Friday, August 14, 2009

Good Vibes Around the Grobe Home

Holly Grobe doesn’t know what’s gotten into her husband.

“We’ve had six really good practices,’’ Jim Grobe said in the early moments of Thursday’s second practice of the day. “I go home and I’m in a good mood, and Holly doesn’t know what’s going on. Usually I come in and I’m all grumpy around the house this time of year.’‘

Grobe said he feels the competition for playing time throughout the defense and receiving corps has raised the energy and intensity level over last year, when so many of the positions were locked down by proven veterans. And he loves the look of the freshman class, though he admits he doesn’t know how many of them will be able to help beat Baylor in the opener on Sept. 5.

To that end, Gelo Orange, a 6-1, 225-pound redshirt sophomore, has been moved from outside linebacker to defensive end.

“Maybe,’’ Grobe said. “Maybe.

“Gelo is one of those guys who’s pretty strong and he’s got good explosiveness. He’s a tough guy. He’s a good pass rusher, a good edge-rush guy. We worry a little about his size, but you know Kyle Wilber is not a real big guy. What we looked at, we felt numbers wise we were kind of rich at linebacker and poor at defensive end. As we get into camp, and we start figuring out what Kevin Smith might be able to do, maybe even what some of the freshmen might be able to do, how Derricus Ellis is going to be, if we get more settled a D-end we can always moved Gelo back to linebacker. I think he’s in the two-deep mix at linebacker if he stays there, but he may actually get more snaps at D-end.

“We’re just trying to balance out our personnel and make sure we don’t end up with 12 linebackers and we have trouble finding three or four defensive ends.’‘

Grobe’s worries about depth behind Devon Brown at the slot receiver position were eased a bit yesterday when Chris Givens, a redshirt freshman from Wylie, Tex. returned to practice after missing the second half of Wednesday’s workout with a bruised shoulder. Freshmen Michael Campanaro and Quan Rucker were still sidelined by hamstring pulls. And Ted Randolph, a fifth-year senior tight end, made a good go of it on his pulled hamstring earlier in the week, but athletics trainer Don Steelman felt he had to shut Randolph down for a few days to get him ready for the rest of August camp.

UPDATE:
Just got back from Friday’s workout. It was scorching, but the breeze made a huge difference when it blew across the field. Campanaro,
Rucker and Randolph were still sidelined, as were redshirt sophomore receiver Danny Dembry and senior center Trey Bailey. Dembry is limping on a pulled hamstring and Bailey has a sore back resulting from a recent weight-lifting session. But athletics trainer Don Steelman said the Bailey’s surgically repaired ankle (broken last season at Maryland) has held up fine. For the most part the Deacons are a healthy team going into Saturday’s 2 p.m. scrimmage at BB&T Field.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Grobe: Most Important Ability is Durability

Jim Grobe is of my generation, so I can understand why he’s a bit behind the technological curve when he refers to a broken record.

Who has a phonograph record in this age of digital, broken or otherwise?

But the line that Grobe keeps skipping back to like the broken record to which he alludes is that for a player to get on the field this season he has to get on the field. In other words, he can’t play while he’s standing on the sidelines hurt. Grobe is as compassionate and understanding as any football coach, and moreso than most, but he also realizes his job doesn’t give him the luxury of patience when it comes to the physical condition of his players. Someone has to play when the Deacons open against Baylor on Sept. 5, and he’ll spend the next three weeks figuring out not just who is good enough, but who is available.

So players who spend too much time on the sidelines get left behind once the train pulls from the station. Grobe has mentioned many times that older players are usually more durable than younger teammates.

“The thing that was so good about an Aaron Curry, or a guy like Alphonso Smith and Kevin Patterson and Chip Vaughn—you go right down the list and all of our better players have been durable guys,’’ Grobe said. “So you don’t miss practice snaps, and you don’t miss game snaps. And that’s what’s happened to some of these guys that we’re counting on this year. They’ve missed too many snaps.’‘

Ted Randolph has apparently gotten the message. Athletics trainer Don Steelman of the Deacons said yesterday that Randolph, a fifth-year senior who has moved from defensive tackle back to tight end, was hobbled a pulled hamstring. Moments later I walked by the tight end drills and saw Randolph in full uniform, gritting it out and doing as much as he could.

