Watch That Ol’ 97 Roll
A theme song for Wake Forest’s 2009 season could have been Wreck of Old 97. I know I’ve opined many times that the next best thing to winning is to lose with a good excuse, and I firmly believe that. But the truth is that if a key player goes down to injury, the good teams have someone to take his place. Which means the Deacons of 2009 weren’t that good a team. When Kyle Wilber, who wears No. 97 for Wake, broke his leg in the second game against Stanford, the defense lost its only reliable playmaker. One year after leading the nation with 37 forced turnovers, the Deacons finished last in the ACC with just 15.
So one of the feel-good stories from the opening game against Presbyterian was the return of Kyle Wilber. I know, I know. He returned to play the final three games last year, but not really. He was good down at Georgia Tech, where he had eight tackles, but was a shell of his former self against FSU (one tackle) and Duke (three tackles).
“Last year I was about 60 or 70 percent,’’ Wilber said last night.“It feels great to go back and play with my D-Dogs out there.’‘
And his D-Dogs had plenty of reason to be glad to have him. Wilber was a real force again against Presbyterian, disrupting the Blue Hose attack with eight tackles. Five of the tackles were for losses and three were sacks. The performance only confirmed what Coach Jim Grobe has been saying for months now, that losing Wilber was the worst break the Deacons got in 2009.
The overall performance of the defense was uneven. Wake held PC to 2.1 yards a rush, but the Blue Hose did pile up 18 first downs and hit the Deacons with two long touchdown plays. Wilber said plenty of work remains before next week’s game against Duke.
“They did surprise us real big time,’’ Wilber said. “They’re a good team. I’m not trying to put them down or anything. But they were moving the ball on us because it was our fault. We made too many mental mistakes out there, lining up in wrong positions, that it allowed them to make big plays.
“We’re going to go back and watch the game and make sure none of that happens against Duke – because they will take advantage of that and score.’‘
Another player who brought a smile to Grobe’s face was Alex Frye, the senior safety from Fayetteville. Frye’s career has been, shall we say, checkered. Convinced he wasn’t fully 100 percent on board with the program, Grobe actually exiled Frye from the program for three games last year. Frye would come to practice, but have to sit on the wall in his school clothes and watch.
Frye made it back by the end of last year, in time to return an interception against Duke for the Deacons’ first and only defensive touchdown of the season. And last night, he followed that up with the first defensive touchdown of 2010 by picking off a Brandon Miley pass and returning it 44 yards to the end zone.
Frye didn’t start, but provided a nice rotation with junior Cyhl Quarles and redshirt freshman Daniel Mack. Frye who finished with four tackles and forced a fumble, is another with the potential to be a big-play player for the Deacons. I know I’m not the only one to remember how he ran down Darrius Heyward-Bey in 2007 to turn the momentum and make possible a 31-24 comeback victory against Maryland.
“I thought Alex player really well tonight,’’ Grobe said. “Certainly anytime you pick a ball off and run it back for a score, that’s a good thing. I thought he played really aggressively. I thought he played hard. I didn’t see any lazy steps out there.
“He played like a guy who has a lot behind him and wants to go out playing well. I thought he played really, really well. I’ll probably look at the film and think otherwise. The best thing about it is I thought he played really, really hard.’‘