Monday, August 16, 2010

Another Day, Another Two Practices

Random Observations On Practice from a Random Kind of Guy:

If there’s any concern around the program about Tommy Bohanon, no one’s letting on. We’ll have a story in tomorrow’s Journal with Coach Jim Grobe, trainer Don Steelman and Bohanon all discussing the the injury Bohanon sustained in Saturday’s scrimmage when his shoulder popped out of place. The gist is that Bohanon will miss a day or two or practice, but is expected to be back and full speed by the end of the week. It’ll be interesting to see if he returns by the next scrimmage, scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday at BB&T Field.

The offensive line appears set, at least for now. The same five who started Saturday—Dennis Godfrey at left tackle, Joe Looney at left guard, Russ Nenon at center, Michael Hoag at right guard and Doug Weaver at right tackle—were running first-team today. Nenon, who said it’s a close-knit unit, said all the starters graded at least as high as 85 percent on Saturday.

Danny Dembry appears bent on getting the first significant playing time of his career. A junior wide-receiver from Ahoskie, Dembry caught a nine-yard touchdown pass from Ted Stachitas Saturday and appeared to have another good practice this morning. But even with redshirt freshman Quan Rucker sidelined with a sprained knee, the competition is formidable. Marshall Williams, Devon Brown and Chris Givens combined for 166 catches last year, Jordan Williams and Terence Davis are going to get snaps and perhaps nobody on the team has been more mpressive this camp than Michael Campanaro, a redshirt freshman from Clarksville, Md. who has great hands and speed. And Grobe hasn’t ruled out either or both of the two tall freshmen, 6-5 Brandon Terry of Alpharetta, Ga., and 6-6 Matt James of Raleigh, finding the field this season.

Grobe has said he plans to take advantage of the talent and depth at wide receiver. We saw one way of doing that Saturday, when Brown, Givens and Campanaro would line up in the slot, shift to the backfield and then run off-tackle. That’s just one more thing for opposing defenses to be concerned with.

Senior linebacker Lee Malchow has shown great courage and resolve by returning to practice, but he doesn’t look right. He’s still limping on the leg he broke last Nov. 7 at Georgia Tech.

The Deacons have a defense that should be tough to run wide on, given their speed. Grobe said that overall it’s his fastest team at Wake Forest. But I wonder how strong they’ll be up the middle. Kris Redding, at 6-4, 255-pounds, started the scrimmage inside along with 6-4, 275-pound Frank Souza. Ramon Booi, who at 6-6. 300 pounds could provide some much—needed bulk inside, has not exactly distinguished himself thus far in preseason.

And I’ve seen nothing at the scrimmage or this morning’s practice to scare me off last week’s prediction that sophomore Ted Stachitas will start at quarterback in the Sept. 2 opener against Presbyterian.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Deacon Football Team Looks the Part

Jim Caldwell used the description ``bigger, stronger, faster’’ so many times during his eight seasons as Wake Forest’s head coach that the line became easy fodder for the cynical. If the Deacons were so big and strong and fast, many of us wondered, how come they couldn’t win more than 26 of the 89 games Caldwell coached.

Jim Grobe likes to joke around as well, but it’s hard to believe that any of the Deacons opponents will be laughing at the roster-full of talent that Grobe has assembled for his 10th season as Wake Forest’s head coach. The team that scrimmaged for the first time this preseason today at BB&T Field passed the eye test with flying colors, creating the notion that if the Deacons play as well as they look then they’ll be one of the ACC’s surprise teams this season.

The focus of the day was obviously on the quarterback battle, and I’ll have a story on how Ted Stachitas, Skylar Jones, Brendan Cross, Tanner Price and Patrick Thompson all fared in tomorrow’s Journal. A short version: Grobe was pleased with all five, but said he and quarterbacks coach Tom Elrod and offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke will need at least another week before they’re able to name a starter for the Sept. 2 opener against Presbyterian.

“Tommy Elrod and I were talking earlier this morning and Tommy hit the nail right on the head,’’ Grobe said. “I’m not sure this is going to be a scrimmage situation of name the quarterback. We’re evaluating everything these guys do. If they sneeze, we write it down. So I think it’s probably going to be another solid week, and it’s probably going to be on a body of work rather than one day.

“We’re going to have to just keep tabulating everything and when we decide we have to name a quarterback we’re going to have to look at a laundry list of things that we’ve been tracking.’‘

But whoever emerges will have plenty of weapons at their ready, and whoever quarterbacks against the Deacons is going to have to deal with, if not the biggest, then at least the strongest and fastest defense Wake Forest has ever put on a field. Those aren’t just my words. 

