Saturday, January 07, 2012

Seeing Is Believing

There’s never been any team in any sport, or at least none that I’ve ever come across, that didn’t profess to believe in itself. Some did. Some didn’t. Some only believed they believed and some, perhaps, only believed they believed they believed—if you care to follow me through that looking glass looking into a looking glass.

That’s why Wake’s timber-rattling 58-55 victory today over Virginia Tech could mean more to the Deacons than the 1-0 ACC start.

On Friday, both coach Jeff Bzdelik and forward Travis McKie said categorically they believe in this team Deacons Believe in Their Chances in ACC Of course they did. That’s what all coaches and players say.

As recently as Monday’s 56-52 loss to Wofford, Bzdelik was castigating himself in the frankest of terms (well not quite) for not getting his team motivated to perform.

“You know what, I’ve done a horse crap job — and you can write that,” Bzdelik said a decibel or two above his normal speaking voice. “I’ve done a horse crap job getting my team motivated and disciplined on both the offensive and defensive end.

“And somehow I’ve done a horse crap job of getting them to rebound the basketball. Throw it all on me.’‘

Five days later, after three solid practices and a session or two of analysis, the Deacons played like a team worth believing in.

Call it mind over blather.

“I think that what they went through last year, they’re only human,’’ Bzdelik said after the game. “And when you don’t win a lot of games, and when there’s all this stuff all around you – and this is what I’m getting at – all this peripheral stuff all around you causing chaos for example off the court and things like that. And then you couple that with not winning. And then everybody around you in the community is doubting you, because we live in a negative society. They’re only human, you’re young people and doubt creeps in.

“So what I meant by what I said last game was I’ve got to somehow got to get them to believe in themselves. that they are a talented group if they truly, truly believe – when everybody else around them is doubting them. It’s us. That’s the only thing that matters. Believe in yourself. I believe in you, and that’s what I was getting at.

“If all we’ve done in the last (few practices) in addition to their physical drills is to let them know how much we believe in them, I believe in them and they can do this. And they’re talented enough to do this. So that was a big focus about that.

“The first thing I wrote on the blackboard was The Mind. It’s a powerful weapon, the mind, and belief.’‘

McKie said he didn’t see anything he didn’t expect to see, as the Deacons were thumping Virginia Tech 42-31 on the backboards, moving the basketball, digging in on defense and making the shots that mattered when they mattered most. C.J. Harris, after making only one of his first six shots from the floor, nailed two 3-pointers in the final 65 seconds to hand Bzdelik his biggest win since he’s been head coach at Wake.

“You’re supposed to believe in yourself,’’ McKie said. “That comes from the leadership that me and C.J. instill in this team, that we can win. We can win these games.

“Don’t listen to the media. Don’t listen to the boards, or the people throughout the community. We can win this game. So I think it was a great win for us. It was a great for team morale to start out in the league 1-0 and I’m happy.’‘

As I was putting the finishing touches on this post, I found out that Clemson, the same Clemson that has looked like horse crap this season, routed Florida State 79-59 today. And both Georgia Tech and Boston College gave Duke and North Carolina more than they wanted.. To me, it just confirms what we should always remember, but rarely do, that if a team shows up, plays hard and plays together, and really, really believes in itself, then astounding things can happen.

Like Wake beating Virginia Tech to open the ACC 1-0.

“We all made a commitment to each other that all we care about is winning,’’ freshman Chase Fischer said. “We throw individual statistics out. We throw out everything that’s going on. We pick each other up. And coach Bzdelik and his staff have done a great job of preaching belief and I think that we do believe.

“Maybe some people don’t believe in us and maybe this is going to change some minds. But that’s what we’re hoping to do every game is come out and make statements. And hopefully the Wake Forest community believes in us as well.’‘

Friday, January 06, 2012

Hard on Lobo’s Heels

The posse has saddled back up, those among it who ever unsaddled in the first place. Once again it’s hard on the heels of Steed Lobotzke, a wanted man by many among the fan base for years now. Some of you in the macadamia nut gallery are riding in the posse. I’m hearing from you daily about how if Jim Grobe is going to make the unprecedented move of replacing assistants simply to shake things up, then why would he ever stop before getting to Lobo, the offensive line coach at Wake since 2001 and offensive coordinator since 2003.

