Thursday, August 26, 2010

Help Wake By Sitting on East Side

Fans who attend today’s scrimmage (4:30 at BB&T Field) have been asked to take a look at a different side of the football team Jim Grobe has assembled for the 2010 season. Steve Shutt, director of media relations, said yesterday that the event management and facilities staff wants everyone to sit on the East side of the stadium today instead of the West (Deacon Tower) side, where pretty much everyone has perched for the first two scrimmages. With the opener against Presbyterian only a week away, and no more scrimmages scheduled, the staff wants to make sure that all the amenities on the East side—Re: Restrooms—are in proper working order.

Steve wanted me to mention this in this morning’s account of the upcoming scrimmage I wrote for the Journal, and I just plumb forgot. Sorry Steve.

I’ve heard the legs are the first to go. I don’t believe that’s true, but I can’t remember what’s first.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

No Room at the Ends for Wake Forest

After confusing Brandon Terry with Matt James—and vice versa—throughout the first three weeks of preseason, I finally figured out a way to remember which is which. Although they don’t really look that much alike, both are freshmen who are taller than any receivers I can recall playing at Wake. Terry, who is from Alpharetta, Ga., is 6-5 and wears No. 86 and James, who hails from Raleigh, is 6-6 and wears No. 87. Neither has stood out from the other. So every time I’d see one make a catch, I’d have to pull out my creased, weather-beaten roster to determine who it was.

My memory crutch is the alphabet. The B in Brandon comes before the M in Matt, and Brandon wears the number that comes first.

I don’t expect to have any problem distinguishing the two receivers before the leave Wake. Both look like players. But the more I watch practice, the more I suspect both to be players who won’t play this season. Their position is just too deep and talented.

Look at who they’re competing against for playing time—Marshall Williams, Devon Brown, Chris Givens, Terence Davis, Jordan Williams, Michael Campanaro, Lovell Jackson and Danny Dembry. Another scholarship receiver, Quan Rucker, is a promising redshirt freshman from Statesville who has been sidelined this preseason with an injured knee. I recognize that the two receivers’ positions are not completely interchangeable. Marshall and Jordan William, Davis and Dembry play the more tradition split end position while Brown, Givens, Campanaro and Jackson could accurately be described as slot backs. All that said,  Brian Knorr, the receivers’ coach, is going to have to be creative to get all of his receivers as much playing time as they want and, some might say, deserve.

As of yesterday morning, Marshall and Jordan Williams and Brown were sitting out practice, Marshall with an injured foot, Jordan with a nagging hamstring and Brown with a bruised knee. But none of the injuries are expected to have any impact on the depth chart for the Sept. 2 opener against Presbyterian. I wouldn’t be surprised to see all of them back in action by the final preseason scrimmage scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 4:30 at BB&T Field.

I haven’t forgotten, by the way, that Givens (along with defensive end Kevin Smith) won’t play first two games because of an unspecified violation of an unspecified team rule. But the big news of Tuesday’s practice was the return of Jackson from a pulled hamstring that had kept him out of pads for the past two weeks. Brown led the Deacons last season with 61 catches. Campanaro has had a great preseason. Jackson has the speed and shakes to torment opponents both as a receiver and as a kickoff returner.

Knorr’s nickname, by the way, is Sunny, for his upbeat disposition. I can think of about six or eight reasons why he should be feeling good.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Two Nose Guards and a Nosy Reporter

Jim Grobe stood around for a long time after this morning’s practice talking with one of the few players on the Wake Forest football team who doesn’t look down on him.

I mean that in a literal sense.

Redshirt freshman Nikita Whitlock is listed at 5-11, but he’s probably not. He’s roughly the same height as Grobe, who is 5-10. While the two were talking, I remembered that Grobe spent one season of his playing career at Virginia playing nose guard, the position Whitlock is playing for Wake Forest.

