The story today will not be who is dressed out for Wake Forest's first spring football practice, but who is not.
Riley Skinner, who has started 49 of the Deacons' last 51 games at quarterback, has exhausted his eligibility, as have such pillars of Coach Jim Grobe's program as senior defensive tackles John Russell and Boo Robinson, cornerback Brandon Ghee, fullback Mike Rinfrette and offensive linemen Chris DeGeare, Jeff Griffin, Joe Birdsong and Barrett McMillin.
Nine starters will have to be replaced, five on offense and four on defense, from a team that finished 5-7 last season.
"On the one hand, it makes us sad to lose Riley and really all those seniors," Grobe said. "With Riley being gone, and him being a four-year starter, it makes the coaches pretty apprehensive.
"But at the same time, I think it's got a lot of the players fired up because we're going to have to do some different things offensively. And that could involve some different guys in different ways."
The competition to replace Skinner at quarterback will be among sophomore Skylar Jones, redshirt freshman Ted Stachitas and freshman Brendan Cross, all of whom will be trying to lock down the position before incoming freshman Tanner Price arrives this summer.
Today's practice will be the first of 14 leading up to the spring scrimmage scheduled for April 17 at the Doc Martin practice facility on campus.
"I'm excited," Grobe said. "I think our players are fired up. I think our players are disappointed with the way our season turned out last year.
"So we've got a probably more motivated group than we've had in a while."
Grobe made some changes in his staff since last season involving five of his nine assistant coaches. Defensive coordinator Brad Lambert will coach the safeties after coaching linebackers last season; offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke will add tight ends to his responsibilities as offensive-line coach; Keith Henry will coach the cornerbacks after coaching defensive ends; Steve Russ will coach the linebackers after coaching fullbacks and tight ends; and Tim Billings will coach the defensive ends after coaching the secondary.
Billings is a former defensive coordinator at Marshall, and Russ is a former defensive coordinator at Syracuse.
"What most people tend to focus on is the offensive side of the ball," Grobe said. "But last year I was disappointed that we didn't play better defense. I thought at some positions, we didn't get as good of play out of a couple of our players as we should have.
"We've got now with Brad Lambert, Tim Billings and Steve Russ literally three defensive coordinators on our staff."
dcollins@wsjournal.com
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