Wake Forest's last line of defense for its last game of the season is thin enough to scare Coach Jim Grobe.
But what was even more frightening was the prevailing reason for the Deacons' lack of depth at safety going into Saturday's game at Duke.
Josh Bush, a sophomore who has started six games at free safety, is recovering from surgery performed to fight an infection. He has been hospitalized since last Thursday's surgery, and will be fortunate to be available by spring practice.
"It's been kind of scary for about four or five days," Grobe said.
Bush bruised his collarbone against Georgia Tech, but was expected back the next week against Florida State. But by the time the Deacons played the Seminoles two weeks ago, complications kept him on the sideline.
"He actually bruised a vein, and where it had bruised, it clotted," Grobe explained. "And that's where all the fever was coming from, and then it became infected. So they had to operate on him and drain the infection out. They did that last Thursday.
"And they're going to give him an IV for about six weeks that will kind of put antibiotics straight to it. We're hopeful that with blood thinners and antibiotics and all that kind of stuff we can get this knocked out in about a month to six weeks."
So now that Bush is under medical care, Grobe's concern is how to cobble together a secondary capable of controlling Thaddeus Lewis, Duke's senior quarterback who, along with Wake Forest's Riley Skinner, is one of only three ACC quarterbacks to pass for at least 2,000 yards four straight seasons. The first to accomplish the feat was Philip Rivers, N.C. State's quarterback from 2000 through 2003.
"You really don't want to have injuries anywhere on defense when you've got to go against Thad Lewis and this offense," Grobe said. "They're pretty special."
The Deacs began the season with Alex Frye and Cyhl Quarles starting at safety and Junior Petit-Jean and John Stamper listed as backups. But Frye was disappointing enough early that Grobe didn't allow him to practice for two weeks and Petit-Jean was dropped from the team for a violation of an unspecified team rule.
Bush was moved from cornerback to fill the void, but in his absence against Florida State Grobe turned to Stamper, a sophomore from Winston-Salem's West Forsyth High School whose previous contributions had been on special teams. Frye also played some safety, as did Geoff Wissing, a senior walk-on.
Quarles will start at strong safety at Duke. The starter at free safety will be determined this week during practice. Grobe has ruled out playing Daniel Mack or Duran Lowe, two first-year freshmen who are being redshirted to preserve their season of eligibility.
"We felt like with Josh and Cyhl we were pretty solid in there," Grobe said. "Now with Josh down, it gets Alex Frye back in the mix and it gets Stamp in the mix.
"Any time you lose a starter it starts giving you some depth problems. And we've got the two young ones on the shelf. We almost played Daniel Mack. We almost played Duran Lowe. But obviously now we're in a no-win situation with those guys. They've got to sit on the shelf until next fall."
dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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