“I had been a linebacker all in college,’’ Grobe said. “And we played an odd-front defense, so I played nose guard for a year (1973). Then I went back to linebacker for my senior year. I almost wish I could have done that middle guard stuff one more year, because I think it takes you awhile to learn how to play it. But of course Nikita played it in high school. I played fullback in high school and didn’t even play defense until I went to (Ferrum Junior) College. I played linebacker, linebacker and then all of a sudden (I was asked) `Do you think you can play nose?’ I did, and it was a lot of fun. But I think when I finally got to feeling pretty good about it I went back to playing linebacker—which was fine.’‘

So what words of wisdom about the position was Grobe able to impart to Whitlock, who, at 235 pounds is probably more undersized for the position than Grobe was 37 years ago?

“The biggest deal is I think he’s going to beat a lot of people on speed and quickness,’’ Grobe said. “There are going to be some times he is going to get double-teamed to try to control him, and those are the times you’ve got to have good pad level and you’ve got to try to split blocks. He’s different than I was, because if I got doubled or combo’d, that was kind of it. My job was to make sure you didn’t get knocked back because you’ve got linebackers running to the ball. He’s good enough that if you try to combo-block him, and you double him to start with and the lineman leaves to go to the next level, he’s still fast enough to get going and go make plays.

“The thing about him is he’s a playmaker and we’ll move him around and try to make plays.’‘

Monday, August 23, 2010

It’s Stachitas’ Job to Lose

The way I learned how to pronounce the last name of sophomore Ted Stachitas was to rhyme it with Unitas. And as a Baby Boomer born in 1952, I know all about who Johnny Unitas was. Maybe I’m taking this association game a bit to far, but Stachitas brings to mind Unitas in another way. Remember how Unitas hunched his shoulders forward, and never seemed to stand up straight? Stachitas hunches his shoulders as well. I don’t have to see his No. 13 to know it’s him. Now if he can only resemble Unitas the least bit once the games start then Wake Forest won’t miss Riley Skinner nearly as much as most feared.

And barring any serious injury or upheaval at that position between now and Sept. 2, Stachitas will start in the opener against Presbyterian. Coach Jim Grobe said it is so many words at this morning’s practice. The so many words were as follows:

“I would say certainly by the weekend we’ll have to have our guy ready to go, and it would have to change from what it is right now,’’ Grobe said. “Somebody would just really have to make a real move – either from the top down or the bottom up. It’s pretty solid right now.

“We’ll see how it goes and keep working. Certainly by the weekend we’ll have an order. Maybe it’ll be the same as it is right now. I don’t know.’‘

I took that to mean Grobe doesn’t want Stachitas to get too big for his helmet and start slacking off, though given how long Stachitas has waited for his opportunity and the injury issues he has overcome, that’s something I wouldn’t expect. And Grobe also wants the other quarterbacks to keep battling to be No. 1. One way he keeps the competition boiling is to give plenty of repetitions in practice to all four candidates, Stachitas, freshman Tanner Price, redshirt freshman Brendan Cross and junior Skylar Jones.

“The thing that you notice though is we’re still giving reps to everybody,’’ Grobe said. “You’ve got to be careful because not only with the other positions, but quarterback especially, you’ve got to have that `what-if?’ plan. The thing that we learned from Riley is we thought Brett Hodges was the guy and then Brett got dinged in the last scrimmage and when Riley got his chance nobody could beat him out. So we think it’s Ted right now, but Ted knows it might be two, three or four in that mix.

“We’ll keep working guys. At some point we might start cutting some reps, but right now we’re kind of balancing it out.’‘

Last week Grobe said that Stachitas was first team, with Price second team and Cross and Jones neck-and-neck for third. I thought for sure, based on last Thursday’s scrimmage, that Cross had made a move with his performance. I was wrong. Grobe said that Price remains No. 2.

One reason is that Cross has been bothered in recent practices with a sore hand.

“Brendan’s still having a little trouble,’’ Grobe said. “I saw him a couple of times kind of bend over after he threw balls. His hand’s still real sore.

“So that’s kind of the order we’re going in right now.’‘

Friday, August 20, 2010

Brown Passes the Test

Jim Grobe was getting ready to take his daily walk with his wife Holly—which I think is one of the coolest routines in the world—when he took the time to give me a call at the ranch.

He had good news from the MRI performed last night on Devon Brown.

