Freshman to play for Deacs

Grobe says Bohanon, maybe Souza, will see action against Baylor

By: By Dan Collins | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: September 02, 2009

Leave it to a college-football coach to turn the word "shirt" into a verb.

In this instance, Jim Grobe of Wake Forest was shortening the term redshirt, the practice of holding a player out to preserve a season of eligibility. It's a practice Grobe has used as well as any coach in the nation.

Most players "shirt" as freshmen at Wake Forest. In his eight years as head coach, Grobe has played only 13 first-year freshmen. In 2006, he played none, the next year he played one, and last year he played three.

So the suspense, in at least one regard, is already over at Wake Forest. The freshman class will not redshirt en masse. Grobe said in yesterday's media conference that Tommy Bohanon, a 6-2, 240-pound fullback from North Fort Myers, Fla., will make his debut in Saturday's opener against Baylor.

"He'll play," Grobe said. "I think he's had a really good August. I think the nice thing is that (senior) Mike Rinfrette is better because of Tommy Bohanon."

Grobe also said that Frank Souza, a 6-3, 285-pound freshman defensive tackle from Ponte Vedra, Fla., could play as well.

But unlike Souza, Bohanon had the benefit that comes with enrolling in January and participating in spring practices. Bohanon, in fact, ran first-team fullback in the spring while Rinfrette was sidelined because of a recurring concussion.

Grobe said that even with Rinfrette sidelined, he emerged from spring feeling good about the position after watching the performance of Bohanon.

Of the past five players to play in their first years at Wake Forest, three (Chris DeGeare, Joe Looney and Chance Raines) enrolled in December.

"Mike has really performed well in August," Grobe said. "Mike had some injury problems in the spring and didn't get a lot of snaps. But coming back in August, we were comfortable if Tommy ended up being the guy.

"But Mike's had a great camp, so I think we've got two really good fullbacks there."

Souza is competing for playing time behind established fifth-year seniors John Russell and Boo Robinson and backup Michael Lockett, another fifth-year senior. If redshirt freshman Ramon Booi and redshirt junior Tripp Russell remain healthy and perform well, Souza will most likely be redshirtted.

"We'll kind of see how that plays out," Grobe said. "I think with Souza, it could be good either way. If he redshirts, it will certainly be good for him. But he's a pretty good player and he's real competitive to play right now.

"I think we'll probably see how those first four guys (John Russell, Robinson, Lockett and Booi) do. I think Tripp Russell's gotten better. Certainly we've already redshirted Tripp, and we would like for him to take snaps if we need it.

"It's really going to be up to (assistant coach) Ray McCartney. I think we've told Frank there's a good chance he'll play this year. But we'll start out at 3:30 Saturday with those top four guys and see how it goes from there."

For a team that lost so many players to graduation, Wake Forest has had a surprisingly stable depth chart throughout the preseason. There were few surprises on the depth chart released for the opener.

The three players who have missed time recently with injuries, offensive tackle DeGeare (shoulder), linebacker Hunter Haynes (hamstring) and tight end Ben Wooster (back), have all returned to practice. But whereas DeGeare and Haynes were listed as starters, Wooster was third team behind sophomore Andrew Parker and redshirt sophomore Cameron Ford.

"He's still struggling with his back," Grobe said of Wooster. "We'll just kind of see how that goes through the season.

"But I think Andrew and Cameron have had good Augusts so far at tight end."

Grobe said that redshirt sophomore Shane Popham probably will punt and kick field goals and extra points and that senior walk-on Cline Beam probably will kick off.

"But we're continuing to look real hard at (walk-on) Alex Wulfeck as a punter and at (freshman) Jimmy Newman as a kicker," Grobe said."

There have been a number of cases of flu reported on campus.

However, Grobe said that illness has yet to affect any football player currently running first or second team other than receiver Marshall Williams. Williams is expected to be ready for Baylor.

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