It’s Stachitas’ Job to Lose
The way I learned how to pronounce the last name of sophomore Ted Stachitas was to rhyme it with Unitas. And as a Baby Boomer born in 1952, I know all about who Johnny Unitas was. Maybe I’m taking this association game a bit to far, but Stachitas brings to mind Unitas in another way. Remember how Unitas hunched his shoulders forward, and never seemed to stand up straight? Stachitas hunches his shoulders as well. I don’t have to see his No. 13 to know it’s him. Now if he can only resemble Unitas the least bit once the games start then Wake Forest won’t miss Riley Skinner nearly as much as most feared.
And barring any serious injury or upheaval at that position between now and Sept. 2, Stachitas will start in the opener against Presbyterian. Coach Jim Grobe said it is so many words at this morning’s practice. The so many words were as follows:
“I would say certainly by the weekend we’ll have to have our guy ready to go, and it would have to change from what it is right now,’’ Grobe said. “Somebody would just really have to make a real move – either from the top down or the bottom up. It’s pretty solid right now.
“We’ll see how it goes and keep working. Certainly by the weekend we’ll have an order. Maybe it’ll be the same as it is right now. I don’t know.’‘
I took that to mean Grobe doesn’t want Stachitas to get too big for his helmet and start slacking off, though given how long Stachitas has waited for his opportunity and the injury issues he has overcome, that’s something I wouldn’t expect. And Grobe also wants the other quarterbacks to keep battling to be No. 1. One way he keeps the competition boiling is to give plenty of repetitions in practice to all four candidates, Stachitas, freshman Tanner Price, redshirt freshman Brendan Cross and junior Skylar Jones.
“The thing that you notice though is we’re still giving reps to everybody,’’ Grobe said. “You’ve got to be careful because not only with the other positions, but quarterback especially, you’ve got to have that `what-if?’ plan. The thing that we learned from Riley is we thought Brett Hodges was the guy and then Brett got dinged in the last scrimmage and when Riley got his chance nobody could beat him out. So we think it’s Ted right now, but Ted knows it might be two, three or four in that mix.
“We’ll keep working guys. At some point we might start cutting some reps, but right now we’re kind of balancing it out.’‘
Last week Grobe said that Stachitas was first team, with Price second team and Cross and Jones neck-and-neck for third. I thought for sure, based on last Thursday’s scrimmage, that Cross had made a move with his performance. I was wrong. Grobe said that Price remains No. 2.
One reason is that Cross has been bothered in recent practices with a sore hand.
“Brendan’s still having a little trouble,’’ Grobe said. “I saw him a couple of times kind of bend over after he threw balls. His hand’s still real sore.
“So that’s kind of the order we’re going in right now.’‘