Wake Forest experienced its first significant injury Monday when wide receiver Terence Davis was sidelined for the season with a torn anterior-cruciate ligament.
Coach Jim Grobe said that to compensate for the loss of Davis, redshirt sophomore Skylar Jones has been moved to wide receiver from quarterback.
Grobe confirmed yesterday what the Deacons had feared, that Davis had torn a ligament when he crumpled to the turf in the first of two practices Monday. Grobe said that surgery will be performed in a couple of weeks and that Davis may be back by the end of spring practices.
Davis, a 6-1, 190-pound redshirt freshman who led the Deacons with six catches in Saturday's scrimmage, tore his ligament when he planted his foot and twisted his knee. There was no contact on the play.
"Terence Davis tore his ACL, just running across the field trying to make somebody miss," Grobe said. "He planted funny and tore his ACL. So he'll have surgery here in a couple of weeks to fix that.
"Certainly Terence is somebody who we think can be a really good player. The blessing for Terence is that he's a freshman and not a senior. Where you would really feel bad is if you were in your senior year and this happened to you.
"So he's got a lot of time to get healthy and a lot of football left."
Jones has been one of the most interesting players on the roster after arriving before the 2007 season as one of the most ballyhooed recruits in the class. He chose to play at Wake Forest over Tennessee, Maryland, Purdue, Kansas State, West Virginia and Marshall, partly because the Deacons promised him a chance to play quarterback.
He did not play at all last season as a redshirt freshman, and struggled mightily in Saturday's scrimmage when he completed just five passes on 12 attempts, with an interception. But he was clocked at 4.33 in the 40-yard dash at the Nike Combine in 2006.
"He's one of the faster guys on our football team," Grobe said. "I just can't stand him being a baseball-cap guy with a clipboard all year. So we're going to try to see if we can't find a way to get him some snaps at wide receiver."
Grobe said he's pleased with the progress of his top four receivers, juniors Marshall Williams and Jordan Williams, sophomore Devon Brown and redshirt freshman Chris Givens. He also said he hasn't given up on Danny Dembry, another redshirt sophomore who did not play last season.
"Another guy who has been injured, but who has a little bit of ability, is Danny Dembry," Grobe said. "We'd like to see Danny be a little more durable. He's had that hamstring, but he's practicing and he wants to be on the field. So we'll see where that goes.
"We feel really good about the guys we've got. It's just being able to stay healthy and can you get them through a 12-game regular-season. We'll see."
Grobe said that Jones was given some snaps earlier in his career at slotback, but the staff decided he needed as much work as he could get at quarterback to learn the system. Grobe did not rule out Jones' return to quarterback, particularly in the event of an injury to starter Riley Skinner or backup Ryan McManus.
The only other two quarterbacks on scholarship are redshirt freshman Ted Stachitas, who returned to practice yesterday after missing time with an infected foot, and first-year freshman Brendan Cross.
"We didn't want to give up on him as a quarterback and we're really not," Grobe said of Jones. "We think he can still be a quarterback. Now our offense would be a little different. We'd let the quarterback run the football a lot more.
"We talked about it in the past few months, but we really felt he was competitive to be a quarterback. But with Terence Davis getting hurt, it just makes you look around and say ‘Why would we let him remain as a backup at quarterback if he can compete for a lot of snaps -- and possibly compete for a job -- at wide receiver?'
"So we're going to find out."
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement