converted to the offensive line from defensive tackle in late August, suffered a knee injury in Thursday's practice.
Godfrey, who has played almost exclusively on special teams, had an MRI on his knee yesterday and the results should come today.
I'm hopeful that it's not any big deal, but he's had a lot of those things," Grobe said.
"I was hopeful that in the next week or two he'd really start to come around. But with this time off, it'll push him back pretty good."
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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