Saturday, October 24, 2009

Rain, Rain Go Away

The rain was so heavy sweeping across Navy-Marine Corps Stadium from the south that I thought for a while the Wake Forest-Navy game might turn into a honest-to-goodness naval engagement. I was amazed that Marshall Williams could catch a long pass from Riley Skinner in those conditions.

The Deacons trail 6-3 at halftime. Their one good drive came when Coach Steed Lobotzke, the offensive coordinator and line coach, shuffled the offensive line and went with Joe Birdsong at left tackle, Barrett McMillin at left guard, Trey Bailey at center, Michael Hoag at right guard and Jeff Griffin at right tackle. No Russ Nenon, no Chris DeGeare. Wake picked up three first downs, getting strong runnig from both Brandon Pendergrass and Josh Adams, before Mike Rinfrette was stopped twice on third and fourth down with two to go. Jimmy Newman kicked a 40-yard field goal that tied the game at 3.

Lee Malchow is becoming one of the really interesting stories on this team. He arrived as a walk-on, but wouldn’t be kept off the field. He actually started at rush end today instead of Gelo Orange, and played well. Also Joey Ehrmann started at linebacker instead of Jonathan Jones, which had to be a rush for him considering he’s from nearby Baltimore.

The heavy rain has returned just as the teams are getting ready to kick off for the second half. My great hope is that it blows over by the time I have to descend from the press deck for post-game interviews.

On the Road Again

There was a time, really not all that long ago, when I would be feeling pretty rugged about now.

The ride up was smooth. Listened to a book by Elmore Leonard on CD. This one was Up in Honey’s Room. Like most of Leonard’s work it was deliciously irreverent. Helped melt away the miles.

I got to the hotel in plenty of time to get into some trouble, but didn’t have the get-up-and-go. I took a stab at finding some live music, but not that much of one. I drove over to a roadhouse about five miles from the hotel that I’d come across on the internet, but there was no scene when I got there. I asked the guy behind the bar if there would be live music, and he said no, it would be a D.J. playing Latin Music.

“Live music don’t pay the bills,’’ he said.

The one real action around here that I knew of was last night’s concert by Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider and Bruce Robison, three of my favorite Texas singer-songwriters. By the time I realized they were playing in Annapolis, the show was sold out. So I found a decent meal at an oriental restaurant and repaired back to the hotel to watch TV and sleep. How boring is that?

Boring but prudent, something I’ve rarely been accused of. At least I’m feeling chipper as I sit in the press deck of Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium looking at the names of the Naval campaigns on the side of the stadium. This is about my sixth or seventh trip here, and I’m always reminded of the Bill Dooley story from the time he brought the Deacons here to play Navy in the late 80s or early 90s. Dooley would say pretty much anything to get his team fired up. In the pregame spiel he started ranting about how Navy doesn’t respect the Deacons, and he can prove it. “They’ve already got your name up there as another victory.’ Somewhere between Okinawa and Sicily was Wake.

Jim Grobe was right this week when he said that Academy games are cool.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Black and Gold: Wishing I Were There

Wouldn’t you know it? The Winston-Salem Journal rocket sled is reserved already for Saturday, which means I can’t make both the basketball Black and Gold scrimmage on campus at noon and the football game at Navy at 3:30. And given that the idea of cloning the likes of me is too frightening to even contemplate, I have to make a choice.

I’m shoving off for Annapolis tomorrow.

That means I’m going to be counting on you guys who make it over the Reynolds Gym for the festivities to let me know how the Deacons look. I caught a couple of practices this week, and actually chatted with a few people who know what they’re talking about. But I’d be anxious to hear any impressions you might have.

Pay, if you would, particular attention at the lineup combinations. I’m wondering how much time Al-Farouq Aminu will spend at wing forward and how much time he’ll play in the post. If he’s inside, that’s obviously going to negate one of the team’s strengths, front-court depth. If he’s outside, will he sacrifice any of his advantage in quickness and speed?

