Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Keeping Three Heads Above Water

One problem with the sink-or-swim method is that one of the options is, at least metaphorically, fatal.

The history of sports is chock-full of fresh phenoms who, pushed too far out of their comfort zone by premature responsibilities and expectations, never really realize their potential. They lose their confidence and, with it, the moxie, mojo, verve or whatever you want to call the quality that often separates the good from the mediocre and the great from the good.

Jim Grobe is playing three freshmen in their first seasons at Wake, quarterback Tanner Price and cornerbacks A.J. Marshall and Kevin Johnson, and all three are playing what may be the two most exacting positions on the field. So I asked Grobe at today’s gathering to eat chicken and talk football if he was concerned that the freshmen had been thrown into the deep end of the pool before they learned to dog-paddle.

He said no.

“The kids we’re talking about are not going to sink,’’ Grobe said. “They’re going to be fine.

“And I think in some cases you’re throwing kids into the fire that don’t have the ability to be thrown into the fire, and they’re just kind of stopgaps because you don’t have any other choice. That’s not the case here.

“Really and truly we’d liked to have redshirted Kevin and A.J. and Tanner, but they’re all good enough to be out there. And if we didn’t think that those three could help us win, they wouldn’t be on the field right now.’‘

All three have been as inconsistent as one might expect from a player only one year removed from high school football. Price was as good against Navy (37 of 53 for 326 yards) as he was bad against Virginia Tech (3 of 16 for 92 yards), and Marshall and Johnson have looked as lost at times as their older, more experienced teammates in the secondary.

But Grobe said he’s had no second thoughts about playing all three this season.

“Probably what’s going on with Tanner right now will ultimately be better for him than the scout team was for Riley Skinner,’’ Grobe said. “Riley went over and got slapped around by Aaron Curry and those guys for a year on the scout team. Tanner’s getting slapped around by the other team. Both ways, I think, hardens you a little bit. And I don’t think the confidence thing is ever going to be a problem because we know he’s a young guy. We don’t expect him to play like Riley Skinner right now – although it’s fine with me if he does.’‘

The peril of playing a freshman, Grobe said, is forgetting he is a freshman. Grobe said he and his staff are determined that doesn’t happen with Price, Marshall and Johnson.

“Our big thing is, more than anything else, regardless of how you would evaluate their performance at the end of the game, you just want them to play hard,’’ Grobe said. “Go out and have fun and play hard. Play as hard as you can and we’ll take whatever happens.

“But I think for all those kids, our big deal is that when the game is over – regardless of how they played – they know they’re going to get a hug around the neck and a pat on the back and we’re going to keep working with them. And I think they understand that they’ve got a tough job. Every kid that comes in wants to play as a true freshman, and then once you’re out there, just playing is not enough. Now you’ve got to start playing good. And even if you’re physically capable, the experience part is hard to catch up.

“So it’s not easy.’‘

Monday, October 25, 2010

Can Deacons Salvage the Season?

Buried in the rubble of Wake’s last showing, the 52-21 avalanche at Virginia Tech was what may have been the best effort of the season by the Deacons’ offensive line. At least it provided something to build upon during the off week as the Deacons (2-5 overall, 1-3 in the ACC) try to salvage at least something from the season.

Certainly a prevailing reason for the Deacons’ 254-yards rushing against the Hokies was the breakout performance of redshirt freshman Josh Harris, who gained 241 of them himself. But I’ll never forget what Cowboy Mike Voight, the free-spirited running back for North Carolina back in the 70s, told me one day when I went to his locker (we were still welcome in the locker room back in those prehistoric days) after a rough day against I can’t remember exactly who.

“So Mike, how come you didn’t have your normal day running the ball?’’ I asked.

“Well, man,’’ Voight replied, “you can’t rollerskate in a buffalo herd.’’ Roger Miller

In other words, nobody, not Mike Voight, not Josh Harris, not even Jim Brown, gains yardage against an unblocked defense. And the blocking against Virginia Tech was the Deacons’ best of the season. Maybe the overhauled lineup of Dennis Godfrey, Joe Looney, Russ Nenon, Michael Hoag and Doug Weaver is solidifying. If so, the extra week to prepare for Maryland will have to help. What would help even more is comeback performance from freshman quarterback Tanner Price.

If the Deacons can score 21 points against Virginia Tech on a day that their quarterback completes only three of 16 passes for 92 yards, it makes one wonder how prolific they could have been if Price had been as sharp as he was against Navy (37 of 53 for 326 yards and 2 TDs). Not prolific enough to win, probably, given how methodically the Hokies marched through Wake’s defense to seven first-half touchdowns, but maybe enough to keep the proceedings interesting at least for awhile.

But even with the improving firepower, the Deacons won’t rally over the second half of their season until the defense makes a stand. Only two ACC teams are yielding more than 25 points a game. One is Wake, at 37.7 points a game. The other is Duke, at 38.7 points a game. The Deacons have given up 454.4 yards a game, most in the ACC and at least 100 yards more per game than any conference team other than Duke (442.6 ypg) and Virginia (376.9 ypg).

Opponents have thrown 20 touchdown passes against Wake, and been picked off five times. Opponents are also completing 61 percent of their passes, one of the best reasons I can come up with as to why the Deacons’ rank last in the ACC in allowing third-down conversions. N.C. State leads the ACC in that stat with opponents converting 28.7 percent of their third downs. Against Wake, they’re converting 48.6 percent.

And whatever boost the Deacons get from the week off has to be weighed against the challenge of embarking once again on a road game. The road hasn’t been kind this season to Wake Forest. Actually, it’s been downright inhospitable. In the three away games against Stanford, Florida State and Virginia Tech, the Deacons have been outscored 149-45.

The Terps aren’t as good as Stanford, FSU or Virginia Tech, but until the Deacons figure out how to stop somebody, anybody, then they won’t have to be to win.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

I’m With Coach K on This One

Over the years I’ve been down on Mike Krzyzewski many times. Arrogance is a personality trait I have serious trouble with, and Krzyzewski’s stiff-arming of the local media for years and years while being most accommodating to the national luminaries such as Dick Vitale is one of the many ways Coach K has allowed his arrogance to show through. It’s especially galling to remember how cooperative he was to all of us back in the early 80s when he was in the process of putting his powerhouse program together. It wasn’t until he had won his first two national championships that he decided he didn’t need the Winston-Salem Journal, the Greensboro News and Record, the Charlotte Observer, the Raleigh Observer or even the Durham Herald-Sun enough to return our phone calls.

Even more frustrating was the realization that when we did have a chance to ask Krzyzewski questions, in a setting where he was settled and reflective, and not choking on the bile of his competitive nature, the answers you got were incredibly insightful and compelling. The man has a brilliant mind, and I love the way it works. He’s not a bit afraid to take on conventional wisdom and as a result he’s always looking for, and finding, new and often really innovative ways to put a formidable basketball team on the floor. If he doesn’t have a serviceable point guard, he puts Jon Scheyer there and tweaks his offense in such a way that Scheyer’s scoring average actually goes up while the team wins more games. If he’s caught without the kind of talent he usually has inside, he cobbles together a front court around Brian Zoubek and Lance Thomas and goes off and wins another national championship.

Something Krzyzewski said back in 2005 comes to mind every year about this time, when the ACC preseason polls are released. Krzyzewski’s Devils were picked uncommonly low that season (probably around third or fourth, the real depths for Duke), and after they won the ACC title in Washington, Krzyzewski was asked if he took any special satisfaction from proving “the experts” wrong.

His reply was perfect. He wasn’t being antagonistic, as he can certainly be, and he went out of his way to explain that he wasn’t criticizing the media for their pick. But he also revealed that he never worried about it for one day either. The reason: It’s meaningless.

How, he wondered, can anybody predict the fortunes of teams they’ve never seen play? It’s really impossible in college basketball, particularly in the modern game where so many of the critical players are freshmen who have never played a game of college basketball. And even the ones coming back are going to be different players. Some are going to be better, some are not. And that’s not even bringing into account the injuries that can so dramatically affect any team in any sport.

Dave Odom and Skip Prosser were two of my favorite coaches to cover ever. But both were prone to trumpet their successes by pointing out how they were picked to finish seventh, and they actually finished third. I don’t blame them for pointing it out, but again, so what? It’s meaningless.

None of this is to say that we don’t know that Duke should be better than Wake this year. It should be, and it will be. But to pretend to know enough about 12 teams we’ve never seen play to predict an exact order is a real stretch.

My method is to bracket the teams into three and sometimes four divisions. This year, for instance, I suspect Duke will be the best team, with its main competition coming from Virginia Tech and maybe North Carolina. I’m almost ready to put Miami in that mix, remembering how good the Hurricanes were last spring after Durand Scott and Reggie Johnson found their bearings. But I’ll lower the expectations on my friend Frank Haith and include Miami in the middle tier with N.C. State, Florida State and Maryland. And among the others, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Virginia, BC and Wake, I don’t see a great deal of difference. All have serious limitations they’ll have to overcome to compete for even a first-round bye in the ACC Tournament, much less a conference title.

Now watch Virginia Tech go 7-9 in the league and Virginia go 9-7. If it happens, I can blame my prediction on ignorance, because we’re all ignorant until we learn what, for the time being, is impossible to know.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Bzdelik Building Team From Ground Up

Made it by basketball practice yesterday and talked with Coach Bzdelik. He declined to shake my hand, but I didn’t take it personally. He said he’d picked up a bug and didn’t want to pass it on. We talked some about the Bob Dylan concert he and his wife attended Saturday night at Joel Coliseum, while I was riding back through Fancy Gap on my way back from Wake’s football thumping at Virginia Tech. He said he and Nina loved the show, but he admitted they couldn’t really make out the words. Sounds like the same Bob Dylan I’ve known and loved since flipping out over Like a Rolling Stone Bob Dylan*** back in 1965 as a seventh grader at Franklin Elementary School.

Long time ago.

We also discussed one of the real issues he faces as he builds this team pretty much from the ground up, that being who is going to run the point. I’ll write about it for tomorrow’s Journal.

Tony Chennault was still in his boot, J.T. Terrell had his cast on his right thumb and Ari Stewart was still being held out of contact drills while recovering from what was a pretty nasty concussion he sustained on Sept. 24. He said he took a nasty enough spill that an ambulance was dispatched to haul him to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. But basketball trainer Greg Collins assured me that all are rapidly on the mend. Stewart was to be re-evaluated after yesterday’s practice, Chennault will be checked out Thursday and Terrell will have a follow-up on Monday.

It’s a great courtesy to be able to attend practices, one that few college coaches extend. While there I follow the same rule that has been in place since Dave Odom was head coach, the one that Skip Prosser put most succinctly.

“Practices are open until I get burned,’’ Skip said. “When I get burned, they’re closed.’‘

As informative as they are, the practices will get better as the Deacons get closer to the Nov. 12 opener against Stetson. Right now most of the time is spent on installing schemes and concepts and working on fundamentals. I saw first-hand something C.J. Harris had observed last week during media day.

“He’s really calm,’’ Harris said. “He really likes to explain what he’s teaching, and he has the patience to explain. I think that’s great, given how many freshmen we have. We’ll go through something and he’ll stop and explain it and give everybody a chance to catch up.

“It might be different because last year we had (four) seniors and with seniors you don’t have to explain everything.  But that’s the biggest thing that I’ve noticed.’‘

***I love this version of Like a Rolling Stone because that’s the Band backing Bobby D up during his early days of going electric. But if you notice, that’s not Levon Helm on drum. As Levon wrote in his bio This Wheel’s on Fire he couldn’t stand all the booing Bob and boys were getting at the time from the Folk Music purists. So he headed back to Arkansas, knocked around in Mexico, bussed some tables and ended up working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, before re-joining the Band in Woodstock after the tour was over.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Pitino Looking at Woods

You may have read where Tony Woods has decided on Louisville as his next destination to play college basketball. I have too. A couple of websites have reported it, without attribution.

As it turns out, Louisville has apparently yet to decide on Tony Woods.

I have a call out to Tony, and I’m hopeful he’ll call back. But I’m not optimistic. His former AAU coach, Norman Parker, told the Louisville Courier-Journal Woods to Louisville?  that Woods is not talking with the media. But Parker is, and he’s saying that Woods did indeed visit Louisville this past weekend, and that he would love to play for Coach Rick Pitino.

“He wants to be there,’’ Parker said.

I’d heard that Tim Fuller, a Louisville assistant who was a walk-on at Wake, and who served as director of basketball operations at his alma mater under Skip Prosser, had his eye on recruiting Woods to Louisville. So none of this is out of the blue. What I didn’t know was that Woods, according to Parker, also has an uncle who lives in Louisville.

But the reports that Woods to Louisville is a done deal are apparently premature. Parker said that Pitino is doing his due diligence. I also imagine he’s floating a balloon or two over the fan base and key supporters to how welcoming they would be to Woods, who was convicted of misdemeanor assault against the mother of their son, with whom he lived in Winston-Salem. After being dismissed from Wake Forest by the administrative board of the ethics and honor council (I had it as the student ethics and honor council earlier, but I’ve been informed I was wrong) Woods decided to sever his ties with the university. He asked for his release, which first-year coach Jeff Bzdelik granted.

I had a problem with what Woods did, as I wrote in an earlier blog. But it bears noting that I never had a problem with him personally in my two years of dealing with him. I didn’t get to know him very well, but he was always cooperative and understanding. People make mistakes, and he made his. My hope is that he learns from this experience, and finds a place where he and his loved ones can be happy.

If that’s Louisville, good for him.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Grobe: It Starts With the Coaches

Tell me if I’m wrong, as I’m sure you will. But it seems to me that the only two criteria on which to judge a coach—any coach in any sport—are his body of work and his recent results. I got to mulling all this while driving back through Fancy Gap last night from Wake’s 52-21 beatdown by Virgina Tech. Some people seem to put far more stock in what a coach has done in his overall time at a school, and the extreme among them would happily grant a successful coach a lifetime pass. Others don’t give a flip about what happened last season, or even last week. If a coach hasn’t done it for them lately, nothing they’ve ever done counts.

So there’s a sliding scale between the two positions. I personally would like to think my gauge is somewhere in the middle, and maybe shaded a bit toward a coach’s overall performance at his school. But then I’m not a fan, and I should be more objective in these matters.

Jim Grobe has moved mountains at Wake Forest, and done things that many wondered if they would ever see in their lifetime. They certainly hadn’t seen them before, at least not since the ACC got up and running 57 years ago. The day Grobe took over as Wake’s coach, eight of the nine teams in the ACC at that time had all-time winning percentages that exceeded 50 percent. All had won more games than they had lost since taking up the sport. The ninth, Wake Forest, had a winning percentage of 39 percent. That’s more than 10 percentage points behind everyone, Duke, N.C. State, Maryland, Virginia. Some really good coaches (Cal Stoll, John Mackovic, Al Groh, Bill Dooley) took a stab at making the Deacons a consistent winner, and all failed. There’s a great case to be made that of all the teams playing in major conferences, Wake Forest had the worst 20th century of all.

In Grobe’s nine previous seasons, he won 59 games and lost 51, enjoyed five winning seasons, coached the Deacons to an ACC championship and three straight bowls and endeared himself to the fan base with his warmth and competence while doing it. Name me another conference coach other than George Welsh of Virginia who had ever turned a program’s fortunes around so dramatically.

Then came 2009, and Grobe and his staff had a bad year. He owned up to it, and I wrote about it in a blog that was posted Sept. 2. He said complacency slipped into the program, and not enough was done to shore up the cracks. The Deacons sat home during the bowl season in Riley Skinner’s senior year as quarterback. Tough year all around, especially given what the fans had come to expect.

But this season has completely baffled me. I watched the Deacons all through preseason and I thought I saw a team at least capable of competing in the conference. And I thought I saw that team against Duke. But I haven’t seen it since. What I have seen is a team that looks dazed and confused more often than not, especially on defense. When Presbyterian’s receivers were running open through the Deacons’ secondary, I suspected that might be a concern. But I also recognized it was the first game and perhaps the problems could be solved. They haven’t been, as Virginia Tech proved yesterday by scoring touchdowns on seven of eight first-half possessions, without really breaking a sweat.

“I thought at times we didn’t play very good fundamentally,’’ Grobe said. “I thought we had some poor fundamentals. But I thought there were at times when we played everything pretty good, except go get the ball. And it looked like our young guys especially two or three times—especially on deeper throws—they were in great position to make plays and just didn’t make them. It was almost like `OK, you catch the ball and I’ll tackle you.’ We’ve got to get those guys to be more aggressive going to the football.

“Now I know we’re pretty conservative in the way we coach, and we like to knock the ball down and not let it be caught. But I thought we were in position to actually go up and beat a receiver a couple of times and didn’t do it. Now that will be experience. But we’ve got quit making our guys scared to go make a play. It looked to me like we were in great position a couple of times and it looked like we were a little tentative going after the football.’’

Grobe doesn’t have a handle on this team, and he admits it. He said last week that the staff has never worked harder, and I know they’ve changed their routines and approaches to try to get through to players who continue to bust the same assignments week after week. This does not look like a Jim Grobe-coached football team, at least not the kind of Jim Grobe teams I watched for the first eight years.

The season has clearly reached the crossroads. The Deacons have two weeks to prepare for the rest the schedule, consisting of Maryland, BC, Clemson, N.C. State and Vanderbilt. There’s some winnable games left by a team capable of winning.

“We’re doing things right now, X and Os wise, that have really been good to us in the past,’’ Grobe said. “But I think what we’ve really got to do is look at ourselves. I felt like when we went out to Stanford, that was a fiasco primarily because we were playing two different types of front defensively and asking kids to think a lot. I didn’t feel like that was going to be a problem (against Virginia Tech), but obviously our kids just didn’t handle it very well.

“So our dilemma is going to be, when we go to Maryland we’ve got to keep asking ourselves `How can we make these guys better, not only fundamentally, but just mentally—knowledge-wise. And a little bit of that is a problem of still trying to find the right combination of talent, trying to get the right guys out there. We tried to do that (against Virginia Tech) and obviously didn’t play very well defensively. We’re still trying to find a mix and find some kids who will step up and play their best football. But it will be interesting to see. What I wanted to see (yesterday) when things started going south a little bit, who stepped up and kind of played like warriors. And I think we had a few of those. I think we had some guys who, when things started getting nasty, they got mean and played harder. We had some guys who maybe didn’t play as well late as early, so those are questions we have to answer.

“But as always, we’ve got to start with the coaches, and we’ve got to look at what we’re asking our guys to do.’’

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Another Game, Another Collapse

Jim Grobe is a good football coach. He doesn’t need me or anybody else saying that, not after what he did in his first eight seasons as Wake Forest’s head coach.

But the Wake Forest team that got embarrassed by Virginia Tech 52-21 today was not a well-coached team. Neither was the one that lost to Georgia Tech and Navy in the last 30 seconds of the last two games.

Well-coached teams don’t continue to make the kinds of mistakes the Deacons have made all season. Well-coached teams don’t leave receivers wide open on third and long. Well-coached teams don’t have to call timeouts to get all their offensive players on the right page of the playbook. Well-coached teams don’t give up seven touchdown drives on eight first-half possessions, as the Deacons did today.

Looking around at the homecoming crowd of 66,233 at Lane Stadium, it struck me that the Deacons of 2010 have to be the perfect visiting team. They’ve got some weapons, the biggest of which, Josh Harris, went off for an amazing 241 yards on 20 carries. So they can provide a thrill or two.

But when your team really needs a first down, you have to feel pretty confident it’s going to get it. And usually there won’t be that much to sweat about. Third-and-18? No problem. Just run a receiver out and he’ll be open. Danny Coale was open enough on one such play today to pick up 37 yards.

I know Grobe well enough to know this season is eating him up. He blasted the Deacons after last week’s loss to Navy. I thought that would make a difference today, but it didn’t. It’s true the Deacons are young in certain key areas, but if that’s the best you’ve got then you can’t blame the lack of experience.

If the older players were better, they would have beaten the kids out.

What started off as a promising season with victories over Presbyterian and Duke has fallen apart under the strain of five straight losses. Wake will now have a week off before its next game at Maryland on Oct. 30, and from what I saw today, the Deacons need it.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Basketball Team To Be Unveiled Oct. 23

One member of the Peanut Gallery, and I can’t remember who, asked me if Coach Jeff Bzdelik planned any flashy opening to the basketball season such as Midnight Madness. I said I didn’t think so, but I’d check.

Yesterday, at the media gathering, I checked.

“I fall asleep by 11,’’ Bzdelik sad. “I can’t.’‘

But he did mention a night planned for the students, and I see where Scott Wortman of the media relations staff has just released the details. It’s set for Saturday, Oct. 23 at 9 o’clock at Reynolds Gym. The event is billed as ``Black and Gold Madness’’ and will feature both the men’s and women’s basketball teams.

The doors will open at 8. First come, first served.

“It’s because our students are having a Quad Party, and we thought we would just do it moreso for our students in the other gym—with T-shirts and things and dunk contests,’’ Bzdelik said.

I’m not a student, but I know enough back doors to sneak in if necessary.

Deacons Frontcourt No Muscle Beach

It bears noting that when Tony Woods had one of the worst days of his young life and did what he knows he should have never done, Wake Forest didn’t immediately send him packing. And the university, in allowing the process to proceed at its own pace, wasn’t looking after the interests of another Tim Duncan or Al-Farouq Aminu or even an Eric Williams.