A few points, in my mind, are in order.

To understand why Grobe hasn’t changed offensive coordinators for nine years, it might help to know what Grobe wants in an offensive coordinator. My guess is it’s not the same as those clamoring for a change.

I’ve had enough conversation with Grobe on this subject to know that the only offensive coordinator who could ever work for him would be one willing and ever ready to integrate the offense into the team’s game plan as a whole. Any gun-slinging type looking simply to build a reputation on gaudy statistics and lofty NCAA rankings need not apply.

Instead Grobe has long ago made the determination that the best way for Wake Forest to be competitive in ACC football is to play three quarters with the goal of getting to the fourth with a chance to win. It’s not like he wouldn’t like to drub everybody every Saturday, he just doesn’t think it’s going to happen often enough to build a game plan around the possibility. And sure enough, of the 135 games Grobe has coached at Wake Forest, 62 have been decided by seven points or fewer. Of those 62, the Deacons have won 29 and lost 33.

The over-arching strategy actually looked much better early this season when the Deacons won three of their first four games decided by eight points (I know I’m fudging a point to make a case) or fewer to bolt to a 4-1 record than it did late when Wake lost to Notre Dame by seven, Clemson by three and Mississippi State by six to finish 6-7.

Regardless, the philosophy flies in the face of what many feel should be the intent of any team in any sport, which is to start landing punches from the opening bell and not let up until one combatant is carried from the ring. I get that, and I imagine so does Grobe. He just doesn’t think that’s the right approach at Wake.

He has also said time and again that he’s fully on board with how Lobotzke calls a game. If he wasn’t, he would have changed coordinators by now. He has said to get to Lobo, the critics have to go through him. Anyone who takes him at his word would have to consider Lobo a proxy for the criticism that should be leveled instead at the coach who has hired Lobo in the first place, promoted him and who has steadfastly stood by him.

If you’re convinced that 11 seasons is long enough for Jim Grobe to be the head coach at Wake, more power to you. Nobody is happy with three straight losing seasons. Grobe proved that this past week. And if you think you and the school deserve better, then it’s your right, if not obligation, to make your sentiments known. Have at it. That’s one of the reasons I’m here for.

All I have to go by is the 42 seasons I’ve been watching Wake play football, and the research I’ve done on what took place before I arrived on the scene. And to me it’s indisputable that since Peahead Walker left over a contract squabble after the 1950 seasons, none of the 11 coaches who had their shot at the job before Grobe showed up did anything close to what he has accomplished. To argue that some other coach in college football would do better requires a leap of faith these old creaky bones wouldn’t dare attempt.

And besides, as I’ve mentioned a time or two before, I don’t ride in posses.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

Another Side of Jim Grobe

Coaching a football team can be a mean, cold, hard business.

It’s easy to forget that covering Wake, because coach Jim Grobe is, by nature, anything but mean, cold and hard. But if he didn’t have the capacity to do what he felt needed to be done, he would have never made it to the University of Virginia the hard way, through Ferrum Junior College playing for Hank Norton, and he would have never scaled his way up the ladder of a mean, cold and hard profession rung by slippery rung from Emory and Henry to Marshall to Air Force to Ohio.

And if he didn’t have that capacity, he wouldn’t be worthy of the job he now holds as head coach at Wake.

Coaches are let go all the time in college football. It’s a nomadic life, and those who live it have to be prepared for the day they’re called into the head guy’s office and told their services are no longer required at that particular institution. The stunning side of yesterday’s bombshell at Wake though was that in Grobe’s 11 seasons at Wake, every coach who departed had left on their own. As kindly as Grobe wanted to couch yesterday’s news that Keith Henry and Tim Billings were no longer on staff, he acknowledged that neither had a choice in the matter.

There was a question of whether Grobe was loyal to a fault. No longer.