Two younger players who have missed valuable time this week with pulled hamstrings are freshmen Michael Campanaro and Quan Rucker. Campanaro is a 5-10, 175-pound running back/receiver from Clarksville, Md. who was one of the more ballyhooed members of the class. Rucker is a 6-0, 185-pound receiver from Statesville who has been clocked at 4.45 in the 40-yard dash. It would have been a stretch to expect either to play this season, but their early injuries may well have ensured them a redshirt season.

Chris Givens, a redshirt freshman receiver from Wylie, Tex. expected to compete for a spot in the receiver rotation, left practice Wednesday with an injured shoulder. He’s not expected to be out long. If he wants to play against Baylor, he had better not be.

The train will move on, with or without him.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

No No. 59 on This Year’s Team

A lot of jerseys that conjure up a lot of memories were passed out last spring by Demetrius Gibson, Wake Forest’s equipment manager. Matt Robinson’s old number, No. 42, is being worn this season by fullback Tommy Bohanon. Alphonso Smith’s No. 2 is being worn by receiver Chris Givens. Chip Vaughn’s No. 9 is being worn by receiver Jordan Williams. Stanley Arnoux’s No. 43 is being worn by linebacker Kyle Jarrett. Kevin Patterson’s No. 10 is being worn by running back Turner Faulk. And Demir Bolden’s No. 4 was scarfed up by cornerback Josh Bush.

“What we do at the end of every season drives (Athletics Director) Ron Wellman and my wife Holly crazy, because we change numbers all the time,’’ Coach Jim Grobe said yesterday afternoon. “We let the kids go to Demetrius and if they’ve got a number as a freshman they’d like to change—or even if they’re sophomores or juniors, we let them go to Demetrius and sign up and say `I’d like to have this number and that number.’ We just kind of work it around.’‘

But one number conspicuously absent from the 2009 Wake Forest football roster is the No. 59 worn the past five years by Aaron Curry, an All-American linebacker who recently signed a six-year, $60 million contract as the No. 4 pick overall by the Seattle Seahawks.

“It just happened to turn out that way,’’ Grobe said. “My guess would be everybody would be afraid this year to wear No. 59 after Aaron, because you’ve got too much to live up to.’’

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Picking on Preseason Predictions

The adage you can’t teach an old dog new tricks is bunk. I’m living proof of it. I’m every bit as old as most old-dog sportswriters (I’m bearing down hard on birthday No. 57, which in dog years would be No. 399) and I’d like to think in the last 10 months I’ve picked up this new trick of blogging pretty well. But there’s still an old-school edge to me that I don’t always see elsewhere in the blogosphere. For instance I’m big, really big, on available evidence. The more I know of a subject, the more I know what I’m talking about. I’m not always right, but I have a better shot at it when I spend my time around Wake watching practice and talking with coaches, players and fans.

That’s the reason I shake my head when the fans—bless their hearts, you can’t live with them and as a sportswriter you can’t live without them—go flying off the handle over calls made by a coach in a game. First off, I wonder how much actual knowledge the critic is working on. Are they watching the teams practice? Coaches plan practices, watch practices, tape practices and then watch the tapes of practices. Do they know people on the team they’re talking with? I know the coaches do. Or are they basing their opinion solely on what they see on Saturday afternoons from the 50th row on the 20-yard-line? This is not to say the fans are always half-cocked or that the coaches are never wrong. Coaches make the wrong calls, and occasionally they’ll even admit it. Jim Grobe is as quick to man up to a mistake as any coach I’ve ever been around. But I do know that he is working on as much available evidence as he can possibly accumulate, and I always attempt to take that into account when I judge the results.

The lack of available evidence is why I’ve never been much for preseason predictions. How can I know what a team is capable of until I’ve seen it play? When required by my editors at the Journal or a magazine I’m writing for to predict the order of finish, I do the best I can—which admittedly, isn’t very good. One publication I wrote for this spring asked me to pick the order of finish in the Atlantic Division as part of the assignment. I remember not being overwhelmed by anybody. I think Wake’s going to be good, but it might be too much to expect the Deacons to win the division a year after losing so much on defense. But every team in the division seems to have their issues. I’ve always been impressed with Tom O’Brien at N.C. State, and I saw last year how good Russell Wilson is at quarterback. So I picked the Pack to finish first, though, admittedly, that was before linebacker Nate Irving, its best defensive player, was sidelined by his car wreck.

Anyway, I picked State first, followed by the Deacons, Clemson and Florida State. When the magazine hit the racks, Florida State was picked to win the division. I was all right with that. I got my check. And who knows? Maybe the Seminole Wind will blow again. I’m just not sold on Christian Ponder at quarterback and I have to figure all the turmoil and distraction of the NCAA-imposed sanctions will be tough to rise above.

N.C. State had its media day yesterday, so I motored happily over to Raleigh to pick up some material for the cover story of our upcoming preseason football section. I don’t know Tom O’Brien well, but the more I’m around him the more I’m impressed. The man can obviously coach. Though he’s not as warm and accommodating as Grobe—what college coach is?—he’s got a wry sense of humor that can lighten up the mood of a room. And he’s pretty straight with his answers.

I took the occasion to ask him if he saw the same parity in the division as others apparently do.

“It’s tough to pick,’’ O’Brien said. “We went through this, `pick who you’re going to play, and pick this and pick that.’ The problem is picking teams, as you know—I don’t even know what team I’m going to have to play South Carolina (in the opener on Sept. 3). I didn’t know what team I had the third or fourth or fifth week of the season last year. So the key to everybody is to stay healthy. I think when you look at them, they probably pick the teams that have quarterbacks coming back, and that would be a great choice to start with.’‘

Translation: It beats me.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

Looney Tunes Up His Look

Hall-of-Fame left-hander Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees used to say that the way to show up at the beginning of spring training is with a good tan because it makes you look 10 pounds lighter.

Sophomore guard Joe Looney of Wake Forest found another way to make a favorable impression in the early days of the Deacons’ preseason camp. He cut his hair. He no longer wears his long and flying dredlocks, reminiscent of Sideshow Bob in one of my favorite television programs, the Simpsons. Instead he looks as clean-cut, if not moreso, as most of his teammates.

“Doesn’t he look good?’’ noted Coach Jim Grobe this morning at Media Day at BB&T Field. “Joe is down 15 pounds with that haircut. He’s trying to eat more now, to get his weight back up.

“That’s amazing to see guys grow up. They realize `It’s more about how I perform than how I look.’ The girls love that kind of hair-do I guess, but it doesn’t feel very good under a helmet and it certainly doesn’t look very good.’‘

Looney held his own last year when pushed into action as a first-year freshman, but emerged from spring drills listed as second-team behind redshirt senior Barrett McMillin at left guard. But when the Deacons scrimmaged for the first time Friday, Looney was spotted running with the first team and McMillin was with the second.

Grobe said it’s a competition that will likely be waged throughout August.

“He and Barrett are going to battle over there,’’ Grobe said. “Right at the end of spring we felt Joe was playing with more energy and enthusiasm. But I’ll tell you what, Barrett McMillin is a different guy right now. He’s become a leader. He’s really working hard’‘

Friday, August 07, 2009

Deacons Off and Jogging

Wake Forest was back on the football field this afternoon and Coach Jim Grobe was back in his sweatshirt. It wasn’t all that hot for me in my T-shirt, but I know it was for him. I just figured it was his method of dropping a couple of pounds, and mentioned I should probably try that strategy as well.

“Coming out here I don’t wear the sweatshirt to lose weight,’’ Grobe said. “These wienies think it’s too hot to practice. When they see an old guy in a sweatshirt like me they say `It can’t be that bad.’ “

The action actually got about as hot as it can get on the first day, with the players in nothing but helmets, shirts, shorts and cleats. After spending most of the practice in position drills, the offense ran plays against the defense for about 15 minutes. No one was tackling anybody, so it was hard to tell who was making plays and who wasn’t. It was more walk-through stuff than anything else.

A healthy crowd that I’d estimate to be around 60-75 showed up to hold up the wall from the front corner of the Pruitt Football Center all the way back to the opening through which the coaches and players pass. Ashby Cook said he should be have been selling lemonade, as much traffic as there was alongside Doc Martin practice field. He could have made a buck or two. The atmosphere was as festive as you would expect for fans of a program coming off its first back-to-back-to-back bowl trips in school history.