Coach Dino Gaudio said it’s too early to set a lineup, though he, like everyone else, knows that Aminu will start somewhere and Ish Smith will be the point guard. He said that he’s still deciding on a backup point guard between freshman C.J. Harris and sophomore transfer Konner Tucker. Tucker has missed practice with an injured ankle but Gaudio said yesterday he hopes to have him back by tomorrow.

“I think it will be interesting to see who that other starting post guy might be,’’ Gaudio said. “It’ll be interesting to see what role (Ari Stewart and Harris) are going to play. When these guys get done with open gyms, somebody will come down and say `Wow coach, C.J. really shot the heck out of the ball,’ or `Ari was really. . . ’  I’m really looking forward myself to see those guys every day.

“We’re arguing as coaches now, should we have Ari learn the 2 and the 3, or the 3 and the 4?’ *  We know Farouq is going to learn the 3 and the 4. Do we have some lineup where we could be really big, Ish, Ari, Farouq and two giants? So we’ll see as we go through the season. I don’t want any of those guys learning more than two spots. Somebody said `The more you put in their head, the slower their feet get.’ If they each have two spots to learn, I just hope the young guys can pick the stuff up sooner rather than later.’‘

*To risk stating what pretty much everybody already knows, in basketball positions are numbered as follows:
1—point guard.
2—wing guard.
3—wing forward.
4—power forward.
5—center.

Will Navy Torpedo Deacons’ Bowl Hopes?

This is the time of year that as a beat guy covering a college football team I have to resist getting sucked into doing what I’ve learned so many times never to do.

Never, never, never bury a team that’s still alive.

Remember how much dirt we all heaped on the Deacons in 1999, Jim Caldwell’s seventh season as head coach? Caldwell, in his best imitation of Sisyphus, had shoved that boulder all the way up that monster hill to the precipice of success by the 10th week of the season. All the Deacons had to do was beat the always imminently beatable Duke (playing without its starting quarterback, tailback and placekicker) to ensure a winning season and become bowl eligible. By the end of the first quarter, Wake trailed 34-0 on the way to a 48-35 defeat. With No. 14 Georgia Tech and Joe Hamilton scheduled to play at Wake the next week, that was pretty much that for the Deacons’ chances.

So what was Ben Sankey doing riding the goal post above the post-game bedlam? He was celebrating a stunning 26-23 upset that lifted the Deacons into Caldwell’s first and only bowl trip.

What inspired this little jaunt back through yesteryear was the notion that if Wake Forest doesn’t beat Navy Saturday its chances of a winning season and a fourth straight bowl trip are rather bleak. A loss would leave the Deacons 4-4 with games against Miami (home), Georgia Tech (away), Florida State (home) and Duke (away) to play. The road to a winning season wouldn’t be impassable, but it would be rocky, crumbling and even perhaps mined in spots.

Now watch the Deacons lose Saturday and win the rest of their regular-season games, beat Virginia Tech in the ACC championship, kick Pittsburgh’s tail in the Orange Bowl and finish 10-4. Stranger things have, and will, happen.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Life of Riley Winding Down For Wake

Jim Grobe puts off lunch on Tuesdays until after his media conference at the Rovere Room, in the Miller Center behind the Mark Pruitt Football Center. So it’s usually between 1 and 1:30 when he gets a plate of three or four wings and maybe a dollop of mashed spuds from the buffet and sits down for a bite. Any indigestion he suffered yesterday was probably on me. Grobe was just finishing off his second wing when I asked him about Life After Riley.

Riley Skinner, the senior quarterback who over his 45 games has been the most prolific passer in Wake Forest history and most accurate passer in ACC history, has only five guaranteed games remaining in his college career. Someone new will be starting at quarterback for the Deacons next year, and I wondered who that might be.

Grobe said that Brendan Cross, the freshman from Alpharetta, Ga. who has looked so impressive on the scout team during his redshirt season, might have the inside track now. That said, starting positions for next September aren’t won in October, so Grobe said the competition will be wide open in the spring. The three candidates will be Cross, redshirt freshman Ted Stachitas and sophomore Skylar Jones, whom, according to Grobe, will definitely move from wide receiver back to quarterback.