“We’ve had some faster players, but just offensively, defensively, top to bottom it’s one of the more athletic teams we’ve had and probably overall is our fastest team,’’ Grobe said. “I like our athleticism right now.

“I think our coaches have got to do a good job right now getting our guys lined up and going in the right direction. What I saw today was I saw a team having fun competing and playing against each other and a lot of physical, tough, hard-nosed licks out here and a lot of full-speed play.’‘

Grobe said that slotbacks Devon Brown (four catches for 67 yards and three carries for nine yards) and Michael Campanaro (three catches for 20 yards and three carries for 18) probably played as well as anybody today. But one player who wasted no time making a strong impression was redshirt freshman Josh Harris, who darted off tackle into the secondary and raced 65 yards for the touchdown.

Safety John Stamper, racing over from the other side, appeared to have the angle on Harris, but Stamper never got close enough to even dive at Harris’ feet. Harris missed spring practice while shoring up his academic standing but Grobe envisions him sharing time with senior Josh Adams and junior Brandon Pendergrass this season.

Harris has been clocked at 4.34 seconds in the 40-yard dash.

“If you’ve got an angle on Josh Harris, don’t be real comfortable with the angle because that guy can motor now,’’ Grobe said. “He can really go.

“We’ve got to play all three running backs. We’re going to end up doing that. The thing that we haven’t done – I don’t know how we’ll get to it because we’re not just a hand-the-ball-to-the-tailback team right now – I’d like to see Brandon and both Joshes get more carries. But the nature of the offense is that we’re going to be a little more selective about what play we’re running based on formation and what we’re seeing on defense and things like that. So it’s going to vary. One day you might get 30 carries and the next day you might get two.

“That’s one thing I would have liked to have seen today. I would have liked to have seen our running backs carry the ball a little bit more, but I think they’re going to get their wish here before long.’‘

Friday, August 13, 2010

Davis Back For An Encore

After knocking everyone out with his play early last preseason, Terence Davis was himself knocked out of the season with a torn knee ligament.

Only Davis can say what hurt worse, the injury itself or the memory of just well he played in the Deacons’ first scrimmage last August.

“He had that big scrimmage,’’ Coach Jim Grobe recalled today. “He caught a handful of balls and made a couple of circus catches. Everybody was saying `He’s the next guy.’ Then he got hurt.’‘

Davis, a 6-1, 190-pound sophomore from Liburn, Ga., was sidelined through the spring while recovering from the surgery, but has looked good so far this August. We chatted a bit at the end of today’s first of two practices, and he said he’s feeling no ill effects from the injury.

He happens to be playing in a receiving corps that may be the deepest and most talented position group on the roster, one that features three players—Marshall Williams, Devon Brown and Chris Givens—who caught 166 passes among them last season. Redshirt freshman Michael Campanaro has impressed the staff this fall and Grobe hasn’t totally ruled out burning the redshirt of either of the tall, young freshmen, 6-5 Brandon Terry of Alpharetta, Ga., and 6-6 Matt James of Raleigh.

On the other hand, Givens will be suspended along with defensive end Kevin Smith for the first two games for a violation of an unspecified team policy, and Lovell Jackson—who was impressive last season as a kick returner—will probably miss at least two weeks with an injured hamstring.

If Davis plays as well as he showed everyone last season that he can, he’ll be on the field this season.

“He may be a little rusty,’’ Grobe said. “But I think he might have as good of hands as anybody. Marshall’s got really good hands, but I’m not sure Terence’s aren’t as good as Marshall’s. He’s got soft hands, catches the ball really well, has good speed, all that kind of stuff.’‘

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Meaning of Mean

To get the right answer, it helps to ask the right question.

I’ve asked the wrong one enough times in my career, most recently this afternoon at today’s practice in the scorching mid-August sun. What I wanted to know was, is Dennis Godfrey, who is locked in a battle with redshirt freshman Steven Chase for the starting position at left tackle, mean enough to be a good football player? Those who know Dennis know how jovial and easy-going he is, always smiling and joking around. Joe Looney, who at left guard plays alongside Godfrey in the offensive line, is that way off the field as well. But on the field, he’s as bad as he needs to be. I haven’t seen that from Godfrey.