As much as I enjoy the excitement of the start of the new season, I’ve learned long ago that really hard news is really hard to come by until the players get into full pads and the competition begins in earnest. As reported earlier, defensive tackle Michael Carter is academically ineligible and his career is over. I caught up with Ray McCartney, the defensive tackles coach, who said he’s confident he’ll be fine with three redshirt seniors, Boo Robinson, John Russell and Michael Lockett backed by a physically impressive redshirt freshman, Ramon Booi. He said he’s also got his eye on a newcomer.

“I’m excited about this true freshman, Frank Souza, that we got,’’ McCartney said, referring to a 6-4, 285-pound defensive tackle from Ponte Vedra, Fla. “I think he’s going to be able to help us.’‘

McCartney said he didn’t envision senior Dominique Midgett, who played three games at defensive tackle last season before moving back to linebacker in the spring, back in his meeting room.

“No, he’ll play a ton of football at linebacker,’’ McCartney said.

Otherwise, Grobe was left to all but apologize for the lack of buzz worthy of headlines.

“I think the thing we’re doing as much as we possibly can, is we’re trying to teach,’’ Grobe said. “I think that’s our big thing. We go back and we work on stance and starts and all those things, just fundamental football right now. We go a couple of days in helmets, so we don’t do any contact. These are great days to teach. It drives assistant coaches crazy because they spend so much time teaching that they don’t really get into the nuts and bolts of things. But once you lay a foundation it makes it so much easier when you do get going.’‘

I mentioned it drove my readers crazy too not to get any juicy tidbits or scoops in the first few breathless days of practice.

“It’s hard to find tidbits right now,’’ Grobe said laughing. “Even the coaches don’t have tidbits right now.’‘

Football Season is Finally Here

The first practice of the Wake Forest football season is scheduled to begin in an hour and 45 minutes, but I plan to get there early. Anticipation if running high and the Deacons might not wait until 5:15 to get started.

Before I head out the door, I thought I’d run down a quick and in no way complete list of what I’ll be looking for these first few days.

A) Who’s going to provide depth in the defensive line? We have a story that will run in tomorrow’s Journal that Michael Carter, a valuable redshirt junior who played in nine games last season, has been declared academically ineligible, which shouldn’t be huge surprise to anyone paying attention. He wasn’t even included in the media guide that was released last week. Carter fell behind from the beginning of his freshman year and struggled mightily to catch up. He didn’t play in the Meineke Car Care Bowl two seasons ago because Coach Jim Grobe wasn’t pleased with his progress. And of course he was suspended along with safety Alex Frye for the final four games last season for a violation of team rules. Grobe discusses the loss of Carter and the impact on the defensive line at length at length in the article. With Carter not available, redshirt senior Michael Lockett is the only defensive tackle other than starters John Russell and Boo Robinson with any experience.

B) Which of the younger players will make an early impression at linebacker and in the secondary? Grobe and his assistants have said they’re feeling pretty good about the projected starters at linebacker (Hunter Haynes, Matt Woodlief and Jonathan Jones), cornerback (Brandon Ghee and Josh Bush) and safety (Frye and Cyhl Quarles). The fate of the defense, though, will likely rest on the ability of players who heretofore have seen little-to-no action to emerge as quality reserves capable of competing against the starters for playing time. So it will be an important first week for the likes of Kyle Jarrett, Gelo Orange, Riley Haynes, Joey Ehrmann, Scott Betros and Lee Malchow at linebacker, Kenny Okoro, Michael Williams and D.J. Jones at cornerback and John Stamper and Junior Petit-John at safety.

C) Is senior Ryan McManus, a former walk-on who has been given a scholarship, ready to fill a backup role to Riley Skinner at quarterback, or will the staff have to look to younger players such as redshirt sophomore Skylar Jones, redshirt freshman Ted Stachitas or even first-year freshman Brendan Cross?

D) Will the wealth of experience in the offensive line, where seven players have started a combined 116 games, translate into a vast improvement over the disappointing performance of 2008? And will the younger players such as Joe Looney, Michael Hoag, Doug Weaver, Dennis Godfrey, Chance Raines, Ryan Britt and Garrick Williams be able to give the old guard a run for its money? If so, the line has the potential of being the deepest in school history.

