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Grobe has Deacons playing old-school WINSTON-SALEM — Jim Grobe is tired of injuries. He’s tired of nicks and bruises and strains and pulls. He’s tired of hearing about them, and he’s tired of what they usually result in.
Losing.
Wake Forest went 3-9 last year, hardly a surprise in the big scheme of things at Wake but a season that came as a shock to Grobe and many of the fans whose big picture goes back about six years.
The little Deacons have now suffered through two straight losing seasons after Grobe’s unprecedented three-year run that saw Wake win 28 games and go to three bowl games.
Last year didn’t sit well with Grobe, and neither did the one before that. Never one to mince words, he sent a message to his team this spring.
“Last season doesn’t cut it,” he said. “It’s not like we have a season like we had last year, we can’t all get together at Chuck E. Cheese and hand out trophies. At this level, it just doesn’t happen and our guys have to understand it. If you don’t practice, it’s going to be hard for us to be a good football team. We have to have durable and dependable guys.”
He’s no longer using the word “toughness,” having turned the doctoring over to the doctors. Grobe now stays out of the healing process. However, he’s still in charge of the playing time.
His players are getting the message.
“There’s a level of expectations now,” senior linebacker Kyle Wilber said Tuesday.
Wilber’s not even listed as a starter right now, and he knows why. It’s because he’s dinged up. The days of getting dinged up and taking a few plays off are over at Wake Forest. Grobe is going old-school. At least as much as he can.
“I played for old-school guys,” he said. “You go out every day in pads and go through drills and go through the chutes and inside drills and live scrimmages all the time, and that’s what makes you tough and gets you used to playing physical football.”
The realities of the modern game, and the number of players a team can carry on its roster, make it impossible to prepare a team like that.
“We’ve tried to be as physical as we could be this summer,” he said. “More than anything else, you’ve just got to dig your cleats in the ground and get your pads down and blow a couple of snot bubbles and get after it.”
Wake will get after it Thursday night in the first game of the college football season, a road game at Syracuse against a big team that will test the Deacons’ resolve.
More than anything else, that’s the key to this season for Wake. Grobe has thought about it and worried about it and studied and discussed it with his staff and players. And he’s come to the conclusion that the Deacs just got complacent in recent seasons. As amazing as that sounds, a program that still has one of the worst winning records in history got used to winning.
Wake returns a senior-led offensive line and some key players throughout the lineup. The Deacs also return some starters who aren’t starting. Grobe is hoping that his players are stinging from last year’s 3-9 season the same way he is. And he hopes the offseason message got through.
“Hopefully the experiences of last year will help us this year,” he said. “We got our nose bloodied quite a bit last year, and I would assume that will happen again this year. But I hope we play a little tougher with bloody noses this year.”
“Coach wants to know who’s going to want to play all four quarters,” Wilber said.
The message is pretty clear.
“The message probably comes over with our players that I’m drawing a line in the sand and challenging them,” Grobe said.
The challenge was met in spring and again the past few weeks. But it’s all talk until Thursday night when Wake has to go up to Syracuse and open the season in the Carrier Dome. The Deacons opened with Presbyterian in 2010. The last time they opened with Syracuse was in 2006. That was the year Wake won the ACC title and went to the Orange Bowl.
If there’s a correlation, Grobe said it was “a small body of evidence.”
There’s a small margin of error at Wake Forest. Traditions die hard, though, and after a remarkable run following that win over Syracuse in 2006, the Deacons are sliding back toward the old days. Grobe is not going to let that happen because his teams aren’t tough enough.
Wake will open the season in a climate-controlled dome Thursday night. To get ready for it, the Deacons practiced in the rain Monday.
Old-school. As much as they can.
ED HARDIN
Back
Continue
Losing.
Wake Forest went 3-9 last year, hardly a surprise in the big scheme of things at Wake but a season that came as a shock to Grobe and many of the fans whose big picture goes back about six years.
The little Deacons have now suffered through two straight losing seasons after Grobe’s unprecedented three-year run that saw Wake win 28 games and go to three bowl games.
Last year didn’t sit well with Grobe, and neither did the one before that. Never one to mince words, he sent a message to his team this spring.
“Last season doesn’t cut it,” he said. “It’s not like we have a season like we had last year, we can’t all get together at Chuck E. Cheese and hand out trophies. At this level, it just doesn’t happen and our guys have to understand it. If you don’t practice, it’s going to be hard for us to be a good football team. We have to have durable and dependable guys.”
He’s no longer using the word “toughness,” having turned the doctoring over to the doctors. Grobe now stays out of the healing process. However, he’s still in charge of the playing time.
His players are getting the message.
“There’s a level of expectations now,” senior linebacker Kyle Wilber said Tuesday.
Wilber’s not even listed as a starter right now, and he knows why. It’s because he’s dinged up. The days of getting dinged up and taking a few plays off are over at Wake Forest. Grobe is going old-school. At least as much as he can.
“I played for old-school guys,” he said. “You go out every day in pads and go through drills and go through the chutes and inside drills and live scrimmages all the time, and that’s what makes you tough and gets you used to playing physical football.”
The realities of the modern game, and the number of players a team can carry on its roster, make it impossible to prepare a team like that.
“We’ve tried to be as physical as we could be this summer,” he said. “More than anything else, you’ve just got to dig your cleats in the ground and get your pads down and blow a couple of snot bubbles and get after it.”
Wake will get after it Thursday night in the first game of the college football season, a road game at Syracuse against a big team that will test the Deacons’ resolve.
More than anything else, that’s the key to this season for Wake. Grobe has thought about it and worried about it and studied and discussed it with his staff and players. And he’s come to the conclusion that the Deacs just got complacent in recent seasons. As amazing as that sounds, a program that still has one of the worst winning records in history got used to winning.
Wake returns a senior-led offensive line and some key players throughout the lineup. The Deacs also return some starters who aren’t starting. Grobe is hoping that his players are stinging from last year’s 3-9 season the same way he is. And he hopes the offseason message got through.
“Hopefully the experiences of last year will help us this year,” he said. “We got our nose bloodied quite a bit last year, and I would assume that will happen again this year. But I hope we play a little tougher with bloody noses this year.”
“Coach wants to know who’s going to want to play all four quarters,” Wilber said.
The message is pretty clear.
“The message probably comes over with our players that I’m drawing a line in the sand and challenging them,” Grobe said.
The challenge was met in spring and again the past few weeks. But it’s all talk until Thursday night when Wake has to go up to Syracuse and open the season in the Carrier Dome. The Deacons opened with Presbyterian in 2010. The last time they opened with Syracuse was in 2006. That was the year Wake won the ACC title and went to the Orange Bowl.
If there’s a correlation, Grobe said it was “a small body of evidence.”
There’s a small margin of error at Wake Forest. Traditions die hard, though, and after a remarkable run following that win over Syracuse in 2006, the Deacons are sliding back toward the old days. Grobe is not going to let that happen because his teams aren’t tough enough.
Wake will open the season in a climate-controlled dome Thursday night. To get ready for it, the Deacons practiced in the rain Monday.
Old-school. As much as they can.
ED HARDIN
Back
Continue
