Early arrivals get a jump: Allen, Ford, Garcia already in school, will participate in Deacs' spring practice

Redshirts don't really wear red shirts in practice, nor do greenshirts wear green or grayshirts wear gray.

Too bad, because Wake Forest's spring practices would be much more colorful occasions with the arrival of six new players.

Much of Coach Jim Grobe's success in his nine seasons as Wake Forest's head coach has been attributed to his general practice of redshirting players by not playing them as freshmen to give them an extra season to mature physically and acclimate themselves to college life.

But Grobe is embracing as never before a newer practice known as grayshirting, recruiting players who don't enroll in the fall but instead wait until the spring semester.

Three grayshirts -- linebacker Patrick Thompson, defensive end Daniel Vogelsang and long snapper Logan Feimster -- committed to Wake Forest last February but waited 11 months to enroll.

And whereas there have been greenshirts -- players such as offensive linemen Chris DeGeare and Joe Looney and fullback Tommy Bohanon who graduated after 3½ years of high school in time to enroll at college a full semester early -- that have made significant impact on the program, Grobe has never had three arrive the same semester. This year he does in Zachary Allen, Antonio Ford and Jonathan Garcia.

They'll have the jump on the rest of the class that will sign the national letter of intent beginning on the signing date of Wednesday.

"We never really push guys to come in January," Grobe said. "But these three guys all wanted to get started. I think they're fired up to get going.

"The benefit there is they'll get spring ball under their belt and maybe have a chance to get on the field next fall a little easier than they would have if they had tried to show up in August."

Allen and Ford are from Pahokee, Fla., made famous to Wake Forest faithful as the hometown of All-America cornerback Alphonso Smith and two of his classmates who were seniors in 2008, receiver Demir Boldin and defensive lineman Antonio Wilson. Allen is a 6-0, 200-pound linebacker and Ford is a 6-3, 260-pound lineman who played both offense and defense in high school.

Defensive line coach Ray McCartney plans to play Ford in the defensive line at Wake Forest following the loss of Boo Robinson, John Russell and Michael Lockett to graduation.

Another player from Pahokee, cornerback Meril Noel, has also committed to Wake Forest, but will not enroll until this summer.

"We've got the Pahokee connection back, Zach Allen and Antonio Ford," Grobe said. "Allen is a linebacker who can really, really run and Antonio Ford is a big defensive lineman that we really like.

"Ray really likes him on the defensive front. Of course that's going to be an area that we really need help.

Garcia is a 6-3, 220-pound tight end from Cape Coral, Fla.

Of the three grayshirts, Feimster's career was delayed because the Deacons don't expect to need a long snapper until the incumbent Greg Bechtel exhausts his eligibility after the 2010 season, whereas Thompson and Vogelsang were given extra time to mature physically.

Thompson is the brother of Zach Thompson, a defensive lineman who was redshirted last season at Wake Forest. Patrick Thompson was a 6-2, 200-pound quarterback at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn, Va., but has spent the fall building his body for his new career as a college linebacker.

"So he's kind of a unique guy," Grobe said. "He's a kid that (defensive coordinator) Brad Lambert fell in love with, as we did with his brother Zach. We felt like this extra year's gong to be really good for Patrick."

Vogelsang is a 6-3, 235 pound defensive end who was known more for his offensive ability at Lexington Catholic High School in Lexington, Ky.

"He looks great right now," Grobe said. "It looks like the extra time to mature has really helped him.

"We think he can be a really, really good one for us."

Feimster is from Statesville.

"Of course with our long-snapping situation in really pretty good shape right now, we felt like we didn't want to bring him in last year," Grobe explained. "We wanted to bring him in a year later.

"If Greg stays healthy and does a good job, we can have Feimster plugged back in and behind him as a redshirt and then have Feimster for four years."

dcollins@wsjournal.com.



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