E) Which of the regular wall-birds—super fans like Frank Queen, Tom Taylor, Jody Puckett, Ashby Cook and David Lawson—will I see along the wall? My bet is they’ll all be there along with others who, in my haste not to be late, I’ve forgotten to mention. I’ll apologize when I see you in a bit.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Easy Way No Way for DeGeare

If graduating from Wake Forest were easy for a football player, then any of them could do it. Not all of them can. Though the Deacons’ rate of attrition is not as dramatic as it is a many other schools, it’s still significant. The proof can be found on pages 167 through 171 of the 2009 Football media guide, where the all-time letter winners are listed. If you get a chance, check out how many players, for one reason or another, be it injury, homesickness, academics or a decision to transfer, didn’t play all four years. Some were quickly forgotten. The memories of others such as Cornelius Birgs (2002-04), Daniel Orlebar (2003) and Eric Berry (2005-06) tend to linger.

A year ago, when he was academically ineligible, offensive lineman Chris DeGeare had as good an excuse as he would ever need to join the list of attrition. Only he wouldn’t take it. He had already played three seasons. He figured that with his size and athleticism, he would have, at least, a crack at pro football. He knew that to regain his eligibility he would have to sit out a season’s worth of games while still being required to show up every day in practice. And he knew he was going to have to hit the books, hard.

That’s what it took, and that’s what Chris DeGeare did, which is one reason I enjoyed writing this morning’s feel-good story of DeGeare regaining his eligibility and gearing up for his senior season. Another reason is I’ve gotten to know DeGeare pretty well over the four years and I’ve gotten to know his father Brian from the times we’ve stood along the wall and watched practices together. I didn’t know his mother Genetria, but she was the first one from the family I talked with when DeGeare committed to Wake Forest before his 2004 senior season at Glenn High School. We talked by phone, for no more than 10 minutes, but I remember how impressed I was with her warm, gracious and articulate manner.

DeGeare has been through so much since he arrived in January of 2005 at age 17. His mother died of cancer his freshman season. He has battled weight, not always successfully. And he had to sit out his first senior season. If the adage that good things happen to good people proves true, then DeGeare will have a second senior season to remember long after his first is forgotten.

At 6-4, 330 pounds with surprising agility and nimble feet, DeGeare has a solid shot at an NFL career—especially if he keeps his weight down around where it is now. But DeGeare told me this week that plan B would be a career in law enforcement. His major is sociology.

“I would like to do some more school, go to graduate school and get my masters,’’ DeGeare said. “I’m going to concentrate on military sociology. And from there I’d like to maybe to an internship with the FBI or CIA, something like that.

“I’ve just always been interested in government-type law enforcement.’‘

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Wishing Mike Muse Well

I’ve known Mike Muse for a long, long time. I’ve known his father even longer. Big Tom, as we called him, was a fixture in local high school athletics when I moved to Winston-Salem in 1978. He was in the prime of a long and highly successful run as head basketball coach at Parkland High School. Mike’s children grew up with mine. My daughter, Rebecca, was in the same grade in the same school with Katie Muse, Mike and Deborah’s oldest of three, from kindergarten through high school. Both Rebecca and Nate, our son, were taught by Mike at North Forsyth High School and had nothing but great things to say about him.

So I was glad to see Mike join the Wake Forest basketball staff three years ago and I hate to see him leave this summer. He was always one of my favorite people to run into around campus and I’ll miss seeing him at practices and games.

The reasons Muse left have not been fully explained and may never be. In the article John Dell wrote for the Journal while I was on vacation, Muse took the high road and said nothing but nice things about Wake Forest and his time at the school. When John asked him if the move had anything to do with his reassignment back to the role of director of basketball operations, the post he held before being promoted to assistant coach before the 2007-08 season, Muse declined comment. Nothing really needed to be said. Many times Muse has described coaching basketball at Wake Forest as a dream job. People don’t leave a dream job to pursue other, unspecified opportunities if they’re happy.

Coach Dino Gaudio, for his part, also remained above the fray by praising Muse for his ability and his contributions to Wake Forest basketball.