Now heading into his redshirt junior year, Godfrey hasn’t made the contribution many expected from a player with his high school credentials and reputation. Injuries have slowed him down, and he has been stuck behind some older, more experienced players. But I wondered if he wasn’t just too nice for his own good. I even asked him today when he was walking out to practice if he was mean enough. He said he was working on it.

It was only later that Coach Jim Grobe set me straight.

“He doesn’t really have to be mean to help us,’’ Grobe said. “He just has to play good and stay healthy. Dennis’ problem doesn’t have anything to do with being mean, it’s just all about staying healthy. And one of his problems has been his weight.

“He looks really good. He’s 10 pounds heavier than we want him to be but he’s moving great and he’s doing everything good right now. And I haven’t checked his weight lately, but I was very disappointed when he came in heavier than we wanted him to be. But watching him practice he’s doing all the things we’re asking him to do. I haven’t had that very often. Usually if I get a kid who comes in too heavy he ends up pulling a hip flexor or spraining an ankle or something silly where he can’t get any work done. But Dennis has so far been great. So I think his deal is durability more than mean.’‘

Because spring football started way before basketball was over, I didn’t get by as many practices as I wanted. I apparently missed a couple of days that Godfrey’s temper reached a boiling point.

“Dennis actually got into a couple of skirmishes this spring,’’ Grobe said. “He was mixing it up a little bit. We don’t want our kids to do that, but in the heat of the moment he got stirred up a little bit. He’s not shy. He’s not afraid to run into you.

“I think part of Dennis’ problem, quite frankly, has been that he didn’t know what the offense was. He didn’t his assignments very well. Now he knows his assignments better. He’s not making many mental mistakes. I think in the past he’s always been so unsure of what he was doing that it kind of paralyzed him. He couldn’t do anything because his mind was locked up. He didn’t play as aggressively as he could because he didn’t know what to do.

“Another guy who I didn’t think had a mean bone in his body was Chris DeGeare, and he played pretty good for us.’‘

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Hanging out with Ed and Jim

The Band, IMHO, produced some of the most unforgettable music in the most unforgettable period (1964 to 1975, from the arrival of the Beatles on our shores until Saturday Night Fever turned everybody into a Disco Dude or Dudette) popular music has ever known. If you don’t believe it, give this a listen.The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down And as great as the Last Waltz turned out, I think the Band’s double album Rock of Ages might have been ever better.

Ed Hardin agrees. We were talking it over Tuesday night when I was over at practice researching a story that will run in tomorrow’s Journal about all the competition raging at Wake these days. And it got me to thinking about how much competition is different in our field than it is on the field we were surveying propped up against the wall. Ed and I are nominally competitors, in that he’s the sports columnist for the Greensboro News and Record and I write for a paper located 25 miles to the west. But we’re fast friends, and have been for a long, long time, dating back to when he wrote for the Journal in the early 1980s. Our families grew up together and we looked out for each other. We’ve made a lot music together. Ed plays the harmonica and is a much better singer than I am, but I’m more anxious to throw myself out there. Whenever he shows up at the Garage for one of our shows, I make sure I drag him onstage to do a verse of The Weight. We even co-wrote a song, after one of the great trips of my career to Nashville to cover Wake vs. Vanderbilt. The song is called the Souvenir and the chorus, penned by Ed, goes a little something like this.

For the kids I brought a T-shirt,
For my wife a flannel gown,
And for me I brought the barmaid
From Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge.

So given how deep the stories were piling up, Jim Grobe might not have known what he was walking into when he sauntered over the wall in his heavy sweatshirt for a mid-practice chat. But Jim has the sense of humor to take care of himself, even when he hears the same hackneyed joke from the beat guy that he’s probably heard in every one of his 10 seasons as the Deacons head coach.

“From what I see, if this team doesn’t go 14-0 then the coach ought to be in trouble,’’ I said to Ed, plenty loud enough for Grobe to hear.

“The assistant coaches,’’ Grobe returned, in perfect timing. “If we don’t go 14-0, the assistant coaches ought to be fired.’‘

Grobe hung around for five or 10 minutes, long enough to regale us. I mentioned, facetiously, that he needed to light a fire under assistant Steve Russ, who, in truth, is one of the most intense coaches I’ve ever seen.

That set up Jim for a story about Russ from Air Force, where Russ was a linebacker and Grobe was his position coach.

“Steve would come out for games so gunned up, he’d be running 40-yard dashes before the game and he’d be dripping with sweat,’’ Grobe said. “He’d play five quarters every game. He’d play one before the game ever started.’‘

There may have have been better times to be a reporter covering the Wake Forest football beat, but, for the life if me,  I can’t remember them.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Price Is Rising

My thinking all along has been that it would be too much to ask Tanner Price to step on the field as a recently-arrived freshman and win the battle for Wake’s starting quarterback. That said, I do recognize that you can ask more from some people than you can from others.