Cross is the 6-2, 200-pound son of Randy Cross, the same Randy Cross who was an All-Pro offensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers. Cross has a strong accurate arm and those around the program are impressed with his focus and drive. On the other hand, Stachitas and Jones are two of Wake Forest’s most celebrated recruits of the Grobe era. Stachitas, 6-1, 205, was named Player of the Year by the Florida Times Union for quarterbacking Nease High School to three state championship games, one of which the Panthers won. Stachitas, whose name is pronounced Sta-Kite-Us, was wooed by Miami, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Northwestern and South Florida, but chose Wake. Jones, 6-1, 195, became a hot recruit after running a 4.33 40-yard dash at the Nike Combine in 2005, fastest among the 585 that attended. Scout.com ranked him the 30th best quarterback in the nation. Tennessee, Maryland, Purdue, West Virginia, Marshall and Kansas State all vied for his commitment.Ohio State was interested, but wanted him to play defensive back or wide receiver. Jones came to Wake Forest to play quarterback, but hasn’t yet.

Neither Stachitas nor Jones has showed their stuff yet at Wake. Stachitas had shoulder surgery only weeks after he arrived at Wake to repair damage from high school. He had a foot infection this August and missed some more time. He’s healthy now, but as the third-team quarterback behind Skinner and Ryan McManus hasn’t really had many opportunities to make an impression. That will come in the spring. Jones has displayed his speed, but hasn’t proven to have the kind of arm needed from a college quarterback—unless the Deacons overhaul their offense in favor of a triple-option veer. Maybe they will, or maybe Jones will throw better in the spring than he has to date.

Grobe wasn’t ruling anything out, nor should he.

I asked if Grobe was aware of any freshmen with plans to enroll in the January, which might allow them to join the competition. He said he wasn’t, and all things being equal would just as soon all his recruits remain where they are through graduation and enjoy the spring semester of their senior years. Though Grobe is not permitted by NCAA rules to comment on recruits who have yet to sign, it’s known that the Deacons have commitments from Eddie Sullivan of Boca Raton and Tanner Price of Austin. Grobe agreed that it would be hard for any freshman to arrive in the summer and have a shot at starting a couple of months later at quarterback.

“You usually want them to have a fall and a spring,’’ Grobe said.

But again, he wasn’t ruling anything out. The only thing he knows right now is he needs a quarterback for next season and it won’t be Riley Skinner.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tiger Tips Off Deacons For Tipping Plays

If Jim Grobe is in the market for a graduate assistant in a couple of seasons, he might want to consider sophomore defensive end Da’Quan Bowers of Clemson.

“Apparently Da’Quan Bowers is a student of the game,’’ Grobe said today.

Grobe was responding to the post-game comments by Bowers after Clemson’s 38-3 pounding of the Deacons Saturday at Memorial Stadium. Bowers got his shots in against quarterback Riley Skinner during the game, and couldn’t resist taking one more during the post-game interviews.

“We basically had everything broken down to a tip of looking at their heels to tell if they were going to pass or run,” Bowers said. “We were actually calling the plays that (Skinner) was going to run, so he had no choice but to check down.

“We could tell exactly what they were running by the way the line was lined up and the things that he was doing. … He was getting frustrated. I could tell in his eyes. I kind of said something to him, and he just looked at me and shook his head. So I knew something was wrong with him.”

Balderdash, said offensive guard Barrett McMillin.

“I don’t think he really knew much of what we were doing,’’  McMillin said. “There was one play where I think he kind of just guessed. But we’re pretty good at disguising our stances and what we’re doing.

“We haven’t had anybody all year say anthing about they were able to know we were passing from our stances or stuff like that. I’m not sure where he was coming from with that.’‘

Grobe took the approach of thanking Bowers for the tip, though most of what he said sounded more or less tongue-in-cheek.