When Muse was reassigned to DOBO a couple of months ago, following the departure of assistant Pat Kelsey to Xavier and the decision by Gaudio and Athletics Director Ron Wellman to overhaul the staff with the addition of not one, but two coaches, Gaudio explained it as an effort to make the overall program stronger. He said he went into the process thinking that he would be adding one assistant, but was encouraged by Wellman to look at the staff as a whole. When the dust settled, and Rusty LaRue and Dave Wojcik had been brought aboard, Mike found himself back in a job he had left three years ago, only this time while sharing the role with the incumbent DOBO, Walt Corbean. It’s easy to see why Muse might consider his position untenable.

As a sportswriter, I’ve never been much for telling the people I cover how to run their business. I’ve never been a regular columnist, so I’ve never had the need. And I have enough difficulty doing my own job without trying to do someone else’s.

But one way of looking at this summer’s dramatic upheaval of a college basketball staff coming off a 24-win season is as the continued shakeout of Skip Prosser’s tragic death two summers ago. At the time Wellman’s options were few. Almost any coach who might be right for Wake Forest was under contract and the Deacons had a highly celebrated recruiting class coming in. He made the right move in promoting Gaudio and keeping the staff intact, and has been rewarded for the decision with 41 victories over the past two years and his program’s return to contention in the ACC.

But the Deacons’ flameout in March, followed by the departure of sophomores Jeff Teague and James Johnson to the NBA and Kelsey to Xavier, was a blow that is still reverberating around the program. Somebody, maybe Wellman, maybe Gaudio, maybe both, sized up the staff and decided an upgrade was in order. Were they right? Ask me in about eight months and I might have an answer.

Meanwhile I’m pulling for Mike Muse to land on his feet and have every reason to think that he will. He’s a good coach and a better person with a lot more friends around Winston-Salem than just me.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Coming Soon to a Practice Field Near You

Time flies, they say, when you’re having fun. We’ve been having our share and maybe more these past few weeks, cramming the vacation days in before the cleats start clickity clacking on the concrete and bricks between the Deacons’ locker room and the Doc Martin practice complex. It’ll be music to my ears. Report date is Friday, Aug. 7, and that will seem like tomorrow, or, at the latest, the day after. Actually report date is an antiquated expression. The players are pretty much all already in town for the second summer session when practice starts, so it’s just a matter of making their way over to the football offices and letting Bonnie Rae, Coach Jim Grobe’s administrative assistant, know they’re ready to play some football.

Sometimes you make up ground by standing still. That appears to be the case this summer in Wake Forest’s quest to win the Atlantic Division title. Two rivals are reeling from tragic and potentially devastating developments. Boston College, which has won the division the past two years, will be playing without linebacker Mark Herzlich and quarterback Dominique Davis and N.C. State will at least start the season without linebacker Nate Irving.

Herzlich, the ACC’s defensive player of the year last season, was diagnosed in May with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer. He said in a statement that any thoughts concerning this upcoming football season are secondary. “Now I much channel all that energy into facing my toughest opponent yet, and that is exactly what I’ll do.’’  A starter since the day he showed up on campus, Herzlich spent the spring game knocking ball carriers to the ground and a long time afterward signing far more autographs than any of his teammates. He’s a fan favorite, for good reason, and hopefully he’ll in time be back playing football.

Davis, who will live in Wake Forest infamy for directing the game-winning drive against the Deacons last fall at BB&T Field, bolted from BC after being declared academically ineligible. That leaves first-year coach Frank Spaziani with three options at quarterback, redshirt sophomore Justin Tuggle, transfer Codi Boek and first-year freshman Michael Marscovetra. None has taken a snap at BC, though Boek did play at American River Junior College after spending a season at Idaho State. At BC he was converted to fullback before being moved back in the spring to compete against Davis and Tuggle. Fall practices should be very interesting.

Irving was expected to be one of the best players in the ACC, and may yet be if he can return from last month’s automobile accident that resulted in a broken leg and collapsed lung. He was a force last season whenever he was on the field, which, because of injuries, wasn’t enough for Coach Tom O’Brien’s liking. He was also a major reason a number of scribes (including yours truly) were picking the Wolfpack to be a serious contender for the Atlantic Division crown. O’Brien is a formidable coach who has done an impressive job at both BC and N.C. State, but he’s never been much for releasing information pertaining to his players, so the school has yet to report what bone was broken, or how badly. It’s pretty obvious though that the Wolfpack’s chances of playing in the ACC championship will/would improve dramatically with Irving at middle linebacker.