Price, a 6-2 lefty from Austin, has been the buzz of the early practices. He has a sleight-of-hand release on his passes, thrown from the left ear-hole of his helmet—not unlike a catcher pegging a runner out at second. And the ball gets to the receiver on a line, at times before the receiver is ready.

“He’s got a quick release and he’s got a lot of zip on his throws,’’ Coach Jim Grobe said. “He gets it there in a hurry.

“It’s caught our receivers off-guard a little bit. They’re saying it’s the spin of the ball. I’m thinking it’s just on them a little quicker sometimes than they’re expecting out of a freshman.’‘

The first dozen or so passes I saw Price throw were right on the money. I never saw him throw a bad one until Saturday, and as you might expect, that was against a live secondary looking to make plays. In that drill, he threw one into the ground and threw another well over a receiver’s hands. I mentioned to Grobe the difference, and he said that’s because Price was having to make reads and checks.

“But we can teach that,’’ Grobe said. “What we can’t teach is that release and the zip he gets on the ball.’

My first conversation with Price was at Saturday’s media day. He said all the right things, making sure he didn’t ruffle any feathers. But he does have presence and seems like a sharp, straight-ahead young man. Grobe said he received some advanced lessons for a high school player during his glory days at Westlake High School, the same school that developed Drew Brees.

“He played in the state championship game and it went into overtime (before a 41-38 loss to Euless Trinity) at the highest level in Texas,’’ Grobe said. “They’ve got pretty good football. He comes from a great program.

“It’s still a little unexpected when a freshman quarterback shows the maturity he’s shown so far. He doesn’t get rattled. We’ve been doing some stuff on a pretty quick pace and that doesn’t seem to upset him at all. He’s obviously got some ability. It’s been fun to see him.’‘

If I had to predict—and I might as well, seeing’s how it’s my blog—I still don’t think Price will start against Presbyterian in the Sept. 2 opener. We forget sometimes how much ballyhoo the other quarterbacks on the roster, Skylar Jones, Ted Stachitas and Brendan Cross, had when they signed with the Deacons. The competition is stiff. If Stachitas can finally stay healthy for the whole preseason, then my bet is he starts the opener because of his ability to both run and throw. He has looked good the first week, more of what I expected to see from a guy who was named the Florida Times-Union’s Player of the Year after helping Nease High School reach three straight state championship games—one as a backup to a quarterback named Tim Tebow and the next two as the starter.

But if Stachitas, Jones or Cross does take the first snap, this much I know. He’ll be looking over his shoulder at a freshman from Austin wearing No. 11.

Saturday, August 07, 2010

An Attitude Adjustment at Wake Forest

Jim Grobe, coming off his first losing season since 2005, has laid down the law to this year’s team.

No more Mr. Nice Guy.

“I’ll just tell you, I was too nice last year,’’ Grobe said at today’s media day gathering at BB&T Field. “I tolerated some average attitudes on our football team. If you don’t have a good attitude this fall, you will not be on this football team. That’s just the way it’s going to be.’‘

Grobe’s comments came in response to a question about Alex Frye, the senior cornerback from Fayetteville who was removed from the active roster for three games last year for reasons Grobe never fully explained—other than to say that Frye’s attitude was not what it should be. Frye had a good spring, and is back in the good graces and running first team at the cornerback opposite sophomore Kenny Okoro.

“He had a good attitude in the spring,’’ Grobe said. “Of course we’re not with our players in the summer. We’re not allowed to be NCAA-wise. So I don’t really know how the summer went. But so far, the first couple of practices, he’s been fine.

“I think Alex’s biggest issue is going to be consistency. Every once in awhile he’ll take a lazy step. He won’t quite be full-speed. And we’re not going to play anybody like that. But I will say he has responded to everything we’ve asked him to do. So far he’s been a pleasant surprise, and he’s working for the right guy right now because Brad (Lambert, Wake’s cornerbacks coach and defensive coordinator) is not going to put up with anything.

“He’s been a real high-maintenance guy for us in the past, and now he’s a low-maintenance guy. And I like that. I tell our kids, `I go to bed with heartburn, you’re going to pay the price the next day.’ ‘’

Friday, August 06, 2010

Wilber: “We’ve Got Something For You’’

Some of you guys—and by guys, I mean it in the more modern non-gender-specific sense—in the Peanut Gallery have wondered what the Wake Forest players feel about being picked by the media to finish fifth in the ACC’s Atlantic Division, and how they might use what some would consider a slight as motivation going into the 2010 football season.

