Category — Wake Forest Football

There has been plenty of commentary this week on the rather lackluster performance of many of the ACC teams last week highlighted by the loss by Clemson to Alabama. So much so, Wake Forest is in the unenviable position of carrying the pride of ACC into its game against the SEC’s Mississippi (Ole Miss).

Ole Miss had a strong outing last week against Memphis as good as the one Wake Forest had against Baylor. Under new coach Houston Nutt, they are replicating the old Arkansas offense style. But will it be enough against Wake?

Wake does have the advantage of a now veteran Riley Skinner helming the Deacon offense. Spreading out the plays last week helped diffuse the loss of Kenny Moore this year and makes it hard of opponent defenses to focus on just one or two players. Now, the Deacons can put up Josh Adams, Bandon Pendergrass, Chip Brinkman, DJ Boldin and the defense will have to cover them all.

Today is also the first home game for the team and the team will show off its new Deacon Tower to a nationwide audience. Needless to say the game is a sellout. If that keeps happening, the team may just have to expand the 32,000 seats in the stadium to a bit more.

Looks like a winner for Wake today but a bit closer than last week.

Game time: 3:30
Television: ABC

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Tonight in Waco Texas, Wake Forest kicks off its 2008 season. Playing against the Baylor Bears, the Deacons have some expectations to live up to as a 23rd ranked team.  With a more mature offence lead by Rily Skinner and one of the best back field defenses in the ACC , tonight’s game should be considered to be a positive start for the Deacons. But do not take Baylor lightly as it is team that has a brand new look and new coaching.

Still Coach Jim Grobe has put the team through a serious pre-season workout. The team is ready as it can ever be. There are some injuries on the team especially on the offensive line which this season does not have a lot of bench depth but at this stage of the season it should not be a real serious issue. The defense lead by Aaron Curry and Alphonso Smith is sharp and quick. Tonight we will see for the first time, the new offence of Wake Forest. With the departure of Kenneth Moore, we will see more of the plays starting with Josh Adams but it will be interesting to see how the passes will be distributed to the new receiving corps. Expect the tight ends to play more of a role too.

Game time is 8pm and televised locally on FSN.

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After a superlative season last year that saw them with a 9-4 record and a Meinke Car Bowl win, a more mature team is ready to step onto the field with several pre -season polls putting them around 23rd - 24th position and the third highest ranked team in the ACC. Rivals have them at 24th, USA Today Coaches poll has them at 23rd, and Sporting News has them at 24th overall.

A college football team is one that is by neccessity has to rebuild itself every year. The great programs have been able to do for decades but with teams from colleges that are not among the elite football colleges, it is usually the case that a star player would carry the team to great heights for a year or two but then the team fades away when the player moves on. While Wake Forest has had its share of notables over the past several years, it remains foremost a team effort where everyone makes a contribution but no player could consider themselves indispensable.

So while stars like Steve Justice and Ken Moore have moved on, there are others to take their place. There may be a shift in emphasis this year. Whereas the offensive line was top notch last year, this year the defensive line looks to be the best in the ACC anchored by cornerback Alphonso Smith and linebacker Aaron Curry. Whereas the big plays centered on Kenny Moore with his ability to run, receive and return kicks, the offense may see more of the running option centered on Josh Adams and newcomer Brandon Pendergrass. But commanding it all will be junior Riley Skinner. Not the flashiest of quarterbacks nor one equipped with a bazooka for an arm but is steady in the pocket and is quick enough to read the field in front of him to make the best of the situation.

So all of the pieces are in place for another successful season this year by Wake Forest. Unlike last year’s start which had them facing Nebraska and Boston College early, the Deacons will have two games against weaker ranked teams before meeting a rebuilding Florida State. Week 5 will be critical as that will be the game against Clemson, touted by all sources as the team to beat in the ACC. Ff the team can pull out a victory there at home, then their chances to win the ACC championship again will look very good.

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Wake Forest released its 2008 season this week and on the whole it looks pretty decent in terms of the competition it has to meet (Home games in BOLD).

