My Take on Wake - Two Nose Guards and a Nosy Reporter

Two Nose Guards and a Nosy Reporter

Jim Grobe stood around for a long time after this morning’s practice talking with one of the few players on the Wake Forest football team who doesn’t look down on him.

I mean that in a literal sense.

Redshirt freshman Nikita Whitlock is listed at 5-11, but he’s probably not. He’s roughly the same height as Grobe, who is 5-10. While the two were talking, I remembered that Grobe spent one season of his playing career at Virginia playing nose guard, the position Whitlock is playing for Wake Forest.

“I had been a linebacker all in college,’’ Grobe said. “And we played an odd-front defense, so I played nose guard for a year (1973). Then I went back to linebacker for my senior year. I almost wish I could have done that middle guard stuff one more year, because I think it takes you awhile to learn how to play it. But of course Nikita played it in high school. I played fullback in high school and didn’t even play defense until I went to (Ferrum Junior) College. I played linebacker, linebacker and then all of a sudden (I was asked) `Do you think you can play nose?’ I did, and it was a lot of fun. But I think when I finally got to feeling pretty good about it I went back to playing linebacker—which was fine.’‘

So what words of wisdom about the position was Grobe able to impart to Whitlock, who, at 235 pounds is probably more undersized for the position than Grobe was 37 years ago?

“The biggest deal is I think he’s going to beat a lot of people on speed and quickness,’’ Grobe said. “There are going to be some times he is going to get double-teamed to try to control him, and those are the times you’ve got to have good pad level and you’ve got to try to split blocks. He’s different than I was, because if I got doubled or combo’d, that was kind of it. My job was to make sure you didn’t get knocked back because you’ve got linebackers running to the ball. He’s good enough that if you try to combo-block him, and you double him to start with and the lineman leaves to go to the next level, he’s still fast enough to get going and go make plays.

“The thing about him is he’s a playmaker and we’ll move him around and try to make plays.’‘

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By Dan Collins on 08/24/2010 (1:50 pm)

Comments

Dan,

thank you. I am shocked that Booi isn’t the clear favorite given his size.

Wake is going to be really small in the front-7. I have no idea how they will consistently stop the run. Will be interesting to watch.

TomahawkNation.com on 08/25/2010 (8:03 pm)

Tomahawk Nation,
Nikita was running first team yesterday, but that’s always subject to change. It looks like Souza, barring injury, is going to be a fixture apt to see more playing time than anybody else inside. Booi hasn’t had the best August, and, in fact, has been third team much of the time. But that too is always subject to change.

Dan on 08/25/2010 (2:25 pm)

Is Whitlock looking at serious playing time? Will he get equal PT to Booi or Souza?

TomahawkNation.com on 08/25/2010 (10:36 am)

Thanks Dan! I hope the number of big plays that the defense is giving up starts to dwindle, and soon. I get the felling we’ll score some points but I sure hope we don’t have to outscore ‘em to win. That won’t be good!

Ken Green on 08/24/2010 (9:00 pm)

Dan,

Thanks again for the insight. This builds on one of your posts a few days ago about Wake’s lack of interior size on defense. Clearly Souza and Booi need to step up this year in order to keep opposing offensive lineman off of our linebackers and secondary. Hopefully they are coming along.

I think that the other key to the defense’s success will be the extent to which the offense can control the ball. Turnovers and three-and-outs will absolutely wear down an undersized defense. But if we can control the clock and win the field position battle (how’s the punting situation looking?!), perhaps we can let these smaller and faster defensive players attack and wreak a little havoc on opposing offenses.

DC on 08/24/2010 (4:31 pm)

Matt, the defense has given up some big plays in both scrimmages, but it has also made some big plays—a lot more than last season. The talent is obvious, but a lot of the more exciting players (Kevin Smith, Justin Jackson, Daniel Mack, Duran Lowe, Whitlock, Frank Souza, Kris Redding, A.J. Marshall, Merrill Noel, Kevin Johnson, to name more than a few) are still pups who getting a serious dose of on-the-job training. Consistency is probably too much to ask right now, but the key is how fast the younger defense players grow up and into their roles. One of the biggest differences from last season has been the return of Kyle Wilber from a broken leg.

Dan on 08/24/2010 (3:37 pm)

Hey Dan,

How do you feel that the defensive line has played in the two scrimages this summer? I know you said they were small but fast, so I’m curious how they’ve done against Wake’s offense. What is your take on the defense as a whole? It has sounded to me like they have given up a lot of big plays. Thanks for your thoughts and all the great insider information!

Matt on 08/24/2010 (3:01 pm)