Coach Jim Grobe of Wake Forest had several objectives in mind when he decided last month to retool his coaching staff, not the least of which was to take a load off Lobo.
Lobo, as anyone who follows the Deacons in football would know, is Steed Lobotzke, the assistant coach who for the past nine seasons has been both offensive-line coach and offensive coordinator. To ease that burden, Grobe has hired Jonathan Himebauch from the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL to coach the offensive line and changed Lobotzke's responsibilities to tight ends and fullbacks. Lobotzke will remain offensive coordinator.
Grobe also hired Derrick Jackson, a former four-year starter at Duke, off the Rice staff to coach the outside linebackers, and consolidated Brian Knorr's responsibility as sole defensive coordinator. Knorr shared the position last season with Tim Billings
Billings and Keith Henry, another assistant, were not retained after the Deacons finished the 2011 season with their third consecutive losing record.
"For a while now, I've really wanted to get Lobo off the offensive line,'' Grobe said. "I know some people do it. Bob Noblitt was our offensive coordinator at Air Force and he coached the offensive line. But Bob didn't call the plays. Our quarterback coaches called the plays — because there's just so much going on during the week and even after the game.
"I think it's very tough for a guy to coach as many players as the offensive-line coach does and then try to be the coordinator.''
Last season, upon the arrival of Lonnie Galloway as wide receivers coach, Grobe split the offensive responsibilities by putting Galloway and quarterbacks coach Tom Elrod in charge of the Deacons' passing game. That arrangement won't change.
"I think that's one of the real, real good things that we did,'' Grobe said. "I thought Tommy and Lonnie both did a great job with our passing game. Where we were really lacking was in the run game. I think part of that is we've got to have more production out of our offensive line and running backs. But I think we've also got to be a little more committed to finding a way to run the football to balance things out a little bit.
"I think we liked what we did in the passing game last year. I think we got pretty good bang for our buck. We scored a bunch of touchdowns and had very few interceptions. We probably need to hit a higher percentage of our intermediate throws.''
Another position open-ed this month when Steve Russ, who coached the secondary last season, left Wake Forest to return to his alma mater of Air Force. Grobe said he'll take his time to finding a replacement, preferably one experienced at coaching defensive backs.
Spring practice will open March 1.
"I think we're in a position right now where, if we're patient, we might be able to find somebody with a little bit more experience in the secondary that could really, hopefully, come in and do some of the same things that Lonnie did with the wideouts,'' Grobe said. "If we could find the right guy, he could maybe come in and get our secondary cranked up pretty quick.''
The Deacons spent the past season and a half transforming their defense from a 4-3 to a 3-4. Grobe said Wake Forest will remain a 3-4 team, and has even doubled down on the move after alternating between the two formations last season.
"I just feel confident that the things Brian has planned for our defense are going to be really good,'' Grobe said. "First of all, I don't think our kids handled that (changing back and forth) very well. I don't think we were as good a fundamental football team as we can be by settling into one front.
"The nice thing about the 3-4 front is you've got so much flexibility, so many things you can do out of it that I don't think we need to be anything else.''
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