Weight Down, Woody Back Up
Almost all the football players who play for Wake Forest have been easy to get to know, but with Matt Woodlief it’s been easier than most.
Woody, as he’s known to coaches and teammates, is a friendly kind of guy who will look you straight in the eye and shake your hand. And because we both hail from the western part of the state—he’s from Catawba and I’m from much further west, Franklin—we speak a common language. So I was a little bit concerned when he fell from the coaching staff’s good graces in the spring and appeared ready to be put out to pasture for his final season.
Even in his best form, the 5-11 Woodlief is not the fastest linebacker on the roster. And in the spring, Woodlief was not in his best form when his weight soared to 260 pounds.
“Woody got into this mentality—and most linebackers have it—that to be tougher, you need to be bigger,’’ Grobe said. “He really worked in the weight room and got bigger, but he got too big weight-wise. So this spring, he was a step away from making a lot of plays because he just couldn’t get there. So Coach (Steve) Russ just told him `You’ve got to come back lighter.’ ‘’
All it took was a glance at the depth and talent—much of it young talent—that the Deacons have at linebacker to see the challenge Woodlief faced. And over the first few weeks of preseason I saw a great deal of such players as Justin Jackson and Joey Ehrmann and Scott Betros and Riley Haynes and Mike Olson and even freshman Zachary Allen, but I didn’t see that many reps from Woodlief.
My concern proved unfounded, for I apparently wasn’t looking at the right times.
But Grobe was. Woodlief started the third and final scrimmage with Hunter Haynes still sidelined with a concussion, and Grobe said that Woodlief is primed to play a great deal of football this fall.
“Woody, of our returning players, has maybe been the surprise of the fall camp,” Grobe said. “He made a commitment to get his weight down, so he’s become a guy now who can make plays all over the field. He’s making them sideline to sideline. He’s very well-conditioned right now. He’s just a much better player.
“So he’s gone from being a guy who we originally saw as somewhat in a backup role, to being a key guy again.’‘
Grobe said that unless things change between now and Thursday Hunter Haynes will probably start at middle linebacker with Riley Haynes on one side and Ehrmann on the other. But Grobe envisions a deep rotation with plenty of contributions from Woodlief, Betros, Jackson and Lee Malchow. Grobe likes what he has seen from Olson, though, as a redshirt freshman, he might be a year away from major minutes. And Grobe also has been impressed this August with Kyle Jarrett, a junior from West Forsyth High School who is battling to crack the substitute rotation for the first time in his career.
One player who’ll likely have to wait his time is Allen, who, along with cornerback Merrill “Bud” Noel and offensive lineman Antonio Ford, is from Pahokee, Fla., the same hometown as Alphonso Smith, Demir Boldin and Antonio Wilson. Allen arrived somewhat undersized at around 190 pounds, but much like Aaron Curry before him, packed on pounds in a hurry. Allen said Friday that he’s 30 pounds heavier than he was when he enrolled in January.
But the reason he was able to tell me that was he was sitting out practice with an injured shoulder. All freshmen have a hurdle to clear to play in their first year, and Grobe said the injury would probably convince the staff to put Allen on the redshirt shelf to preserve his season of eligibility.