The Option is Just One Option
If you’ve drawn any hard and fast conclusions on what kind of offense Wake Forest will run in 2010 based on spring practices and scrimmages, you’re ahead of Jim Grobe.
Spring, for Grobe, is a time to find out what might work, not necessarily what will. To that end he’s big on dabbling in all kinds of formations and schemes. He and his staff will huddle over video tape from the spring sessions and pare down the package by the time the team reassembles in August. By then, the days of dabbling will be over.
“We probably do too many things in the spring time to have any consistency,’’ Grobe said. “But we can’t do it in August. We’ve got to come back in August with a plan.
“We’re asking a lot out of our guys right now and by the end of spring we’ll have a pretty good bead—especially on our quarterbacks. I think our offensive line, receivers and running backs, those guys are going to be fine with whatever we plug them into right now. But we’ve got to figure out what our thing is with our quarterbacks.’‘
Grobe seems intent on running at least some option in 2010. I’ll be surprised if he commits to the three-back veer option with mid-line blocking that he ran at Ohio University and that is now deployed so effectively at Georgia Tech and Navy. Most of the option plays I’ve seen have been run from spread sets. But it’s pretty clear that he has put a premium on mobility from his quarterback, which would give Skylar Jones his best chance of starting in the Sept. 2 opener against Presbyterian.
“We’re having some issues right now because we’re combining option schemes and drop-back throw stuff,’’ Grobe said. “And then thing that we’re the furtherest behind on right now is running the option, just because we haven’t done it in so long.
“Our quarterback is going to be a guy that has to be able to run the football, but I don’t think he can play without being able to throw it.’‘