“We just got the tests back and there was no ligament damage at all,’’ Grobe said. “He must have just gotten hit on the knee.’’

I wouldn’t be surprised if Brown sits out a practice or two, but he should be fully recovered well before the Deacons emerge from August camp and start setting their sights on Sept. 2 and the season-opening opponent Presbyterian. That’s really good news for the Deacons given that Brown, after leading the team with 61 catches last year, has had a great August.

Deacons Morning Practice Was Out of Sight

Good thing I made it by practice this morning. Otherwise I would have missed the scoop of my career.

Wake Forest has incorporated stealth technology in its uniforms. The Deacons were obviously practicing, because they were scheduled to from 9:30 to noon. But I couldn’t see a soul on the fields alongside Manchester Athletic Center.

I swung by the football office to compliment Bonnie Rae, Coach Jim Grobe’s executive secretary and master of ceremonies and Allen Franklin, the Deacons’ video coordinator, on an innovation that would obviously change the landscape of competitive sports everywhere. We got a good laugh, which is not hard to do in the football office and Bonnie told me what even I had already figured out, that the first of two practices scheduled for today had been postponed because of the rain.

And who should walk through the front door but Grobe himself. I told him I had a readership that was clamoring. He said as coach of Wake Forest, he knows all about clamoring. And then he asked what you guys were clamoring about. I told him you wanted to know the latest on Devon Brown, the junior wide receiver who injured his medial collateral ligament in yesterday’s scrimmage.

Grobe said that he didn’t know any more than he did yesterday. An MRI was performed last night, but the medical staff had yet to analyze the results and report back to Grobe. He said there might be more news by tonight’s practice, scheduled for 7 p.m.

I asked him if the staff was confident it could save the leg, and Grobe said absolutely. So obviously it could have been worse.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Lack of Size a Big Problem?

I’m apparently not the only one to envision opposing offenses training their big guns on Wake Forest’s less-than-imposing defensive front.

“I would,’’ Coach Jim Grobe of the Deacons said yesterday. “I would with those guys in there.’‘

Boo Robinson’s career didn’t exactly peak during his senior season, but he and the 6-0, 285-pound Michael Lockett did provide bulk and muscle as well as experience. Of the freshmen and sophomores looking to fill the breach left by Robinson, Lockett and John Russell, only sophomore Ramon Booi, at 6-6, 300 pounds, and redshirt freshman Frank Souza, at 6-4, 285 pounds, have the size we’ve come to expect to see in a defensive tackle.

Souza appears a good bet to start at nose guard. He’s had a good camp, and I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t start again at the scrimmage scheduled for 3 p.m. this afternoon at BB&T Field.

Other defensive linemen vying for time are Kris Redding, John Gallagher, Nikita Whitlock and Daniel Vogelsang. Redding is a 6-4, 255-pound redshirt freshman who started the first scrimmage last Saturday. Gallagher is a 6-4, 255-pound redshirt freshman who has missed some valuable practice time with first a hyper-extended elbow and, more recently, a sore ankle.  Whitlock 5-11, 235-pound redshirt freshman. converted from linebacker. Vogelsang is a 6-3, 235-pound freshman who enrolled in January and had the benefit of practices in the spring.

All can move. All will have to in order to survive playing in the trenches in the ACC.

“Those guys, the biggest problem they’ve got is they’ve got to get their cleats in the ground a little better because they’re getting knocked off the football—which is nice if the O-line is doing that, but not good when we line up and play the people we’re going to play against,’’ Grobe said. “I like a lot of those young kids, but they’ve got to be a little bit more physical. We’ve got two more weeks to get them there, but that’s my biggest concern with those guys like Kris Redding. We’re capable and we’re wanting to, but we’re giving too much ground at times.

“If you spend too much time at linebacker level, if you’re a defensive-front guy, then that’s not a good thing.’‘

Grobe is concerned, but has never been one to panic.

“At the same time, when you look at Souza and Booi, you put those guys down there and they’re bigger than some of our offensive linemen,’’ Grobe said. “So it depends on who you’ve got in. I think we’ve got a pretty good mix of big guys and then guys who have great feet and can move their feet and get to the football.