He clearly didn’t want to do it. That came through time and time again in our 15-minute conversation. He and Henry have been together 17 years, back to the day he got his first head job at Ohio in 1995. He’s family, as are his wife Nicole and children Kirstie, K.J. Maya Ordee and Isaiah. And he’s bragged on the work done by Billings ever since 2006, when Billings bounced back from a bad situation as head coach at Southeast Missouri State to add expertise and a certain edge to the program. He’ll be missed, as will his wife Lisa and children Taylor Kay and Trenton Wade.

Grobe said if he could have avoided it, the news would have never come out. He entreated me to be as kind in my wording as I could be.

“They’ve done some really, really good stuff for us,’’ Grobe said. “And they’re my friends.’‘

But the bottom line for any sport at any school is wins and losses. And over the last three years there have been two few of the former and too many of the latter. Three straight losing seasons led Grobe to wonder of a certain complacency had settled into the program, a staleness or torpor that needed to be alleviated.

“We’re just in a situation now where it could be good for those guys to have new opportunities and it could be good for us to get some new ideas and things like that,’’ Grobe said.

No specific incident led to the move, Grobe said. The special teams, for which Henry was given the responsibility this season, were a liability from the opening loss at Syracuse to the closing setback against Mississippi State in Nashville. And Billings, who was elevated before the season to co-defensive coordinator along with Brian Knorr, could, for all his talents and energy, can be a hard-headed, hard-driving kind of guy. Maybe there were staff conflicts that Grobe felt needed to be resolved. I don’t know, and knowing Grobe, he’s not going to tell me, or at least not for public consumption. The last thing he would want to do is hurt the future prospects of Henry and Billings.

But he did tell me it was his call and his alone.

What role, I asked, did Athletics Director Ron Wellman play?

“None whatsoever,’’ Grobe said.

So the decision, I pressed, was in no way dictated to you.

“You know better than that,’’ he said. “No, no. No, no. Ron let’s you coach. That’s the best thing about Ron Wellman, he lets you coach your team.’‘

I wondered how fast Grobe would move to replace Henry and Billings.

“Not real fast,’’ Grobe said. “This is not one of those deals where we’ve made a move where I had people that I was going to plug right in. It’s not one of those kinds of deals.

“To be honest with you I’m thinking about juggling the staff positions a little bit. So it may not be that we replace a special teams coach. It may not be that we replace an outside backer coach. We may find ways to move things around, depending on who we hire. We may hire people that coach different positions to try to help ourselves. I’ve had that in the back of my head for awhile now.

“Most of our recruiting’s done now. We’ve got two or three more kids to try to bring in, but I don’t need to hustle to get people in here to recruit.’’

Come spring practice I’m going to miss Keith Henry and Tim Billings. And I’m not going to be the only one.

But coaching football can be a mean, cold hard business. And it certainly seemed a little meaner, colder and harder yesterday than it did the day before.

Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Deacons Exposed

In case you have ever wondered where Wake would be this season without C.J. Harris, it’s pretty obvious we all found out in tonight’s 56-52 loss to Wofford at Joel Coliseum.

The Deacons would be in the Southern Conference. The second-division of the Southern Conference.

From what I just got through watching, the case can be made that Harris is as valuable as any player in the ACC. There’s truth to that old saying that you don’t really know what you’ve got til it’s gone, for with Harris sidelined with a strained groin suffered last Thursday against Yale, the Deacons weren’t good enough to beat an average-at-best SoCon team still adjusting to the loss of four starters. Mike Young is a good coach, as he proved in directing the Terriers to two straight conference titles and the NCAA berths that come with them, and he’s got two pretty good players in senior guards Brad Loesing and Kevin Giltner. But neither Loesing (6-for17 for 17 points) nor Giltner (4-for-14 for 11 points) had games worth texting home about and still Wofford led the final 33 minutes—by as much as 13 in the final minute of the first half.

The Deacons’ other bonafide ACC player, Travis McKie, played hard and well and gave Wofford more than it wanted on the way to 25 points and six rebounds. And the good Ty Walker (12 rebounds, six points, three blocks, three assists) showed up tonight, as opposed to the other Ty Walker who contributed a grand total of two points and three rebounds in 21 minutes against UNC Wilmington and Yale.

Otherwise, the absence of Harris exposed just how little the Deacons have this season—especially with Chase Fischer (1-for 7 for 2 points) unable to hit his jumper and point guard Tony Chennault unable to run the offense the way it needs to run. But as shaky as Chennault can be, the Deacons have nobody else to go to at the position. Coach Jeff Bzdelik tried freshman Anthony Fields in the first half, but was so unimpressed with what he saw (two turnovers, no points, in eight minutes) that he actually turned to walk-on Aaron Ingle after Chennault incurred foul trouble in the second half.

Ingle didn’t do much, but he hustled. He didn’t hurt the Deacons while on the court for six minutes, but didn’t provide much of a scoring threat either. Neither, for that matter, did Nikita Mescheriakov, Carson Desrosiers or Daniel Green. It’s pretty telling that only three Deacons—McKie, Walker and Chennault—scored in the second half.

Harris, who is second in the ACC with 18.7 points a game, strained his groin midway through the second half Thursday against Yale. The training staff shut him down Friday and Saturday, and gave him a chance to show what he could do on Sunday. When the groin still bothered him, Bzdelik made the decision to hold him out against Wofford.

Trainer Greg Collins said that Harris’ prognosis is highly favorable for Saturday’s ACC opener against Virginia Tech in Joel Coliseum.

Not that the Deacons need him, or anything like that.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Harris at the Crossroads

Jim Grobe entered the 2011 season wondering if he could rely on Josh Harris to be an every game, every play back.

He ended the season Friday night still wondering.

Harris, a sophomore with the combination of power and speed few possess, twice pulled himself out of games this season because of a sore hamstring. In each instance he had been cleared by the training staff to play, and both times he gave it a go and said he didn’t feel right enough to play.

So Grobe, who like most coaches is not thrilled with players who take themselves out of games, did what he didn’t want to have to do. He pulled the redshirt off freshman Orville Reynolds in the 10th game of the season, only because he felt like he had to. There were three regular-season games to play and the Deacons were down to one running back they could count on, senior Brandon Pendergrass.

Grobe had said time and again that once a veteran gives up a spot to a freshman he goes to the end of the line. Now I know Grobe would have preferred to have given Reynolds more than the 28 carries he got to show for a season of eligibility. But once a game starts, the decision about who plays and who doesn’t is dictated by game situations like run-pass ratio and how the other backs are performing. Pendergrass, over the final eight games performed rather well, amassing 675 yards (84 a game).

Meanwhile there were others on the team playing through the pain Harris could not.

I know Harris wasn’t happy these past few games, and from a conversation I had with his father Darrelll Harris, I know he wasn’t happy either. Being a father myself, I wouldn’t expect them to be.

So one of the duties I had to do last night was find out from Harris if he planned to return next season. He said he wasn’t sure, that he had to weigh his options. We talked about it briefly and agreed they weren’t good.

I’ve gotten to know Harris pretty well these past two seasons and like and admire him. I admire the way he overcame academic difficulties early in his career that caused him to be out of school for a semester and how he battled his way back onto the team. I admire the way he doesn’t let an impediment that occasionally causes his words to catch in his throat to bother him in any way I can see. Good for him.

But I’ve also picked up he has his share of pride, and his family is proud of him. They have a right to be. And I’ve also picked up that there are those on the Wake coaching staff who remain convinced that if he returns healthy next season he could gain 1,500 yards. He’s that good, too good to be sitting out next season. He should be playing.

If he does transfer to another Division I school, he’ll have only one season of eligibility remaining. An athlete gets only five years to complete four years of eligibility and given he’s been at Wake for three and would have to sit out another as a transfer, that would leave him with but one.

And if he does transfer, he’ll have to find a school short on running backs that could certainly use one capable of rushing for 1,500 yards. He’ll be looking for a school like Wake Forest.

So if he could somehow manage to overcome his pride in this instance, go back to work this spring, finally prove to his coach that he’s an every game, every play back, then he could still do things at Wake we’ll be talking about for years to come.

My own suggestion, such as it is, would be that he repeats a name so often between now and next season that it becomes his mantra. He should wake up in the morning and go to bed at night repeating the same two words.

Kenny Moore. Kenny Moore, Kenny Moore.

Fair To Middling

At the end of the day, at the end of the season, what you saw from Wake is what you got. The Deacons were an average team from an average conference and as such, lost as many as they won during the regular season and won as many as they lost. Water finds its own level, or so I’ve been told. Then, tonight in the Music City Bowl, because they didn’t play their best against an average team from the best conference in the land, they lost one more to finish 6-7.

The chances of doing better next year didn’t exactly improve post game when Chris Givens told us what we figured he probably would. Rarely do athletes talk so openly and freely about leaving early to make themselves available for the NFL drat unless they have a pretty good idea they just might. And tonight he told us he would. I’m disappointed, not for him, but for me. Givens knows his own mind and I trust his judgment.So do his coaches and teammates, best I can tell. He said the evaluation he requested pegged him as a third-rounder, so if he shows up this spring in top shape and on his game—as I have to think he will - then he has a chance to make a really, really good living playing pro football. So no, I’m not disappointed for him.

But given that Givens is the best receiver I’ve seen play at Wake, I, personally and quite selfishly, would have loved to see him play another year. He, more than anybody else, made this team special.

What to make of the team he’s leaving behind, and where is it heading? It was a team good enough to beat N.C. State and Florida State and be within a timely interception or field goal or two against Clemson from playing for the ACC championship just one season after falling flat on its face. That’s pretty impressive, until you remember how bad this team looked against Virginia Tech, North Carolina and most especially against Vanderbilt during their six losses in their final eight games skid.

A victory tonight against Mississsippi State would have been a balm for all that, and I have to think would have settled in the minds of most people the question of whether it was a good season. Instead the Deacons sputtered offensively, stood fast defensively except for three all too notable occasions and really did themselves no favors in the kicking game. Michael Campanaro made some nifty plays and Brandon Pendergrass ran hard, but Tanner Price never settled into his groove and Givens never showed Mississippi State what he can really do. I’m probably not the only one whose lasting memory of this game will be the Wake defense chasing Vick Ballard down the field, in vain.

By one standard—one I think is helpful to remember—any team that plays its last game for something worth playing has had a good season. A team playing a game worth playing is worth watching. I enjoyed watching, and covering, the 2011 Deacons. I’ll miss a whole lot of seniors and at least one junior who I’ve enjoyed getting to know these last four or five years. Ultimately it was a team, that by winning four of its first five games, raised the level of expectations higher that it could attain.

And that’s a shame. But water does find its own level, or so I’ve been told…

Friday, December 30, 2011

My Music City Debut

Well it looks like I’ll be returning to Winston after the Music City Bowl after all.

I made my Nashville debut last night, figuring for all the world that there would be some record or publishing executive on hand to sign me to an ironclad deal that would expressedly forbid me from leaving the city even to gather my family and belongings in North Carolina. Once they got me, I didn’t expect them to let me go. I’d even warned coach Jim Grobe he might be having to break in a new beat guy for spring football and next season. Such would surely be the price for playing in Music City USA.

So I arrived with high hopes to the Commodore Grille on West End, hard by the Vanderbilt campus, to be told that I could sign up for the Open Mic portion of the program. Only thing, the Open Mic didn’t open until the Writer’s Night ended. And that wasn’t supposed to be over until around 9:30.

No problem, I found a table, a long neck (or two) and a menu and sat and had dinner while watching one budding star after another get up on stage and just blow me away. The level of talent in this city is staggering, a cut or two above what you’re liable to hear at Garage on an assorted Wednesday night.

I was really taken by this character named Stan Webb, a veteran of the Nashville scene whose list of hits includes Tracy Byrd’s standard “I’m From the Country and I Like It That Way.’’ Here’s a viideo I found of Webb that was, in fact, recorded at the Commodore, maybe even last night. Stan Webb.Like me, he has a beard. Like me he wore a ball cap. Like me, he’s carrying a couple of extra pound around the midsection. And like me, he’s 59 years old. So I wasn’t totally surprised when I was mistaken for Webb in the Gentlemen’s Room between sets.

No, I said. I’m better looking but he writes better songs.

So finally I got my chance, not at 9:30 but an hour afterward. I was called to the stage with two other songwriters, including one, a commercial painter named Jeff Dezern who actually happened to be from Winston-Salem. The room had cleared considerably, but there were still a couple of dozen people on hand when I launched into my song about the removal of the Cherokee called Trail of Tears.

The ovation was pretty good, and I didn’t sense I’d embarrassed myself. But neither was I swamped by any talent scouts from nearby Music Row. Maybe if I’d had an cowbell to accompany me.

I wonder where a man might find one of those this weekend in this town.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Grobe: No Contact from Penn State

If Penn State is interested in Jim Grobe as its new football coach, the Nittany Lions have thus far neglected to inform Jim Grobe.

The question I had for Grobe after today’s media conference at LP Field was carefully worded, in that I’ve been through enough of these coaching search stories to know how the process usually works.

“Has Penn State contacted you directly or through emissaries, or in any way shape or form,’’ I asked.

Grobe said it had not.

My own take is that Penn State could do a lot worse than hiring Jim Grobe to straighten out any fall out from the Jerry Sandusky mess and the resulting forced retirement of Joe Paterno. Grobe, besides being beyond reproach in terms of integrity and honor, has a warm, soothing manner about him that can smooth out the most ruffled of feathers.

So obviously I took note when Grobe’s names started cropping up in media reports relating to the Penn State search. The more I looked into it, though, the more it appeared that most, if not all, of the buzz about Grobe to Penn State was being generated by David Jones of the Harrisburg Patriot-News. That’s the same reporter who more or less volunteered Grobe’s name for the job way back on Dec. 2 in an analysis Not a Time for a Homerun Hire

Jones may be right. Grobe may indeed be a backup candidate if some of the more high profile targets don’t pan out.  And already at least two coaches said to be high on Penn State’s wish list, Dave Petersen of Boise State and Mike Munchak of the Tennessee Titans have indicated they’re not interested in the job. And it hardly seems outside the realm of possibilities that those looking for a new coach at Happy Valley wouldn’t eventually turn their sights toward Winston-Salem.

But it would take a lot of brass to hire as Penn State’s next coach a man whose overall coaching record is 101-99-1, even if the mark was fashioned at two of the toughest jobs in college football Ohio and Wake Forest.

I’m guessing acting AD David Joyner or whoever ultimately makes the call is not as smart at David Jones.

Having had the pleasure of working with Jim Grobe these past 11 seasons, I can only hope not.

Don’t Count Bud Out

He might be limping, but when Bud Noel came to Nashville this week for the Music City Bowl, he came to play.

So what’s new?

“The nice thing about Merrill Noel is he comes to play,’’ coach Jim Grobe said last week. “He really comes to play. When Saturday rolls around, that guy comes to play.

“And the bigger the game, the harder he plays.’‘

Noel, a redshirt freshman cornerback for Wake who was named the ACC’s Defensive Rookie of the Year, turned his ankle in the cold, driving downpour of Tuesday morning, while Grobe was putting the Deacons through their final paces back in Winston-Salem before boarding the plane for Nashville and tomorrow’s game against Mississippi State at LP Field. It was bothering him Wednesday, but even then he was telling friends he expected to play.

“He always has, that’s the thing,’’ Grobe said. “But you never can tell.’‘

My hunch is that Grobe is more than happy to leave a little doubt in the minds of Coach Dan Mullen and his staff at Mississippi State. That way, in the event Noel does start for the 13th straight time tomorrow, then the Bulldogs might be willing to do what few Wake opponents have been over the course of the season.

They might actually throw a pass or two in the Noel’s direction.

“It gets difficult at times,’’ Noel said last week. “But it makes me feel good about myself to know that I’m helping the team out by playing my coverages that the coaches call and being in the right place at the right time.

