Stachitas Sidelined at Scrimmage
Heading over to BB&T Field this morning to watch Jim Grobe put the Deacons through their scrimmage paces, I was really anxious to finally get a chance to see what Ted Stachitas can do.
And I still am.
Somebody is going to have to replace Riley Skinner at quarterback, and it was starting to look more and more like that someone might be Ted Stachitas. He was a highly-regarded recruit before the 2008 season who Grobe has said is one of the fastest players on the team. He directed his high school, Nease High in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. to three straight state championship games and as a senior he completed 192 of 318 for 2,257 yards and 21 touchdowns, while throwing just nine interceptions.
The Florida Times-Union named him its Player of the Year and Wake Forest out-recruited Miami, Georgia Tech, Stanford, South Florida and Northwestern for his services.
But he had shoulder surgery to repair a high school injury before he arrived, and needed another round in the fall of 2008. His arm strength had yet to recover last season, which was also marred by other physical setbacks. At one point he was sidelined by an infected foot that required him to wear flip flops.
It was all pretty much moot as long as Skinner was lining up at quarterback, but this was to be the spring Stachitas was going to get his shot. And then he pulls his hamstring in Thursday’s practice and was sidelined today during the first scrimmage.
I had Osgood-Schlatters Disease in high school, effectively derailing one of the really promising careers in the history of Franklin High football (I’m assuming the sarcasm meter is on). So I know about standing around on the sidelines watching other people play. I can feel for Stachitas, and so can Grobe.
But at the same time, Grobe needs a quarterback and if Stachitas is not the guy, someone else will have to be. Today Skylar Jones looked the best running the football, but none of the quarterbacks looked the least bit like Riley Skinner throwing the football. It might have had something to do with the fact they spent much of the day dodging, not always successfully, the pass rush through a rebuilt offensive line missing probably its best player, center Russ Nenon (recovering from off-season labrum surgery). The longest pass of the day was Jones’ 13-yard completion to Chris Givens, which really was a short pass that Givens converted into a good gain. Jones was 3-for-5 for 23 yards, Brendan Cross 3-for-7 for 14 yards, walk-on Turner Faulk was 5-for-6 for 35 yards and grayshirt freshman Patrick Thompson failed to complete a pass on two attempts.
It would obviously behoove Stachitas to get as much treatment as he can on his hamstring to re-join the competition as soon as possible. The spring game is set for BB&T Field on April 17.
“I told our players today, `durability is going to mean a lot,’ ‘’ Grobe said. “We’ve got a lot of guys dinged. You can’t avoid injuries and it’s not the kids’ fault when they do get banged up. But we’ve got to get the guys ready who are going to be there.
“It’s important for guys to not only have ability, but you’ve got to be dependable. And that may be just being on time, and being at practice and being at meetings, but it also may be physically dependable—where we know if we’re going to practice you, we’re not wasting our time. We’re getting you ready to really go play. Some of the kids have not been injured much in the past, and have a ding right now. But some of the guys have had a whole bunch of different things happen to them. So at some point we’ve got to just focus on dependable guys.’‘