Since the first week of preseason, Wake Forest's depth chart has remained surprisingly stable for a team breaking in so many new starters.
After one game, nothing seems to have changed.
Coach Jim Grobe said yesterday that he expects the same team to start Saturday's game against Stanford (noon at BB&T Field) that started last week's season-opening loss to Baylor. The depth chart released yesterday was a replica of last week's.
"We never know really until the end of the week who's going to be ready to go," Grobe said. "We have some guys who have issues right now, but not anything that looks very serious. We'll kind of see how that turns out, but right now it looks like a go for Saturday with all those guys."
Whereas Grobe is satisfied he has the right lineup, he was second-guessing himself and his staff on the allotment of playing time for the reserves.
A review of the game film confirmed that too many of the starters played too many plays, wearing them down by the late stretches.
Three players he mentioned as needing to play more were defensive tackle Ramon Booi and linebackers Joey Ehrmann and Scott Betros. All are redshirt freshmen. Booi is listed as second team behind senior Boo Robinson, Ehrmann is listed as second team behind junior Hunter Haynes, and Betros has not cracked the two-deep depth chart.
"That's the thing we've got to look at," Grobe said. "We probably played the starters too many snaps and probably had some worn-out guys by the end of the game. We should have been a little smarter with our substitutions, I think.
"The other thing is, I think we've got some good players that can help us. You don't want to have good players that you waste by having them on the sidelines too much. We've got to get them out there. As they play better, they get more reps as they go."
One conspicuous absence from Saturday's game was that of senior Ben Wooster, who entered the spring as first-team tight end after starting nine games last year.
He missed a number of practices in August with a sore back and was also ill early last week.
By Saturday's game, he was listed as third team behind sophomore Andrew Parker and junior Cameron Ford. Parker and Ford both played against Baylor. Wooster did not.
"He's got a bad back, and those are crazy," Grobe said. "You don't know when those are going to clear up.
"I think he'll get some reps again. We're not making any statement. We would just like to get him healthy. That's the deal. He could certainly help us.
"There will be times when we want to use two tight ends in the same set, and we're a little bit limited when you've just got Cameron and Andrew."
The offensive line, a weak link much of last season, was under intense scrutiny again after the Deacons managed only 269 yards against Baylor and allowed quarterback Riley Skinner to be sacked three times.
But Grobe said he saw plays in the game film that he liked, and chose to attribute the lack of production to mistakes -- the four biggest being the three interceptions and lost fumble.
"I thought (the offensive line) played well," Grobe said. "I thought that we were much more physical than we were last year.
"I thought we were pretty good in the red zone. I thought when we needed short-yardage runs, we got them. Last year that was a real struggle for us.
"So I felt pretty good. We had a couple of pass-protection breakdowns, which was really disappointing. And I think that kind of spooked Riley early.
"So you kind of pick your poison. I think we were more physical up front. We came off the ball better than we have in a long time."
■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.
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