Digginig Through the Rubble
Wake Forest had an unsightly day in one of the prettiest football stadiums I’ve ever seen. I’ve just finished writing my lead story for the 49-24 loss to North Carolina, but before I pack up and head home, I’ll cover a few housekeeping details you might be interested in hearing.
Josh Harris, after being sidelined two straight games, carried the ball all of three times for nine yards before telling Billy Mitchell, the Deacons’ running backs coach, that his hamstring was kicking up again.
“He played the one series and told Mitch he didn’t think he could go – that he felt like he was sore,’’ coach Jim Grobe said. “We’ll have to see.’‘
From my view high above in the press box, it appeared North Carolina was paying far more attention to Chris Givens than any opponent had all season. Both Givens and Grobe felt the same way, crediting the Tar Heels strategy of playing a safety deep on Givens’ side for holding him to 42 yards on six catches. Givens entered the game leading the ACC with 126.2 yards a game, but today his longest gain was for 19 yards. He also failed to score a touchdown for the first time since the second game against N.C. State.
“There was a safety over the top about every time,’’ Givens said. “I didn’t play my best game, but at the same time they did play me well.’‘
Just when I thought there wasn’t a receiver in the ACC who could burn redshirt freshman Bud Noel, along comes Jones. In this case it was the Tar Heels’ 6-4, 225-pound senior Dwight Jones, who finished the game with six catches for 138 yards. Not all the damage was done against Noel, but some of it—including a 48-yard reception in the first quarter—was.
“Oh man, he’s an awesome receiver,’’ Noel said. “We were talking during the game. We were going back and forth. We competed real hard against each other and he made some big plays.’‘
An excuse that Noel didn’t choose to use was he dislocated his right thumb while breaking up the first pass to Jones early in the game. He had the thumb heavily wrapped after the game.
“I had to wrap it up and go back out,’’ Noel said. “It affected me a lot because the whole game it was just aching. But I tried to fight through it and just put it in the back of my head and keep playing.’‘
All cornerbacks have the kind of game that Noel had today, not that the realization made it any easier to take.
“Oh man, it was just a heart-breaking feeling, just knowing that I have so many people depending on me and my teammates,’’ Noel said. “Letting them get downfield on me, that sucks. That sucks really bad.’‘
And as for all the confusion at the end of the first half, when the Deacons were twice in a row called for having 12 men on the field, Grobe said it was a case of players putting themselves in the game.
“It’s having some energetic guys, I think, that want to be out there and kind of substituted themselves a little bit,’’ Grobe said. “But that’s still our fault. That’s still the coaches’ fault.
“We’ve got to make sure that if somebody ends up out there on the field that we put them out there.’’
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By Dan Collins on 10/29/2011 (9:45 pm)
Comments
Wow, I will always love Coach Grobe, but 5 turnovers falls on coaching. I still don’t understand frequently running a 3-4 defense, especially on many 3rd and shorts. Other teams have improved their stats on 3rd down conversions against the Deacs this year. That is the most frustrating Wake loss in years. 99% of our fans and alumni would rather beat the Heels and go 1-11. Plus, the Heels are not that great this year. Ugh!!! Dan, what is the update on Kevin Sousa? How’s he look in practice? Is he happy? Does he have a chance to play next year? Thanks and Go Deacs!
Jimmy R'87 on 10/30/2011 (5:40 pm)
The thing that bothered me about yesterday’s game was that all of us could see that Tanner was having a bad a game. However, the offensive line was running blocking pretty well and consequently Pendergrass was on his way to having a career game (which he could have had last week against Duke). So, why did we abandon the running game in the second half?
Granted UNC’s TD drive at the end of the first half put a crimp in the game plan but there was plenty of time to come back. Also, our defense couldn’t stop them so we had to do something to keep their offense off the field but it wasn’t to be.
Let’s hope we regroup for the Fighting Irish whose offense came alive against Navy. My concern going into this game is the match up of Michael Floyd against our corners. That could become ugly if we don’t pressure their QB.
Finally, the grapevine has it that Josh Harris’ hamstring is worse than we know. Even if that’s the case Pendergrass is playing very well so I’m not sure Harris would have made that much of a difference against UNC.
GO DEACS!
Deac Fan on 10/30/2011 (3:22 pm)
Watching that game was certainly like watching a train wreck in slow motion. The most frustrating part about it was that, despite coming out flat, we were still very much in the game deep in the third quarter, and our offensive line was doing a good job opening up holes of Pendergrass. But we kept turning the ball over. I have no problem with being a “big play offense”, but if you want to be a winning team, you have to be able to grind it out too. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have it yesterday. Next week is another opportunity though. Hopefully we can bounce back.
DC on 10/30/2011 (1:23 pm)
Pendergrass was fine untill the team abandoned the running game. The 1st couple drives they were running the ball effectively then a fumble a tipped ball an ill advised flea flicker and the run was over. Outside of Duke, (sorry G-W doesn’t count ) the Deacs haven’t had a second half all season. They’ll get 6 wins maybe 7 which at 6 wins is incredible considering where they’ve come from but VT and UNC were games that could and should have been won not blowouts going the other way. ND and Clemson may not let them hang around past the 1st qtr.. Maryland is reeling but Vandy looks like a coin flip.My hope is these next two mule-floggings don’t send them down the road of no return.
Glennard on 10/30/2011 (1:12 pm)
It was simply a complete meltdown in every area except special teams yesterday. What Clemson did to North Carolina the Saturday before, North Carolina did to Wake Forest in Chapel Hill. The only hope I have is that perhaps the home cooking and desire to redeem themselves will cause the coaches and players to re-double their efforts this week in practice and in preparation for the Fighting Irish.
Strangely enough, Wake still controls its own destiny in the Atlantic Division. But I would be glad just to have them get to six wins at this point.
Matt on 10/30/2011 (10:29 am)
Tanner really looked “off” or something. He just didn’t look like the same QB we’ve been seeing. I hope you get the chance to talk to him or Grobe about what was going on. This game was ugly, but I’ll take 5-3 at this point. I’m really hoping they get amped for ND this coming weekend as we really don’t need an 0-3 stretch with Clemson looming. I really like this team and I think they will come back well.
Jim on 10/30/2011 (9:26 am)
Dan, it was a terrible game. The guys clearly weren’t ready for the challenge. The one question I have is why Josh Harris didn’t play. Have you ever seen a star running back held out of 3 games in which he could have played? Is he being punished for being “soft”? There has to be more to the story than his hamstring hurt three weeks ago and Pendergrass has played fairly well.
John Sanders on 10/30/2011 (8:55 am)
Clemson just lost to Georgia Tech. WFU as sorry as we played to day still controls their own destiny to go to the ACC Championship Game with 2 ACC games left.It will take a miracle to be Clemson down there, but we aren’t dead yet.
PC on 10/29/2011 (11:27 pm)
Josh Harris needs to toughen up! Wake needs him in the line up and I think it’s proven they’re a much better team when he’s in the backfield.
av8r on 10/29/2011 (10:53 pm)
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