“I can tell you that there’s a concern every week we sell scout and try to figure out things that we are doing that would make it easier for the other team, both offensively and defensively,’’ Grobe said. “So it’s always good when you get tips from other sources.’‘

Monday, October 19, 2009

A Simple Question Concerning Staff

One point of view I’ve never understood is how a fan can support the head coach of a football program while being dead-set on riding one of his assistants out of town on a rail. Invariably, the target for dismissal is an offensive or defensive coordinator.

If you read message boards or listen to talk radio, you know the discussion. At N.C. State there are those who still stand behind Tom O’Brien, as long as he gets rid of Mike Archer, the embattled defensive coordinator. And closer to home, there’s a vocal segment of the Wake Forest fan base convinced that all the success the Deacons have achieved over their best run since joining the ACC has been in spite of the contributions of Steed Lobotzke, the offensive coordinator.

If you’ve follow Wake Forest football, you’ve heard how Lobo must go.

Let’s put aside for a moment the staggering amount of hours an assistant coach puts into a game plan, and the mountainous amount of available information he collects to do so. I’m writing this around noon on a Monday, by which time Lobotzke has already been in the office for six hours working on Navy. None of this is to say the man is infallible. He has his good games and bad games, just like all players, just like all coaches, just like all sportwriters. But those who critique his work base their position on what they heard someone say on the radio or what someone wrote on a message board or the three hours they spent on Deacon Hill watching a game. It has to be either that or their own innate knowledge of the game of football.

Let’s put aside what Head Coach Jim Grobe said last season, when the posse was saddled up and on Lobo’s trail. Grobe said that those who want to get to Lobo have to go through him first. He said Wake Forest runs nothing without his approval.

And I’ll even put aside my suspicions that there are those without the courage or conviction to attack the head guy directly, so they go after one of his assistants by proxy.

Instead we’ll get directly to the question I have for anyone who wants to dictate personnel decisions to a Tom O’Brien, a Jim Grobe or any head coach. And please, I’d love an answer. If I’m missing something, I need to know.

If Jim Grobe doesn’t know enough about his job to hire the right staff, then why do you want him as head coach?

A Fan Behaving Badly

Saw a sad scene Saturday, sadder than the faces on the Wake Forest players as they trudged off the Memorial Stadium field having been thrashed by Clemson 38-3. A couple of yahoos came down to the corner of the stands and, one in particular, was taunting the Deacons as they passed by.

The Wake fans, mostly friends and family, didn’t take kindly to the insults. One pretty big guy who I took to be either a relative or close friend to Michael Lockett, in that he was wearing a jersey No. 99, was asking the tormentor to take it elsewhere. Nothing doing. This guy was intent on rubbing it in. Finally No. 99 actually stood up chest to chest to the ``fan’’ and there was a bit of jostling and shoving before the security finally arrived to lead the two instigators away. No punches were thrown and the only real injury was to the dignity of the gathering.

This is not to indict the Clemson fan base as a whole. Every school has its morons, who are always more apt to show their behinds when alcohol is involved.

Reminds me of a story I heard about the great Doc Watson, the legendary guitar picker and singer.

Doc had just finished a song when an obnoxious voice in the crowd yells for him to play Foggy Mountan Breakdown or some song, coming off as more of a demand than a request. Watson paused for effect and replied, ``That’s all right son, I can remember my first drink too.’‘

The crowd laughed, and they weren’t laughing with the loud mouth. They were laughing at him.

I wanted to laugh at the Clemson yahoo Saturday, but the scene was just too sad. Everyone loses in these instances, most of all the guy who turned the sweet taste of victory into bile.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

The Most Indispensable Deacon

The first question I had for Riley Skinner after he walked out of the Wake locker room yesterday, his left shoulder packed in ice, was “How are you?’‘

``I’m good,’’ he said.

Skinner had just finished taking a fearsome pounding in a 38-3 loss to Clemson. He was sacked five times and running for his life the rest of the time. One blind side sack by reserve linebacker Andre Branch in the avalanche of a second quarter was probably the hardest lick I’ve ever seen him take.

