Coach Jim Grobe of Wake Forest sees redshirt freshman Joey Ehrmann as the kind of player who will grow on you.
Opposing teams must shudder at the thought.
"Talk about the pleasant surprises, he's really been one," Grobe said. "We liked him. We knew he could run. We knew he was athletic and those type things.
"But for a freshman to step in and do what he's done has been pretty remarkable, really."
A less-than-strapping 185 pounds when he arrived at Wake Forest in the summer, Ehrmann will enter his 10th game of college football at Georgia Tech Saturday at 6-4, 208 pounds.
"He's bulked up," Grobe deadpanned.
But nothing, not his inexperience or his slight frame, was going to keep Ehrmann off the field this season. After playing sparingly early, Ehrmann has improved to the point that he is expected to start his third straight game at outside linebacker against the 10th-ranked Yellow Jackets.
Defensive coordinator Brad Lambert is counting on Ehrmann playing as well as he did last week against Miami, when he contributed five tackles, 2.5 sacks and forced a fumble.
So there is obviously room on the Wake Forest defense for a player with obvious room to grow.
"Everybody on the team gives me crap about it," Ehrmann said. "I know I'm small. But I think it's a game of speed and if you're physical enough you can compensate. I'm not saying I don't need to put on weight, which I will, but for my freshman year it could be worse.
"I plan on getting to at least 220 next year and keep gaining after that. I want to graduate at 250. I've got a lot of work to do, but I'm going to do it."
That would leave him still smaller than the size his father, Joe Ehrmann, played at during his 10-year NFL career with Baltimore and Detroit. Drafted by the Colts in the first round in 1973 after graduating from Syracuse, the elder Ehrmann was a 6-5, 260-pound defensive tackle who played in the Pro Bowl of 1978.
Joey's brother, Barney, is a senior playing lacrosse well enough at Georgetown to be honorable mention All-America last season. The brothers at least know where they got their athletic ability, as well as their commitment, drive and intensity.
Since retiring from football, Joe Ehrmann has graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, been ordained and has launched, along with his wife Paula, Building Men and Women for Others, an organization that addresses the challenges of society, particularly in inner cities.
Joe Ehrmann has also found time to coach defense for Baltimore's Gilman School, where Joey and Barney attended, as well as become a renowned motivational speaker.
"He's just had so much insight to everything, he can tell me exactly," Joey Ehrmann said. "We talk about all my games and go over everything. He's a really big help. He's got a lot of experience in football."
It's the experience the Wake Forest staff has had in recruiting undersized high-school players and building them into college stars that has Grobe so excited about Ehrmann's future. Six years ago the Deacons took a flyer on a largely overlooked 200-pound linebacker who grew up to be Aaron Curry, the fourth player chosen in last June's draft.
"He's not too many biscuits off what Aaron Curry was," Grobe said. "Aaron Curry was another skinny, undersized guy.
"We're looking for guys who can play first. He's got a good frame. Hopefully as he matures he'll keep getting bigger and stronger and putting more weight on.
"He's really been more physical than I thought he would be. You just look at him and you can't imagine he would be that physical. He's kind of angular and he uses his leverage really good. And he's explosive. He's got that little it of suddenness to him where once he figures out where it is, you see a little jump in his start.
"As much as Lambert would like to tell you he coaches it, it's just something that's just a gift."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
727-7323
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement