Thursday, November 04, 2010

The Class That Didn’t Last

Marshall Williams, Russ Nenon, Josh Adams, Dennis Godfrey, Alex Frye, Hunter Haynes and Matt Woodlief all took a flying leap of faith five years ago. They had to if they wanted to play for a winning program at Wake Forest. When the seven committed before the 2006 season, the Deacons were coming off three straight losing campaigns of 5-7, 4-7 and 4-7. There was little evidence that the fortunes would soon change, as evidenced by the preseason poll of 2006 that had the Deacons picked last in the Atlantic Division.

What a long, strange trip the seven have had, the full circle of playing in a program that wins the 2006 ACC championship, plays in three straight bowls and now finds itself on a bee-line back to the basement of the ACC. Only by winning two of the final four games against BC, N.C. State, Clemson and Vanderbilt can the Deacons reach the win level of 2004 and 2005. But neither of those teams took the kind of poundings the 2010 Deacons have absorbed. Opponents didn’t have anywhere close to the kind of fun against those teams they’ve had rolling up Pinball-like numbers against the current squad.

The problem with this year’s team is not Williams, Nenon, Adams, Godfrey, Frye, Haynes and/or Woodlief. All are good players who have played some good football at Wake Forest. Adams, as you recall, was the ACC’s Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2007, though he never really came up with a decent encore. Williams has caught 102 passes, 20th most in school history. By finishing strong, he could climb as high as the top 12. And Jim Grobe was bragging on Russ Nenon at this week’s gathering to eat chicken and talk football, saying he’s a really good player having a really good season.

The problem is not those seven, it’s how little in the way of on-field contributions the program has received from anyone else in their recruiting class.

Grobe talked about it extensively Tuesday and Lenox wrote about it for this morning’s Journal. It’s a good read Big Holes to Fill that you really ought to check out if you haven’t gotten around to it.

There were 15 players in the class of 2006—the aforementioned seven plus punter Dan Caldwell, running back Lucas Caparelli, defensive tackle Michael Carter,  offensive lineman Cannon Gaskin, quarterback Zach MacDowall, linebacker Tripp Russell, defensive back Marcus Williams and defensive tackle Teddy Tomlin. Russell is a fifth-year senior at Wake who is well-respected on the team for his attitude and work ethic. He’ll leave Wake with a degree in communications with a minor in entrepreneurship and social enterprise. But he’s played in just seven games as a reserve.

The other seven are long gone, scattered to the winds. Caldwell might have indeed been the heir apparent to punter Ryan Plackemeier, but we’ll never know. He returned home to Oxford, Ala. (home of current kicker Jimmy Newman) and, as I heard it, ended up at Auburn, but as a student and not a player. Of the others, Carter could really help this team if he could have kept his grades in order.

I’ve seen the criticism of Grobe that by assessing the lack of contributions from the Class of 2006 he’s making excuses for the trainwreck of 2010. I don’t see it that way. I see it as another way he is owning up to what has happened to the program since the halycon days of 2006-08 when the Deacons were 28-12. He freely admits he and his staff whiffed on this one class in question. It’s up to the staff not to whiff in recruiting.

Bad things happen when you do.

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Deacons Limp Toward Basketball Season

Sophomore Ari Stewart missed Tuesday’s practice with a hyper-extended knee. Freshman Melvin Tabb was out sick. Freshman Tony Chennault, who has spent his first two weeks of practice nursing a stress reaction in his foot, has yet to be cleared for full participation.

None appear to be problems for the long-haul. Basketball trainer Greg Collins said that Stewart will be evaluated daily, that more will be known today about what drove Tabb’s temperature past the wrong side of 100 and that he and his staff are being cautious with Chennault. But the cumulative result is that no one, not even Coach Jeff Bzdelik, has any way of knowing what to make of the team that, come Friday night, will play its one and only exhibition game against the Guilford Quakers.

What is becoming increasingly clear is that sophomore C.J. Harris will at least start the season at point guard. It might have been a stretch for Chennault to start the Nov. 12 opener against Stetson, given how demanding the position is for anybody, especially a freshman in his first weeks of college basketball. But the injury probably wiped out any chance Chennault had. By January and the start of the ACC schedule, I imagine the competition will have shaken out to the point Chennault might be able to crack the lineup—which would allow Harris to play his more natural position of wing guard. But there’s much basketball to be played before then.

But even if Chennault is cleared by Friday’s exhibition—a huge if at that—there’s little chance he’ll make more than a cameo. So that means that unless Stewawrt and/or Tabb rebound in time to play, the Deacons will take the court with six available scholarship players—Harris, senior Gary Clark, freshman J.T. Terrell, freshman Travis McKie, freshman Carson Desrosiers and junior Ty Walker. Nikita Mescheriakov, the transfer from Georgetown, won’t be eligible until the Dec. 12 game against UNC Wilmington and thus is prevented by NCAA rules from playing even in exhibitions.

Coach Jeff Bzdelik said nothing is set in stone, but he is inclined to start a three-guard lineup of Harris, Clark and Terrell, with McKie at power forward and Walker at center. Desrosiers, in that scenario, would be the depth, and would rotate between the two post positions.

The word I got from Saturday’s super-secret scrimmage at the College of Charleston is that it’s a good thing no fans were allowed into the gym. All would have been in danger of bodily harm given the number of times the Deacons whipped the ball into the stands. But I also heard that the Deacons shot well from the floor and the line and that they got an encouraging performance from Walker.

The biggest surprise in yesterday’s practice probably shouldn’t have been. I was taken by how much Bzdelik plans to play McKie, at 6-7, 205 pounds, at power forward. But of course, until Tabb recovers and Mescheriakov becomes eligible, someone has to play inside. McKie will cause matchup problems for the opponent, but I have to wonder how much he’ll be rooted from beneath the basket by the behemoths who populate the lane in major-college basketball.

Bzdelik said he’s not one to make excuses when he was hired last April, and he has said it many times since. That’s a good thing, because if he started complaining now he wouldn’t have time to do anything else.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Grobe Keeps the Fire Inside

If you’re a Wake fan convinced that Jim Grobe doesn’t feel your pain during this most excruciating of seasons, you may be right. But Grobe insisted at today’s gathering to eat chicken and talk football that he is feeling his own. And so is his wife Holly.

The answer began when I asked him how was he holding up under a six-game losing streak that accelerated with Saturday’s 62-14 shellacking at Maryland.

“Holly is not having much fun with me right now at home,’’ Grobe said. “I think it’s easier to take a season like this when you’re younger. I don’t know why.

“But if we didn’t have really good kids that we’re trying their best I’d be a lot tougher on our guys right now. But that’s not the issue. Our kids are trying as hard as they possibly can. And you always have a couple of knotheads. I have a couple of guys who I have to keep dusting them off. But most of my kids right now are trying as hard as they can to get this thing going. And I don’t think there’s an attitude of `Wait until next year.’ I think our kids really want to play good now. Our kids want to win.’‘

The easiest way for a coach to convince his fan base of his competitive drive is to raise a ruckus when things go wrong. If a coach is screaming to the high heavens when he doesn’t get a call, or a receiver runs the wrong route, he may look like he’s taken leave of his senses but at least he’s showing how badly he wants to win. And some coaches—Gary Williams of the Maryland basketball program comes to mind—are just wired that way.

Grobe is not. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a calmer presence on the sidelines. Grobe said there are times he would like to take Buddy Holly’s advice and Rave On. 
“I’d like to, to be honest with you,’’ Grobe said. “You don’t get any frustration out when you’re staying calm on the sidelines.

“But I’ve always found that when I get too stirred up I go brain dead. Most of our fans think I’m brain dead right now anyway. So I guess I’m just kind of fitting the mold. But the kids play the game and we’re going to prepare them. We’re going to teach them during the week as best we can. But when Saturday rolls around, it’s their turn to get cranked up and get excited and go play. The best teams we’ve had have been motivated by the players, not the coach. Our guys want to play well and win. Me yelling and screaming at them is not going to get them any more motivated.

“It might give me a heart attack. But it’s not going to get them more motivated.’‘

Personally I’ve always felt the best coaches are the ones who are authentic, who act like who they are instead of who they’re not. And it bears noting that Grobe’s sideline comportmen is the same as it was four seasons ago, the season the Deacons won the ACC and Grobe was named National Coach of the Year.

Wake’s football team has problems. That much is painfully obvious. I just don’t see the fact that Grobe is not a spit-and-vinegar kind of guy as being one of them.

Monday, November 01, 2010

So What’s Left to Play For?

Many of the questions I ask in my role as a sportswriter can’t be answered with anything other than conjecture. I know that, but feel compelled by the time-honored conventions of my so-called profession to ask them anyway.

The only statement a competitor makes that really holds a full bucket of water is made on the diamond, court or field of competition. The bucket is filled with nothing more than hope and intent before, and some, if not a goodly portion, of the water has already sloshed out on the grounds of sportsmanship, gamesmanship and loyalty by the time the competitor is asked to explain what he just did.

So when I asked Jim Grobe Saturday what keeps the Deacons, now that they’ve lost six straight to fall to 2-6, from packing it in for the rest of the season, I really didn’t expect prophesy. I don’t really know what I expected, other than honesty. But the honest truth is that nobody, not Jim Grobe or any of the Deacons, knows how the team will react to its sad plight until this Saturday’s 3:30 kickoff against Boston College.

So with the disclaimer dutifully established, I’ll report the answer to the question, what keeps this team from packing it in?

Grobe: “I don’t think that’s this kind of football team. I think our kids want to play, they want to win, they don’t like to lose. But we’re just not playing good enough to beat a good team right now. And Maryland is playing with a lot of confidence. They got a little bit of a lead and they aired it out a little bit and opened it up and it’s obvious they’re playing with confidence and our kids are not playing with a lot of confidence right now. That’s understandable. But I don’t have a problem with how hard our kids are working. They want to get better, so we’ll keep coaching them.’‘

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Another Day, Another Debacle

Whatever safety net Jim Grobe spent his 9 ½ years at Wake Forest knitting was never fully stitched, or else it has been ripped to shreds.

That much was obvious as the Deacons continued their freefall through the 2010 season with today’s 62-14 drubbing by Maryland. Wake had an extra week to get ready for this one, yet what Grobe and his staff did with it was never apparent in what proved be little more than replay of the Deacons’ last defeat, a 52-21 clubbing at Virginia Tech on Oct. 16.

“I told the kids in the locker room I was really disappointed,’’ Grobe said. “I really thought coming in today that we’d be in this game and have a chance to win it.

“But our kicking game was a big disappointment to me today. I think that got us behind the eight-ball right away and made us fight uphill the rest of the time. And of course you get behind offensively and you start airing it out and you get a couple of picks for touchdowns.

“Pretty soon it’s an ugly score.’’

I wrote after the Virginia Tech debacle that I never expected a team coach by Jim Grobe to be this bad. And surely, I figured, the week off and continued development and maturation would allow the young Deacons to at least make it interesting against Maryland.

So I was wrong, just as I’ve been wrong throughout the Deacons’ six-game losing streak. It’s just that I kept expecting the steady hand of Grobe to right the ship at some point. I kept thinking that through his 16 seasons as a head coach at Ohio and Wake he’d have a clue as to how to at least be competitive against a Terps’ team that, for all its gaudy 5-2 record, had managed only one victory (against Navy) worth texting home about.

Then the Deacons come out and have two of their first three punts blocked. On the one they got off, Kyle Jarrett plowed into the returner before he had a chance to field it.

But that wasn’t as bad as the two pick sixes thrown by two different quarterbacks. Freshman Tanner Price threw the first, straight to safety Kenny Tate for a 8-yard score. Redshirt junior Skylar Jones heaved the second, picked off by linebacker Ryan Donahue and returned 25 yards for a touchdown and a 48-7 lead with nine minutes still remaining in the third quarter.

“I don’t know,’’ redshirt senior safety Alex Frye said. “It all comes down to discipline. I just figure there are a lot of things we practice very well but we get out there and maybe not do everything we’re supposed to.’’

So what’s left to play for? I’ll leave that for the next blog, after I’ve had a drive home to think about it.

Wake Asleep Again in First Half

Maryland, I concede, may be better than I expected. But the Terps aren’t as good as Wake made them look in the first half.

Rendering another second half all but meaningless, the Deacons appear to be the antidote to the rash of upsets that popped out like a rash all over the ACC. BC knocks off Clemson, Virginia upends Miami, North Carolina trails William & Maryland 17-7 at half and Duke leads Navy 24-0 at halftime up the road in Annapolis. But here in College Park it’s the same old same old as the Deacons gave up touchdowns on Maryland on three of the Terps’ first four possessions. Maryland has 16 first downs to Wake’s six, and has gained 239 yards to 99 by the Deacons.

Since starting 2-0 with wins over Presbyterian and Duke, the Deacons have been outscored 151-54 in the first half. And they’ve done it in novel ways, today by having two punts blocked deep in their own territory.

From here it looked like the three-man wall there to protect punter Shane Popham is too far back from the line of scrimmage, and each time the rush has been able to bound over the blockers to get to the football. Something I’ll be asking Coach Grobe when the game is over.

Passing the Hours Until Kickoff

Once again, I made it to the game by kickoff. I only had three hours to spare.

I spent a wonderful evening at the home of close, longtime friends, Gary and Evelyn Christopher, in Annapolis, and tooled through gorgeous, autumnal countryside to Highway 50 to catch the Beltway up to College Park. I’ve taken the route before, and I’m always reminded of the scene late in the iconic movie Diner, when Boogie, the Mickey Rouke character,drives out of dirty, grimy Baltimore into the countryside and gets dissed by the beautiful rich girl on the horse.

I look for her every time I drive down Highway 424 linking Highway 215 to

My traveling companion has been a book on C.D., Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow, about two rather eccentric brothers holed up against the ravages of modern life in what was, until they got through with it, a swanky four-story apartment on NYC’s Upper West Side. It’s good enough to hold my interest, and I plan to finish it on the ride home.

Sitting all alone in the press box at Byrd Stadium, I’m looking out over a field where Wake hopes to make what, in effect, could be its last stand of the 2010 season. A loss would be the Deacons’ sixth-straight, dropping them to 2-6 with four games to play. So only by running the table—beating BC and Clemson at home and N.C. State and Vandy on the road—could they still make a bowl. I recogniize there are many of you in the Peanut Gallery who have written off their chances, and I feel almost Pollyannish to even bring the subject up. But I’ve seen surprised so many times in my years of writing sports that I always try to leave open the possibility of being surprised again.

Having seen at Virginia Tech what Josh Harris can do, I’m anxious to see it again. Maryland is tough against the run—ranking fourth in the ACC in rush defense—but not as good as the Hokies defense that Harris gashed for 241 yards. The key today, in my mind, is the kid at quarterback, Tanner Price. If he plays like he played against Navy, I believe the Deacons will win. I’m impressed to see the Terps have won five of their first seven games, but not impressed with whom they have beaten—Navy, Morgan State, Florida International, Duke and BC. Frank Howard, the legendary coach-philosopher at Clemson all those years, once said the key to a great season is to find somebody you can beat and play them every Saturday. Ralph Friedgen has obviously taken the advice to heart. In the two games against teams (other than Navy) that should wind up in bowls, the Terps have lost to West Virginia 31-17 and Clemson 31-7, with both losses coming on the road.

Maryland has some tough sledding ahead, with games against Miami, Virginia, Florida State and N.C. State left to play. The Terps, with a victory today, would become bowl eligible and build momentum for the home stretch. They would also remain smack dab in the middle of contention for an Atlantic Division title, in a race that became ever more open with N.C. State’s Thursday night victory over the
Seminoles. I don’t really the Terps’ chances, but I’m sure there were those saying the same thing about Wake Forest four years ago when the Deacons were 2-1 after their first three ACC games.

Most of the games I’ve seen here have been over pretty early, like the Deacons;’ 26-0 loss two years ago in which Trey Bailey broke his ankle. But one game here I’ll long remember was the Kenny Moore game of 2006, when Moore took over at running back and powered Wake to a 38-24 victory that clinched the Division title.

The stakes will be different for Wake today, but they are stakes just the same.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

A Friend on the Mend

Steve Shutt, Wake’s director of media relations, got an email this week from his boss Ron Wellman.

“He said that if I go to Maryland for the football game I won’t have a job when I get back,’’ Shutt said with a chuckle.

The fact Wellman even felt compelled to issue such a draconian ultimatum tells you all you’ll ever need to know about Shutt and his work ethic. And I imagine it’s at least partly a bluff on Wellman’s part, knowing how indispensable Shutt has been to Wake’s athletics since arriving before the 2007 season from Wofford. Maybe Steve’s wife, Doris, put Wellman up to it. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Shutt felt bad enough Saturday night (he picked an off week in football, you might note) that he admitted himself in the hospital. Arterial blockage was removed from his heart on Tuesday and he was released Wednesday. Early in the week, before the procedure, I got wind that Shutt was still bound and determined to make it to Maryland for Saturday’s football game. I just got off the phone with him, and he, thankfully, knows there will always be another football game. He also knows he has a strong, efficient staff fully capable of holding down the fort until he returns.

It was great talking with him. He’s a good friend.

Many times I’ve mentioned how I have the best beat in college sports. A big reason for that is the three directors of media relations I’ve worked with since taking over the beat in 1992. It’s an interesting relationship, the beat guy and main liaison to the beat he covers. We each have our own agendas, and we both are looking after the interests of those for whom we work. I’ve seen the two sides lock horns many times in my many years of covering sports, and I’ve seen how toxic the animosity can become. The sad thing is, nobody wins.

Thankfully, John Justus, Dean Buchan and Shutt—the three with whom I’ve worked—have all been smart enough and good enough people to know it doesn’t have to be that way. All three have taken care of me in every instance they were able to, and when they weren’t able to I tried to understand. I won’t say there haven’t been some infamous, and to be truthful, regrettable blow-ups on my part over the years. I can be combustible, though I’ve worked hard at reining in my temper. But in every instance, we got past the rancor in a flash and by the next day were back to leaning on each other like two professionals, and friends, should.

A quick aside to explain how good Shutt is:

Josh Harris, Wake’s redshirt freshman running back, has a speech impediment. It’s mild, and it usually only rears up when he’s around those he doesn’t know well. But I was tremendously impressed to learn that he doesn’t seem fazed by it in the least. I mentioned all of this in a piece I’m writing on Harris that will run in Friday’s Journal. He’s a confident young man, and as he proved by gouging the Virginia Tech defense for 241 yards rushing, he has every reason to be.

But Shutt, being the pro he is, remembered from his days as Associate Commissioner for Public Affairs for the Southern Conference an acquaintance who, along the way, had worked with Adrian Peterson. And Shutt remembered that Peterson has dealt with a speech impediment. So Steve called the person up to ask for tips on how to interview an athlete with a stutter. A few days later we talked about them, and I knew better how to proceed. I didn’t think it would be a problem, and it turned out not to be, but that was a case of Shutt making the extra effort to take care of as many people as he could, in the best manner he could.

Wake is lucky to have Steve Shutt doing what he does. So am I.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Wake Loses A Staunch Supporter

Over the past week I’ve had the great pleasure of watching Wake basketball practices with the two men who have directed Deacons athletics for the past 46 years. On Friday Gene Hooks, the AD from 1964 until 1992, joined me at Joel Coliseum to watch Coach Jeff Bzdelik put his team through its paces. And on Monday, I was hanging out at the Miller Center when Ron Wellman, the AD since 1992, made his rounds through Budd Gym.

Wellman has a tough job as the director of athletics at what is by far and away the smallest school the ACC. But as hard as Wellman has it, Hooks had it harder.

I mentioned that to Wellman Monday, and he, without hesitation, agreed.

There were times during Hooks’ stewardship that Wake Forest was clinging to its ACC affiliation. Before Groves Stadium was built in 1968, the Deacons played football across town at Bowman Gray Stadium, a place few opponents found to their liking. That became all-too-apparent whenever Hooks attended conference meetings. He told me once that when it came to scheduling, the other schools would set their slates before they would offer Wake whatever was left.

And then, of course, there was the barn known as Memorial Stadium that served as the home basketball arena long after it had outlived its usefulness. The place had become so rank and rundown by 1982 that first Carl Tacy and then Bob Staak actually took their teams over to Greensboro to play conference games. Try recruiting at a school that plays its ``home games’’ 25 miles from campus.

Support was always an issue, forcing Hooks to bite many a bullet. Consequently he was never the most popular man on campus among students or coaches.

But it was the foundation that Hooks built, Wellman said Monday, that allowed him to take the program to the next level and survive until the modern age of multi-million TV contracts.

Wellman would also be the first to note that nobody gets anything done in college athletics without ample financial support. So often the most indispensable people in any program are the ones you rarely read or hear anything about, the ones who shell out the kind of money it takes to built and upgrade facilities and pay the kinds of salaries that all successful coaches in a major sport are going to command. Wake sports are funded like never before, with Deacon Tower being the shining proof.

Wake Forest lost one of its finest fans and supporters yesterday when Jim Judson, Jr. and his wife Elizabeth crashed a single-engine Beachcraft Bonanza in Mississippi. They were flying back home to Atlanta after watching a daughter play tennis for Southern Mississippi. A reader, Michael Lambert of Roswell, Ga., wrote to alert me with the sad news.

Judson was an alumnus of Wake Forest who made his money building and selling a software company, Witness Systems Inc. He was a member of the Wake Forest Board of Trustees and a staunch supporter of his school.

He and Elizabeth will be missed.

Deacons Go From Road Warriors to Roadkill

If my hero Willie Nelson sang his hit tune ``On the Road Again’’ Sing It Willie about Wake Forest’s 2010 football season, it would have to be rewritten as a dirge.

Nothing but pain, loss and despair has come from the Deacons’ three previous ventures away from home, which is not the most heartening thought going into Saturday’s game at Maryland.

The Deacons are 2-2 at home, where they’ve outscored their opponents 154-113. They’re a big 0-3 on the road, where they’ve been outscored 151-45.

“I’ve heard a lot of announcers say that young teams have a lot of problems on the road,’’ redshirt senior Alex Frye said. “And I guess I would have to agree with them – looking at our track record if nothing else.

“It doesn’t seem like we play any different but the scoreboard says otherwise.’’

The Deacons, in some ways, have yet to recover from their first road game of the season, a 68-24 shelling at Stanford that was effectively settled well before halftime. The two most recent trips have resulted in 31-point losses, the 31-0 cuffing by Florida State and the 52-21 rout at Virginia Tech in their most recent game.

Coach Jim Grobe says the explanation for the road-home differential is obvious. The Deacons’ depth chart going into Maryland’s game has three freshmen and three redshirt freshmen running first team and five redshirt freshmen on second team.

“I think typically young teams, inexperienced teams, don’t do as well on the road,’’ Grobe said. “There’s a comfort zone at home and you tend to play better at home. Most teams do that anyway. I think it’s pretty standard.

“But I think your problems are exaggerated on the road with an inexperienced team.’’

The first half of the 2010 season has shown how far the Deacons have come from their 2010 Orange Bowl campaign. Unfortunately it has been in the wrong direction.

Four years ago, Wake Forest went 6-0 on the road, winning at Connecticut, Ole Miss, N.C. State, North Carolina, Florida State and Maryland.

“Sometimes with the young guys that we’ve got, maybe that away atmosphere gets to them,’’ redshirt senior Marshall Williams said. “I don’t know what it is because I feel like a successful team is always good on the road. Championships are won on the road. We proved that in the Orange Bowl season. We were the only team to go 6-0 on the road, and that was incredible.

“I don’t know how to explain it. When you get beat that much against that little, there are a lot of different avenues you can go, but we’ve got to go in with our mind focused and just be ready to play.’’