Good Vibes Around the Grobe Home
Holly Grobe doesn’t know what’s gotten into her husband.
“We’ve had six really good practices,’’ Jim Grobe said in the early moments of Thursday’s second practice of the day. “I go home and I’m in a good mood, and Holly doesn’t know what’s going on. Usually I come in and I’m all grumpy around the house this time of year.’‘
Grobe said he feels the competition for playing time throughout the defense and receiving corps has raised the energy and intensity level over last year, when so many of the positions were locked down by proven veterans. And he loves the look of the freshman class, though he admits he doesn’t know how many of them will be able to help beat Baylor in the opener on Sept. 5.
To that end, Gelo Orange, a 6-1, 225-pound redshirt sophomore, has been moved from outside linebacker to defensive end.
“Maybe,’’ Grobe said. “Maybe.
“Gelo is one of those guys who’s pretty strong and he’s got good explosiveness. He’s a tough guy. He’s a good pass rusher, a good edge-rush guy. We worry a little about his size, but you know Kyle Wilber is not a real big guy. What we looked at, we felt numbers wise we were kind of rich at linebacker and poor at defensive end. As we get into camp, and we start figuring out what Kevin Smith might be able to do, maybe even what some of the freshmen might be able to do, how Derricus Ellis is going to be, if we get more settled a D-end we can always moved Gelo back to linebacker. I think he’s in the two-deep mix at linebacker if he stays there, but he may actually get more snaps at D-end.
“We’re just trying to balance out our personnel and make sure we don’t end up with 12 linebackers and we have trouble finding three or four defensive ends.’‘
Grobe’s worries about depth behind Devon Brown at the slot receiver position were eased a bit yesterday when Chris Givens, a redshirt freshman from Wylie, Tex. returned to practice after missing the second half of Wednesday’s workout with a bruised shoulder. Freshmen Michael Campanaro and Quan Rucker were still sidelined by hamstring pulls. And Ted Randolph, a fifth-year senior tight end, made a good go of it on his pulled hamstring earlier in the week, but athletics trainer Don Steelman felt he had to shut Randolph down for a few days to get him ready for the rest of August camp.
UPDATE:
Just got back from Friday’s workout. It was scorching, but the breeze made a huge difference when it blew across the field. Campanaro,
Rucker and Randolph were still sidelined, as were redshirt sophomore receiver Danny Dembry and senior center Trey Bailey. Dembry is limping on a pulled hamstring and Bailey has a sore back resulting from a recent weight-lifting session. But athletics trainer Don Steelman said the Bailey’s surgically repaired ankle (broken last season at Maryland) has held up fine. For the most part the Deacons are a healthy team going into Saturday’s 2 p.m. scrimmage at BB&T Field.