“That’s where I got this from,’’ Skinner said, nodding toward the bag of ice taped to his left shoulder. “That one didn’t feel so good.’‘

Thankfully his eyes were clear and he was able to manage a rueful smile. He said the bruised shoulder will not sideline him at practice and that he’ll be available next week against Navy. He’d better be.

About the time I passed the Big Peach of Gaffney on that endless ride home, listening to another Jimmie Johnson waltz at Lowes Motor Speedway and trying to catch the Yankees-Angels on a static-popping AM band, I began mulling the question. Have I ever covered a team more reliant upon one player? I’m a Ryan McManus fan. What he has done since he arrived as a walk-on to make himself into a solid backup quarterback has been impressive. But McManus’ experience as a college quarterback consists of two mop-up stints against Elon and Clemson. And that’s it. No one else on the team has taken a snap. Whoever was pressed into duty would be replacing the best quarterback the school has had, a player the offense is built around.

In Skinner’s previous three seasons, the Deacons had Brett Hodges in reserve. Hodges is playing this season at Central Florida and was performing pretty well until last night’s loss to Miami. I know Coach Jim Grobe would love to still have that insurance policy.

The best indication, someone close to the team said, that Skinner is all right is that more attention was not being paid to his shoulder. He should be fine. And again, he’d better be.

More fallout from the loss: The 178 yards of offense was the lowest of the Grobe era and only the second time one of Grobe’s teams at Wake finished with less than 200. The last time Wake Forest managed fewer yards was the 159 it had in Jim Caldwell’s last season of 2000. The opponent was Clemson. The site was Memorial Stadium.

Also yesterday’s game marked the first time that Skinner has failed to complete a pass of at least 20 yards since his first game against Syracuse in 2006, when he replaced an injured Ben Mauk and completed the only he pass he threw for 13 yards. 

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Poking Through the Ashes of a Flameout

Coach Jim Grobe said there was more than enough blame for today’s 38-3 loss to Clemson to go around.

It starts with the coaching staff.

“We’re going to find out a lot when we go back and watch the film,’’ Grobe said. “I told our players, `This is a loss that first and foremost is on our coaching staff. We’re going to go back and look what we asked them to do and find out if we either asked them to do some things scheme-wise that weren’t very good, or asked them to do some things that maybe they weren’t capable of doing.’‘

But it doesn’t stop there.

“After we evaluate the coaches, then we’re going to evaluate the players and kind of look at all four quarters and what broke down at different times,’’ Grobe said. “I think there can be a lot of things that we can learn and grow from in this game. And we may find out that we’ve got some of the wrong guys playing.

“The thing we’ve got to make sure of is we always have a competitive program and if you’re the top guy and you’re playing good, that’s fine. But if you’re not then we may need to find somebody else.

“But I think our first priority is to evaluate ourselves and see scheme wise, game plan, offensively or defensively did we have a good plan or maybe we got out-planned a little bit. Because you’ve got to look at yourself as coaches and not just blame the kids all the time.’‘

Comments from the Clemson players may give Grobe and his staff more to contemplate. Defensive end Da’Quan Bowers said the Deacons were tipping their plays.

“We basically had everything broken down to a tip of looking at their heels to tell if they were going to pass or run,” Bowers said. “We were actually calling the plays that (Skinner) was going to run, so he had no choice but to check down.

“We could tell exactly what they were running by the way the line was lined up and the things that he was doing. … He was getting frustrated. I could tell in his eyes. I kind of said something to him, and he just looked at me and shook his head. So I knew something was wrong with him.”

One consolation, if it could be called that, was that defensive end Tristan Dorty actually returned to the game in the second half after being helped from the field with a sprained knee.

“Tristan has had a bad knee for a while now, and he’s been a day-to-day guy,’’ Grobe said. “He’s got a cartilage problem that needs to be fixed. It’s not dangerous. It just locked up on him out there.

“He’s a guy who has been nursing a problem, not a serious knee problem but one that has been driving him a little crazy now and hopefully we can get him through the season.’‘