No Room at the Ends for Wake Forest
After confusing Brandon Terry with Matt James—and vice versa—throughout the first three weeks of preseason, I finally figured out a way to remember which is which. Although they don’t really look that much alike, both are freshmen who are taller than any receivers I can recall playing at Wake. Terry, who is from Alpharetta, Ga., is 6-5 and wears No. 86 and James, who hails from Raleigh, is 6-6 and wears No. 87. Neither has stood out from the other. So every time I’d see one make a catch, I’d have to pull out my creased, weather-beaten roster to determine who it was.
My memory crutch is the alphabet. The B in Brandon comes before the M in Matt, and Brandon wears the number that comes first.
I don’t expect to have any problem distinguishing the two receivers before the leave Wake. Both look like players. But the more I watch practice, the more I suspect both to be players who won’t play this season. Their position is just too deep and talented.
Look at who they’re competing against for playing time—Marshall Williams, Devon Brown, Chris Givens, Terence Davis, Jordan Williams, Michael Campanaro, Lovell Jackson and Danny Dembry. Another scholarship receiver, Quan Rucker, is a promising redshirt freshman from Statesville who has been sidelined this preseason with an injured knee. I recognize that the two receivers’ positions are not completely interchangeable. Marshall and Jordan William, Davis and Dembry play the more tradition split end position while Brown, Givens, Campanaro and Jackson could accurately be described as slot backs. All that said, Brian Knorr, the receivers’ coach, is going to have to be creative to get all of his receivers as much playing time as they want and, some might say, deserve.
As of yesterday morning, Marshall and Jordan Williams and Brown were sitting out practice, Marshall with an injured foot, Jordan with a nagging hamstring and Brown with a bruised knee. But none of the injuries are expected to have any impact on the depth chart for the Sept. 2 opener against Presbyterian. I wouldn’t be surprised to see all of them back in action by the final preseason scrimmage scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 4:30 at BB&T Field.
I haven’t forgotten, by the way, that Givens (along with defensive end Kevin Smith) won’t play first two games because of an unspecified violation of an unspecified team rule. But the big news of Tuesday’s practice was the return of Jackson from a pulled hamstring that had kept him out of pads for the past two weeks. Brown led the Deacons last season with 61 catches. Campanaro has had a great preseason. Jackson has the speed and shakes to torment opponents both as a receiver and as a kickoff returner.
Knorr’s nickname, by the way, is Sunny, for his upbeat disposition. I can think of about six or eight reasons why he should be feeling good.