“It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if we ended up in a situation where we’re (rotating) six nose guards and tackles in there, where we’re three-deep at both positions and keeping them fresh and rolling them series after series.’‘

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Fast On My Feet

When my younger brother Joe was around three, he was roaming the sidelines at a Franklin High Panthers football game. All of us Collins boys were wont to do that, considering the head coach, Dick Stott, was my father’s best friend and my father helped out as an assistant coach.

Well the star end Sonny Burrell, who happened to be our next-door neighbor (small town), caught a pass at the sidelines and was knocked out of bounds and into a bench. The bench caught Joe, who had fallen, in the temple and pressed an indentation into his soft noggin. Joe was rushed to the hospital where we were told it was a simple concussion and that he would live. I remember my mom wasn’t very happy with my father that night.

So my second goal whenever I head over the watch Wake practice is to see how the team is coming together. My first is to stay out of everybody’s way. Players don’ t need to be worrying about running over an burly, bearded 58-year-old sports writer.

I did have a semi-close call at this morning’s practice. Chris Givens ran an out pattern that had several of us, including me, scrambling for safety.

Greg Collins, the head basketball trainer who helps out in football, hollared for me to watch out.

I told him I would and I didn’t need him putting me back together.

“It’s not you I’m worried about,’’ Collins explained. “I don’t want any of the players to get hurt.’‘

At least he has his priorities straight.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Showing Our True Colors

I confess to this recurring nightmare. I get pulled out of a wreck and whisked off to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, but the doctors there won’t put me back together because of my underwear. They’re not torn and tattered. That was my mother’s nightmare. But they happen to be a light shade of blue. (I’m not confessing to owning such an article of clothing—it’s a nightmare, remember?).

It’s the first advice I give to any aspiring sportswriter. Wear the right colors. I learned that early on, having cut my teeth in the gurgling cauldron of passionate and overlapping allegiances known as the Research Triangle. You never ever wear red to Kenan Stadium, light blue to Wallace Wade Stadium or any shade of blue to Carter-Finley. Even if you don’t take that stuff as seriously as the fans, it’s not worth the hassle.

I did screw up once at a game in Clemson. I wore a purple shirt and the Tigers, for the first time in like 40 years, came out in all purple uniforms. That was one on me.

So it was Stupid—notice the capital S—for a reporter for The Hog Sportsradio to wear a cap from her alma mater of Florida to an Arkansas press conference.
Seeing Red in Arkansas That said, should that person be publicly rebuked by a coach, hunted down by an internet posse and summarily fired? Smacks of Kremlin-like behavior if you ask me, and raises the hair on my arm just a bit. Do we really have to take ourselves so seriously?

As an aside, I was around Petrino enough at the Orange Bowl to know that, in his case, the answer is definitely yes.

Jim Grobe might have joked about it, but it would have been a joke. In my 10 years of covering him, I’ve never seen him once show another person up in a press conference. There have been times he had all right to, but that’s not who he is.

Running Shotgun No Snap

If you’ve noticed that Wake Forest is running everything from a shotgun, keep looking.

Offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke said in the spring that the Deacons emerged from the Riley Skinner era as a predominantly shotgun team, but that doesn’t mean we’ll never see another quarterback up under center. Though I don’t think we’ll see it as soon at Thursday’s 3 p.m. scrimmage at BB&T Field, we just might.

But remember how the Deacons, with Russ Nenon and Chance Raines hurt, were having so much trouble getting the shotgun snaps back to the quarterback during the spring, and how it really mucked up the spring scrimmage? That, Coach Jim Grobe explained the other day, is why we’ve yet to see a quarterback under center.

“That’s the one thing we haven’t put in yet,’’ Grobe siad. “We haven’t gone under center.

“The hardest thing to do is take a shotgun snap, not necessarily catching it, but for the center to get it back there. The snap in the shotgun and run-blocking is really tough on a center, so we feel like we’re just going to hit the hardest stuff as long as we can. We’ve been under center so much with Riley, I don’t think any of our centers will have a problem when we decide to do some under-center stuff.’‘