Deacon Football Team Looks the Part
Jim Caldwell used the description ``bigger, stronger, faster’’ so many times during his eight seasons as Wake Forest’s head coach that the line became easy fodder for the cynical. If the Deacons were so big and strong and fast, many of us wondered, how come they couldn’t win more than 26 of the 89 games Caldwell coached.
Jim Grobe likes to joke around as well, but it’s hard to believe that any of the Deacons opponents will be laughing at the roster-full of talent that Grobe has assembled for his 10th season as Wake Forest’s head coach. The team that scrimmaged for the first time this preseason today at BB&T Field passed the eye test with flying colors, creating the notion that if the Deacons play as well as they look then they’ll be one of the ACC’s surprise teams this season.
The focus of the day was obviously on the quarterback battle, and I’ll have a story on how Ted Stachitas, Skylar Jones, Brendan Cross, Tanner Price and Patrick Thompson all fared in tomorrow’s Journal. A short version: Grobe was pleased with all five, but said he and quarterbacks coach Tom Elrod and offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke will need at least another week before they’re able to name a starter for the Sept. 2 opener against Presbyterian.
“Tommy Elrod and I were talking earlier this morning and Tommy hit the nail right on the head,’’ Grobe said. “I’m not sure this is going to be a scrimmage situation of name the quarterback. We’re evaluating everything these guys do. If they sneeze, we write it down. So I think it’s probably going to be another solid week, and it’s probably going to be on a body of work rather than one day.
“We’re going to have to just keep tabulating everything and when we decide we have to name a quarterback we’re going to have to look at a laundry list of things that we’ve been tracking.’‘
But whoever emerges will have plenty of weapons at their ready, and whoever quarterbacks against the Deacons is going to have to deal with, if not the biggest, then at least the strongest and fastest defense Wake Forest has ever put on a field. Those aren’t just my words.
“We’ve had some faster players, but just offensively, defensively, top to bottom it’s one of the more athletic teams we’ve had and probably overall is our fastest team,’’ Grobe said. “I like our athleticism right now.
“I think our coaches have got to do a good job right now getting our guys lined up and going in the right direction. What I saw today was I saw a team having fun competing and playing against each other and a lot of physical, tough, hard-nosed licks out here and a lot of full-speed play.’‘
Grobe said that slotbacks Devon Brown (four catches for 67 yards and three carries for nine yards) and Michael Campanaro (three catches for 20 yards and three carries for 18) probably played as well as anybody today. But one player who wasted no time making a strong impression was redshirt freshman Josh Harris, who darted off tackle into the secondary and raced 65 yards for the touchdown.
Safety John Stamper, racing over from the other side, appeared to have the angle on Harris, but Stamper never got close enough to even dive at Harris’ feet. Harris missed spring practice while shoring up his academic standing but Grobe envisions him sharing time with senior Josh Adams and junior Brandon Pendergrass this season.
Harris has been clocked at 4.34 seconds in the 40-yard dash.
“If you’ve got an angle on Josh Harris, don’t be real comfortable with the angle because that guy can motor now,’’ Grobe said. “He can really go.
“We’ve got to play all three running backs. We’re going to end up doing that. The thing that we haven’t done – I don’t know how we’ll get to it because we’re not just a hand-the-ball-to-the-tailback team right now – I’d like to see Brandon and both Joshes get more carries. But the nature of the offense is that we’re going to be a little more selective about what play we’re running based on formation and what we’re seeing on defense and things like that. So it’s going to vary. One day you might get 30 carries and the next day you might get two.
“That’s one thing I would have liked to have seen today. I would have liked to have seen our running backs carry the ball a little bit more, but I think they’re going to get their wish here before long.’‘