Well once again, here at MTOW it’s a case of Ask And Ye Shall Receive.

Each season, just before practice begins, I like to talk with a number of players to get their take on what to expect. This time around, on Tuesday, I conducted a series of interviews with Jimmy Newman, Joe Looney, Kyle Wilber, Kenny Okoro and Tommy Bohanon. Bonnie Rae, Coach Jim Grobe’s executive secretary and gatekeeper extraordinaire, had them all lined up and we ran them, one by one, through this little film room like clockwork. I enjoyed all five sessions and learned a great deal, some of which I’ve already reported in Journal features on Newman (Thursday) and Looney (this morning). Tomorrow we’ll have a piece on Wilber, and what his return from a broken fibula can mean to a defense that a year ago was sorely lacking in playmakers.

I took the opportunity to ask each player his reaction to the low preseason ranking and whether it would be an extra burr under their saddle this season. Wilber, by nature, really doesn’t like to talk about himself, but he didn’t mind one bit addressing the low opinion others seem to invariably have of the Wake Forest football program. His comments were easily the best of the day on that subject.

“It’s kind of frustrating,’’ Wilber said. “I know our defense is, I would say, one of the best in the ACC. Our offense, we have crazy weapons just ready to explode out there on the field. It’s like that we’re like a small-time school and we’re underdogs all the time. We’re always overlooked. But we’re going to give them something to show this year.’‘

I opined that Wake Forest always seemed to play better as an underdog, and I asked Wilber if he agreed.

“I think it does, because we were all one or two stars on Rivals.,” Wilber said, referring to Rivals.com, an internet website that specializes in recruiting rankings. “We’re out to prove we’re somebody and we can hit you just as hard a five-star player can.

“We’re not going to take this being overlooked by everybody like that. We were overlooked in high school and we’re overlooked in college now. We’re ready to show you now. We’ve got something for you.’‘

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Newman Has Big Cleats to Fill

I’ve spent 35 years writing sports for what passes for a living and I might have to spend another 35 to see a kicker have a better game than Sam Swank had on Oct. 14, 2006. That’s the day Swank nailed one field goal of 51 yards and two of 53 in a 25-23 victory at N.C. State. Think Chuck Amato might have been cursing his luck that night, to give up three field goals from neighboring counties and lose at home by two?

There were two problems with Swank’s career. He pulled a quad that really marred his senior season, and he spoiled all of our expectations of what to expect from a kicker.

Jimmy Newman acquitted himself pretty well as a freshman last season, converting 11 of 14 field-goal attempts from inside 50 yards. He missed all three from beyond to go 11-for-17 for the season. But everything Newman did was compared, and will continue to be compared, against the greatest kicker in school history.

Newman appears to have every bit of Swank’s leg. But what made Swank great was his mental grip on his doubts and fears. In an effort to improve that part of his craft, Newman spent three days this summer working out with Morten Andersen, the man who many consider the greatest kicker in NFL history. Andersen, who holds NFL records for most points and most field goals, certainly has the credentials.

I talked with Newman earlier this week about the experience and have written a piece for the Journal. It’s scheduled to run tomorrow leading into the first practice, scheduled for 7:30 on campus.

Hope you check it out.

DeGeare Getting It Done

As a proud father, Brian DeGeare is someone I can empathize with. He’s also a good friend, from the days we spent talking on the wall at Wake’s football practices.

Brian was so good as to send along news from his son Chris, a mainstay on the Deacons’ offense line these last few seasons who is now a rookie with the Minnesota Vikings. A 5th-round draft pick, Chris has impressed Coach Brad Childress and the staff in the early going. DeGeare Imressive Chris made a mistake at Wake by falling behind academically and having to sit out his first senior season of 2008. He could have let the sad and embarrassing episode beat him, but Chris was raised better than that. He came back strong and focused last season, and given the woes of the offensive line, I would hate to think where the Deacons would have been without him. Thanks for the news. I know I’m not the only one from around these parts wishing Chris has a long and storied NFL career.

There was more good news for the Wake community out of Kansas City, where the Chiefs have signed John Russell to a free-agent contract. I’ve never known a player who played harder than John Russell, who was signed and released earlier by the Packers. He deserves a shot, and I hope he gets it.