My Take on Wake - Givens, Smith Good to Go

Givens, Smith Good to Go

So those who couldn’t wait to see Chris Givens play this season won’t have to, at least not past Saturday. Coach Jim Grobe said before tonight’s practice that the suspensions of Givens and Kevin Smith have been reduced to one game, making them available for Saturday’s ACC opener against Duke.

Grobe mentioned really early in August camp that Givens and Smith would be suspended for the first two games for the ubiquitous violation of team rules. I never found out what they did, but I did pick up along the way that they did it way back at the tail end of last season. Both have been practicing with the team all along, and Givens, especially, had an impressive camp while toughening out a painful case of turf toe. I’ve never had turf toe, but it doesn’t like much fun.

Because the transgression was committed so long ago, and because both have stayed on Grobe’s good side ever since, they’ll suit up and play Saturday.

“He’s just worked hard,’’ Grobe said of Givens. “He’s still not in love with the weight room. I’m trying to make him love the weight room. He still doesn’t do that. But as far as practice and off-the-field things, classroom, he’s been fine. So we’ve been pleased with what he’s done.

“And he’s still a kid. They’re all kids, so they can still do dumb stuff. But I think he’s going in the right direction, and that’s our job as coaches, to do things that we think will point them in the right direction—not in football, but as people. Try to be good guys and make good decisions. So hopefully he’s learned a lesson and will be able to move forward.’‘

It’s an easy conclusion to draw that Grobe felt the Deacons needed Givens to beat Duke. The memory is still pretty fresh from the last game of 2009 when Givens caught five passes at Duke for 78 yards and a touchdown.

Grobe said the decision was made before last Thursday’s opener against Presbyterian.

“Well this decision was made awhile back,’’ Grobe said. “The kids haven’t known that this was a decision that was made. But they’ve been fine. They’ve been doing what they’re supposed to do. The decision’s been made for awhile. We just didn’t tell them the decision—well actually they had an inkling before Presbyterian, but I didn’t tell them for sure until today.’‘

Expect to see plenty of Givens on Saturday, who has been getting plenty of plays in practice. Grobe said that Smith will probably have to work his way back into the rotation at defensive end, where starters Kyle Wilber and Tristan Dorty are backed by Gelo Orange, Derricus Ellis and Zach Thompson.

“Kevin not as much,’’ Grobe said of the amount of preseason work the two players received. “We’re pretty solid at the end position right now and we started cutting back his reps quite a bit.’‘

Back to the main page.

By Dan Collins on 09/06/2010 (8:46 pm)

Comments

Dan, there are those who would call Coach Grobe ulteriorly motivated, since he reduced Givens’ and Smith’s “sentences” to one game missed; perhaps, even, that Grobe is teaching weak principles. Let’s all remind ourselves of two really great teaching principles: “mercy” and “grace,” neither of which is ulterior or weak. Grace is getting what we don’t deserve; mercy is not getting what we do deserve.

Lee Anglin on 09/07/2010 (12:16 pm)

It’s very hard to keep a win streak like we have going against Duke. They will come in here jacked out of their minds. I don’t see what we can do to meet their passion, but we can be fundamentally sound and prepared to play good fb, because our overall talent level is still ahead of them. The best way to neutralize their momentum is to take it to them on the first possession. We cause a turnover or score and that mo will come down like a helium baloon. I look for our secondary to be much improved over last game since a lot of that yardage Pres. had was from blown coverage and a trick play. The other area we must improve in is catching the ball. When we do pass, we have maintain possession.

Jim on 09/07/2010 (9:25 am)

Thank goodness we get Chris Givens back. We are going to need him to help counter this Renfree/Vernon/Varner think Cutcliff seems to have going on in Durham. We have got to pull this one out of the fire somehow if we want to go bowling this year.

DannyB on 09/07/2010 (7:38 am)