“And that gives more opportunity for the older guys to make more plays on their behalf.’‘

Grobe said he’s not nearly as confident about the availability of sophomore linebacker Mike Olson, who sprained his ankle in Wednesday’s practice. Given the severity of the injury and the short window of recovery, I’d be surprised to see him againt the Bulldogs.

It would be a blow to the Deacons, considering Olson battled his way into the starting lineup for the final three games of the regular season and finished fifth on the team with 57 tackles. But even so, Wake would still have a pretty solid three-player rotation at inside linebacker with sophomore Justin Jackson and juniors Riley Haynes and Scott Betros. Olson is faster than either Haynes or Betros, but the two older players may be more physical.

And against the brawny Bulldogs of the SEC, Wake might need all the physical strength it can get.

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Price Keeps Rising

Afforded one more opportunity to talk with Tanner Price last week, I started brain-storming about who he was, what he has done and how he has changed since he arrived at Wake before the 2010 season.

That’s when the thought hit me that, when mentioned, floored the both of us.

Come Friday, after the Deacons close their season against Mississippi State in the Music City Bowl, his college career will be halfway over.

And here I thought that time accelerated as we get older, but he was as stunned by the observation at age 20 as I am at 59.

“It’s gone by so fast,’’ Price said. “I can’t believe I’ve only got two seasons left.

“A lot of it had to do with last year, just trying to forget about it and put it in the past. So it really kind of feels like one year.

“But I really can’t believe I’ve got only two years.’‘

If he were like every other Deacons’ quarterback to play for Jim Grobe, he’d have three seasons remaining. But Price became the first to play his first season, something I never thought I’d ever see. And because of that, the time has really flown.

I wrote a piece that ran Saturday in the Journal dealing with Price’s growth as a leader that you may have missed during the holiday revelry. If so, you can check it out here Deacons Price Putting All the Piece Together

But it being a week for leftovers, I thought I’d trot out some material that didn’t make the cut while I pack and pull things together for tomorrow’s drive out to Music City.

Price’s statistics are improved in almost every way over his freshman season, and sophomore receiver Michael Campanaro said there’s no mystery why. Going into his 13th game of the season, Price has completed 229 of 376 passes (61 percent) for 2,803 yards and 20 touchdowns, while throwing only six interceptions. A year ago he threw eight interceptions on 241 passes.

“I think just comparing last year to this year there’s a huge jump,’’ Campanaro said. “And I think even throughout the season I saw it.

“Personally, being a receiver you just see him reading the defense a lot faster. Presnap, he knows exactly where he’s going to go with the ball before the play even starts. Going into next year I think he’ll make another big jump, knowing him, the way he works and his work ethic.

“I’m just happy I’ve got him for the next two years.’‘

Price said he would hope he’s better as a sophomore with 21 starts under his belt than he was as a freshman.

“As you play the game and the more and more you play, you just learn from your experiences,’’ Price said. “And I felt much more comfortable and my understanding of the game continues to grow. So I think that’s the biggest area.

“But when you play quarterback you’ve always got to continually be improving. The moment you forget about your mechanics and footwork, it’s a disaster. So you’ve got to continually keep working on improving every element of playing quarterback.’‘

Grobe, for his part, was excited about Price as a person ever before he was completely sold on him as a quarterback.

“He doesn’t play the blame game,’’ Grobe said. “He never has. He didn’t last year. But he’s a real-deal guy. He’s just a good guy to have running the show.’‘

But he had a hunch Price would be a good one, and he’s turning out to be right.

“He’s just better in every way,’’ Grobe said. “He’s so much better than he was last year. He’s so much better than he was at the start of the year. But the next step for Tanner is to, instead of having eight or nine really good games, have 12 really good games and hopefully in a bowl game play well.
 
“The nice thing about Tanner, the best thing about him, is he plays hard every week. If he doesn’t have a real good game, it’s not because he’s not trying to have a great game. But the improvements that he’s made – Riley Skinner did some great things for us, but I don’t think anybody has made the kind of improvements at that position that Tanner has made up until now.’‘