Woods, in his two seasons at Wake Forest, was never close to that good.

The main reason he’ll be missed is that the Deacons, at least at the time being, don’t really have any other experienced post players. His absence will put much more on the untested backs of Ty Walker, Carson Desrosiers and Melvin Tabb, and Nikita Mescheriakov, once he becomes eligible against UNC Wilmington on Dec. 12, will be asked to pitch in as well.

Where it will most affect the Deacons will be at the defensive end. Woods remained decidedly limited offensively over his two seasons at Wake, but he did provide a big, physical body, the kind most college teams build their post defense around. So one of the questions I had for Coach Jeff Bzdelik at yesterday’s media gathering was what he had in mind to overcome Wake’s lack of muscle and bulk.

“Well we’re going to have to do some things defensively to offset, perhaps, our lack of depth,’’ Bzdelik said. “We’re going to have to probably double in the post well, and make that a staple of ours defensively—and do some things defensively to keep people out of foul trouble and to offset some of that physicality and depth inside that we lack right now because of the absence of Tony Woods.’‘

Michael Jennings of DeaconSports wondered if that would make Bzdelik more apt to play zone.

“I’m not really a zone guy,’’ Bzdelik said. “I don’t even know how to teach a 2-3 to be honest with you. In the past, out of a timeout I’ve done some 2-3 and I’ve had to have my assistants do it because I don’t know how to do it.’‘

But for every yin there’s a yang and Bzdelik said he can see Desrosiers, a 6-11, 235-pound freshman said to possess good ball skills and an accurate shooting touch, causing problems for teams at the other end of the court. Although he was recruited to play power forward, Bzdelik recognizes that the lack of bodies will result in Desrosiers logging minutes at center as well.

“No question,’’ Bzdelik said. “But Carson is a pick-and-pop guy because he can really shoot the ball. And what does that do? It opens up the court. Spacing is so critical. It really is. And Carson can do that. (Centers) have to come out and play him. They do. And what does that do? It opens up the court maybe to go post up somebody who might have a mismatch in there. We can invert post-ups.’‘

Booi, Souza, Gallagher Chomping at Bit

Football coaches who advertise their game-plan to any upcoming opponent that might be interested don’t remain football coaches for very long.

Jim Grobe didn’t reveal Wake Forest’s move to the 3-4 defense before back-to-back games against wishbone teams Georgia Tech and Navy. And as an aside, I have to say the move was a masterstroke that should have, given the way the Deacons handled the run, been the ticket to at least one, if not two, victories. But both the Yellow Jackets and Midshipmen passed their way to wins, a tough pill to swallow considering how generally anemic their passing games are.

That said, Grobe hasn’t announced the Deacons will incorporate the 4-3 back into their defensive game plan for this Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech, but I’m sure it wouldn’t surprise Coach Frank Beamer of the Hokies if he does. If nothing else it would get the team’s bigger defensive linemen like Frank Souza, Ramon Booi, John Gallagher and Zach Thompson back in the game.

All stood and watched the last two games as Grobe and defensive coordinator Brad Lambert fashioned a three-man defensive line out of quicker, more agile players like Gelo Orange, Tristan Dorty, Nikita Whitlock, Derricus Ellis and Kevin Smith. Not since the Florida State game have Souza, Booi or Gallagher even played.

They can expect to on Saturday.

“Talk about great kids,’’ Grobe said. “You haven’t heard anything from them. Maybe the players have, but as coaches, we don’t hear anything from Frank or Ramon or any of those guys. They’ve been really good team guys.

“So they’ve got fresh legs now. They were bouncing around (Monday) night. They’re excited to get back on the field.’‘

It’ll be interesting to see what roles Orange and Ellis and Smith play should the Deacons rely predominantly on the 4-3 against Virginia Tech. Grobe has already said that Duran Lowe’s stint at linebacker is over, at least for the time being. He has been moved back to his original position of strong safety.

“I think we’re going to keep him at safety for now,’’ Grobe said. “But when we recruited him we thought `this is a strong safety, potential outside linebacker, edge backer, type guy.’ That’s what we used him at the other night.

“We’ve got him back at safety again. I think he will probably stay at safety the rest of the season, but in the spring we’ll look at it and see where we need to balance out the personnel.’‘