CuseLegacy
Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 93,647
- Like
- 144,244
Grobe: Deacs on a mission for bowl game
• The team has faded in recent seasons, leading the coach to consider using more freshmen.
BY DAN COLLINS
Winston-Salem Journal
Wake Forest will begin football practice today with the same two goals it has carried into every season since Jim Grobe became head coach in 2001.
The bottom-line goal is to play in a bowl. The ultimate goal is to win the ACC championship.
“We were good enough to be a bowl team last year,” Grobe said this week. “In the middle of the season we were, but we didn’t finish the way anyone wanted.
“I believe the kids were a little embarrassed about that. I believe they’re on a kind of a mission.”
Today’s practice is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on campus. The Deacons will also practice on campus at 4 p.m. Saturday, take Sunday off and practice on campus at 7:30 p.m. Monday . All the practices are open to the public.
The rest of the preseason practice schedule has yet to be set, but the Deacons will likely practice in the late afternoons and evenings to accommodate summer-session classes.
To get its first winning season since 2008, Wake Forest will have to finish what it starts. That’s been a problem in recent years, as the Deacons lost nine of their last 10 in 2010, five of their last six in 2011 and four of their final five last season.
Making the 2012 season even harder to swallow was the repeated poundings Wake Forest absorbed down the stretch, losing to Clemson 42-13, N.C. State 37-6, Notre Dame 38-0 and Vanderbilt 55-21.
After beating Boston College 28-14 on Nov. 3, the Deacons were outscored 130-27 by the Wolfpack, Irish and Commodores.
The painful experience convinced Grobe that he needs more depth, even if it means dipping deeper into the pool of incoming freshmen.
Traditionally, Grobe has preferred to give the bulk of every freshman class a redshirt season to gain strength and experience while becoming acclimated to college . Only 22 Wake Forest freshmen have played in their first year under Grobe, and there has never been more than three in the same season. All that could change in 2013.
“The best thing we can do starting out is not go too fast,” Grobe said. “We need to work on fundamentals. That’s one of the things that we really stressed this past spring, and we’ll continue to do that. A close second is evaluating the young guys. That puts a little more pressure on us to do a better job of that early.”
The Deacons will have 13 players back who started the season finale last fall against Vanderbilt — quarterback Tanner Price, flanker Michael Campanaro, tight end Spencer Bishop, tackle Dylan Intemann, center Whit Barnes and guard Frank Souza on offense, and nose guard Nikita Whitlock, defensive tackle Zach Thompson, outside linebacker Justin Jackson, inside linebacker Mike Olson, safety A.J. Marshall and corner-backs Merrill Noel and Kevin Johnson on defense.
The fate of Josh Harris, a running back who also started against Vanderbilt, remains in the hands of the NCAA. Wake Forest has submitted a waiver to restore the eligibility of Harris, who failed to pass a spring course he needed to play as a senior.
Wake Forest is also awaiting NCAA rulings on the status of Zachary Allen, a redshirt junior who was expected to compete for a starting spot at outside linebacker, and Anthony Wooding Jr., a junior safety who transferred to Wake Forest after being dismissed from Air Force before the 2012 season because of a violation of the academy’s code of conduct.
The NCAA has told Wake Forest to expect its rulings on all three players over the first two weeks of August.
• The team has faded in recent seasons, leading the coach to consider using more freshmen.
BY DAN COLLINS
Winston-Salem Journal
Wake Forest will begin football practice today with the same two goals it has carried into every season since Jim Grobe became head coach in 2001.
The bottom-line goal is to play in a bowl. The ultimate goal is to win the ACC championship.
“We were good enough to be a bowl team last year,” Grobe said this week. “In the middle of the season we were, but we didn’t finish the way anyone wanted.
“I believe the kids were a little embarrassed about that. I believe they’re on a kind of a mission.”
Today’s practice is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on campus. The Deacons will also practice on campus at 4 p.m. Saturday, take Sunday off and practice on campus at 7:30 p.m. Monday . All the practices are open to the public.
The rest of the preseason practice schedule has yet to be set, but the Deacons will likely practice in the late afternoons and evenings to accommodate summer-session classes.
To get its first winning season since 2008, Wake Forest will have to finish what it starts. That’s been a problem in recent years, as the Deacons lost nine of their last 10 in 2010, five of their last six in 2011 and four of their final five last season.
Making the 2012 season even harder to swallow was the repeated poundings Wake Forest absorbed down the stretch, losing to Clemson 42-13, N.C. State 37-6, Notre Dame 38-0 and Vanderbilt 55-21.
After beating Boston College 28-14 on Nov. 3, the Deacons were outscored 130-27 by the Wolfpack, Irish and Commodores.
The painful experience convinced Grobe that he needs more depth, even if it means dipping deeper into the pool of incoming freshmen.
Traditionally, Grobe has preferred to give the bulk of every freshman class a redshirt season to gain strength and experience while becoming acclimated to college . Only 22 Wake Forest freshmen have played in their first year under Grobe, and there has never been more than three in the same season. All that could change in 2013.
“The best thing we can do starting out is not go too fast,” Grobe said. “We need to work on fundamentals. That’s one of the things that we really stressed this past spring, and we’ll continue to do that. A close second is evaluating the young guys. That puts a little more pressure on us to do a better job of that early.”
The Deacons will have 13 players back who started the season finale last fall against Vanderbilt — quarterback Tanner Price, flanker Michael Campanaro, tight end Spencer Bishop, tackle Dylan Intemann, center Whit Barnes and guard Frank Souza on offense, and nose guard Nikita Whitlock, defensive tackle Zach Thompson, outside linebacker Justin Jackson, inside linebacker Mike Olson, safety A.J. Marshall and corner-backs Merrill Noel and Kevin Johnson on defense.
The fate of Josh Harris, a running back who also started against Vanderbilt, remains in the hands of the NCAA. Wake Forest has submitted a waiver to restore the eligibility of Harris, who failed to pass a spring course he needed to play as a senior.
Wake Forest is also awaiting NCAA rulings on the status of Zachary Allen, a redshirt junior who was expected to compete for a starting spot at outside linebacker, and Anthony Wooding Jr., a junior safety who transferred to Wake Forest after being dismissed from Air Force before the 2012 season because of a violation of the academy’s code of conduct.
The NCAA has told Wake Forest to expect its rulings on all three players over the first two weeks of August.
