Burning to Play the Burner
There’s a misconception that Jim Grobe wants to redshirt every freshman that enters the Wake program.
He may think it’s best, in that he doesn’t want to squander a season of eligibility that would be much better utilized five years down the road when the player is older, stronger and more experienced. And he’s always said he won’t burn a redshirt just to use a player on special teams.
But if you think Jim Grobe wants to redshirt this entire senior class, you didn’t see his eyes light up when the subject of Orville Reynolds came up today.
It was a subject Grobe brought up himself at today’s gathering to eat chicken and talk football when I asked him if, barring an emergency, he had passed the point of no return for playing any of the freshmen. None of the 17 scholarship players in the latest recruiting class has yet to see the field.
“No, we’re going to still look at Orville Reynolds for the next half of the season,’’ Grobe said. “And we’ll probably still need Alex Wulfeck to punt good. We’ve got Mate (Alex Kinal) on the back burner.
“I think those two are the most likely candidates right now, and the rest of them would be in an emergency thing. If we had some injuries we weren’t counting on we could bump somebody else.up.’‘
Evan Lepler of IMG Sports followed up by asking if Grobe could see Reynolds being able to help the Deacons even if Josh Harris and Brandon Pendergrass remained healthy.
“Orville Reynolds would be a huge addition right now,’’ Grobe replied. “He’s a great special teams guy. He would help us on special teams.’‘
Coverage or returning kicks?
“Both,’’ Grobe said. “He could do both.We probably can’t have him block punts and return them, but he’s the fastest kid on our football team.
“The one guy who has stepped up that’s really helped us is Lovell Jackson. He’s doing a nice job returning the ball now. So our problem with Orville is that, if we play him right now we could literally come out of some games where he got five or 10 reps. And I really don’t want to do that. So the only way I would do that is if (running backs coach Billy Mitchell) would have to give him 20 snaps a game at running back and we’d have to get him on the special teams. If he could come off the field with 30 or 35 snaps a game, if we could do that it would probably be worth it. I can’t see that today, so we’ve just kind of got him on simmer right now.’‘
At which point I made the observation that part of Jim Grobe really wants to play Orville Reynolds this season.
“Well you like fast guys,’’ Grobe said. “I can’t ever get enough fast guys. And this is not only a fast guy. He’s a fast kid, but he’s everything. He’s good in the weight room, good in practice. He’s a good student, a really good student. He has the maturity to go out and play right now. Physically he’s slight. He’s not a very big guy (5-8, 175). But he’s one of those kids who could have three, four, five, six runs where we don’t block them real well where there’s not much going on—and then if you get it blocked really, really well, here we go.
“You know how I am. I’d love to have four older years out of him. But we’re still (contemplating) it. I’ve talked to him and he’s excited. He knows where we are and we don’t want to waste a year. It’s just like every freshman though. If the old guys stay banged up and make me play (the freshman) then their reps are going way down—because we’re not going to do that to a young kid.’’
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By Dan Collins on 10/18/2011 (1:11 pm)
Comments
Dan,
I just read your article in the Journal reporting on the fact that Coach Grobe is still considering playing Orville Reynolds. Given Josh Harris’ inability to stay on the field, I think it’s a good idea to play Reynolds.
We need two backs for the stretch run of the season, and we can’t count on Harris anymore. And as much hype as the Notre Dame game is (understandably) getting, it is the least important of the next three games, so it really makes sense to get Reynolds some carries in a live game before heading to Clemson the following week.
The good news is that Mr. Reynolds has been aware of this possibility for quite some time, so it’s not like he hasn’t had the opportunity to prepare himself physically and mentally for the situation. Also, it would not be difficult to name the entire Wake Forest campus after him if he turns out to be a stud.
DC on 11/02/2011 (9:57 am)
THEY CALL ORVILLE “MOTOR”
Wake Student on 10/19/2011 (8:45 pm)
I guess Wake Forest will be looking foward to 11 straight wins, because that is what its going to be! I have been supporting Duke football since 1983 I don’t have much faith we will win on saturday! The line on the game is 3 or so I saw at work when someone should me a newspaper with the lines not that I care! Duke just cannot beat Wake I thought we had a chance maybe early in the year, but too many injuries and this team doesn’t know how to put 4 quarters together let alone win….win they don’t know how to win its 3-9 again for Duke so all you Wake fans that attend enjoy your 48-22 win!
BlueDevilRobert1957 on 10/19/2011 (7:50 pm)
Dan - With a name like Orville Reynolds, it seems to me that he is in dire need of a nickname. I thought maybe “Orville Reddenfaster” might work. Perhaps every time he breaks a big play we could make some reference to burning the defense like popcorn or that he “popped” a big play or that he slid through the defense like he had been greased in melted butter. Anyone else have any ideas?
Matt on 10/19/2011 (10:54 am)
Jim, My sense is it comes down the availability of the upperclassmen. If Josh Harris wasn’t limping on an injured hamstring, I really doubt Grobe would be talking about playing Reynolds.
Dan Collins on 10/19/2011 (10:28 am)
Jim, I haven’t seen Duke play, so I don’t know. I did see where the Blue Devils offensive line was dominiated by FSU, punching holes for just 63 yards rushing and giving up five sacks. Wake, in contrast, rushed for 128 yards against FSU and was sacked four times. On the other side, FSU rushed for 242 yards against Duke after managing 110 against WF. So I guess the possibility exists Wake can dominate the lines at Duke. But to do so on defense the Deacons will need to get more pressure. They rank tied for last in the ACC (with BC) for fewest sacks (1 per game). So we’ll see. I also imagine Duke will play with more grit and determination against Wake. It always does.
Dan Collins on 10/19/2011 (10:26 am)
Ask Clemson Coach Dabo Swinney what he thinks of playing fast true freshmen (a la Sammy Watkins). Perhaps Coach Grobe should have had Orville Reynolds in the mix from the start of the season.
Matt on 10/19/2011 (9:56 am)
Dan, I read your article this morning about the Duke game. I know the coaches are talking about high scoring, etc., but I have a feeling Coach Grobe would really like our defense (and we have one this year), to make a statement against Duke, which I think it can if it plays disciplined. Do you get a sense that the defensive guys are physical and fast enough that they can control the line of scrimmage or am I perhaps just wistfully thinking?
Jim on 10/19/2011 (8:14 am)
Dan,
Thanks for the update here. I actually like Coach Grobe’s approach to the redshirt year because he is open to playing true freshmen. I also appreciate that he will not burn a freshman’s first year of eligibility for only approximately five plays per game.
If you don’t mind, I’d like to request some clarification. To what extent would the performance level of a healthy upper classman have to drop before the coaching staff replaces him with a true freshman? Or is it entirely up to the true freshman to merely establish that he has more to offer than an upper classman?
For instance, Coach Grobe says that Lovell Jackson has done a good job on punt returns, and Harris and Pendergrass have done a good job running the ball. I agree. Notwithstanding that the subject upper classman have been good, would the coaching staff play Orville Reynolds if they thought that he simply had more to offer? Or do the upper classmen have to be really bad too?
I understand that Coach Grobe likely won’t come right out and say whether he thinks that Orville Reynolds is better than the upper classmen right now. But clearly he is excited about Reynolds. And if we have a shot at our first bowl game in three years, don’t we need to put the best players we have on the field?
DC on 10/18/2011 (2:20 pm)
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