Aug. 30 at Baylor

Sept. 6 MISSISSIPPI

Sept. 20 at Florida State

Sept. 27 NAVY

Oct. 9 CLEMSON (Thurs)

Oct. 18 at Maryland

Oct. 25 at Miami

Nov. 1 DUKE

Nov. 8 VIRGINIA

Nov. 15 at NC State

Nov. 22 BOSTON COLLEGE

Nov. 29 VANDERBILT

One thing you may notice from the home games is that there are 7 of them. This will be the first time in several years that the Deacons will have this many games at home. Also, too, one of the games will be on a Thursday which is ESPN’s game of the week which should be a big draw of a game locally. Unlike last season when the team started off slow playing Boston College then Nebraska, this year’s start will be a more subdued one with Baylor and Mississippi.

The Tobacco Road series will be missing one matchup as North Carolina drops out of the rotation being replaced by Miami. That may not be a bad thing in retrospect as Butch Davis and a few strong recruiting class looks like that North Carolina will be competitive this year for a change while the Hurricanes are still in a rebuilding mode.

As for recruiting, it looks like the team has done well for itself especially through its Florida connections. Offensively, Wake will have nine additions including quarterback Ted Stachitas from Jacksonville, FL Nease High School. Stachitas, the Florida Times Union Player of the Year, succeeded Tim Tebow as quarterback at Nease. Tebow won the Heisman Trophy last fall as the quarterback at the University of Florida.

The Deacons will welcome four new offensive linemen including Gabe Irby (6-3, 315) of Habersham, GA; Joe Looney (6-3, 315) of Lake Worth, FL; Chance Raines (6-2, 270) of Jacksonville (Bolles School) and Garrick Williams (6-4, 314) of Columbia, MO (Rock Bridge).

The new offensive players also include a pair of tight ends in J.T. Dixon (6-4, 230) who comes toWake Forest from Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, VA, and Andrew Parker (6-5, 225) from Jacksonville, FL (Bartram Trail). Terence Davis (6-1, 180) of Lilburn, GA (Brookwood) is the lone projected wide receiver in the class while Lovell Jackson (5-10, 170) of Tampa, FL (Plant) is the only running back signed by the Deacons.

The seven newest members of the Deacon defense include a trio of linemen, three linebackers and a cornerback. On the defensive front, Wake Forest will add Derricus Ellis (6-2, 225) from Rome, GA (Darlington); Kevin Smith (6-4, 210) from Plano, TX (East) and Ramon Booi (6-6, 330) from Jacksonville, FL (Nease). At linebacker, the Deacons are joined by Scott Betros (6-1, 220) from Jacksonville, FL (Bolles), Joey Ehrmann (6-4, 210) from Baltimore, MD (Gilman) and Riley Haynes (6-1, 225) from Jacksonville, FL (Nease). The newcomer in the secondary is Kenny Okoro (6-0, 185) from Greensboro, NC (Dudley).

There are considerations for the future especially as when you consider that Coach Grobe redshirts virtually every freshman player. These players will be in a position to take over from the current starters when they graduate in a few years time. If Stachitas comes through in his sophomore year, he will be bringing several wide receivers and tight ends with him while still having the abilities of a then senior Josh Adams.

As always though, this recruiting class is only ranked 11th best in the 12 team ACC but it has been that way for years and probably continue to be so but as always it is the coach’s ability to get the most of these players that accounts for much of a team’s success perhaps more so than raw talent. Recruiting class ranking are always a bit of a crap shoot when they are calculated because you never really know how a player will make the transition from the high school local environment to the college level.

The future is now set for the Deacons next year and beyond. Let’s hope it is as successful as it has been in the past two years.

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Yesterday, Wake Forest won the Meinke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte NC, beating University of Connecticut 24-10. it was a bit nerve wracking going in to halftime with the team down 10-0 to the Huskies but on the opening drive of the second half, the Deacons marched down the field for a major score and never lost control of the game after that.

It is a most satisfying end to a pretty decent season by the team. It may not be the ACC Championship and Orange Bowl game of last year but still much better than it has been in prior years. This is a mature team that knows how to bounce back from adversity and just knows how to win and it did that going 9-4 for the year.

The star of the game was no doubt Kenneth Moore who was Riley Skinner’s favorite target throughout the day. No touchdowns for him on this day but he did up the team to achieve major scores from his efforts. His versatility and ability to make the big play is going to be missed next year along with the rest of the senior class especially center Steve Justice. But there is a star in the future with Josh Adams who managed to put together another outstanding game with a touchdown to start off the team comeback in the second half.

All in all, a pretty good game which I stayed with from end to end. It will take some adjusting for my Saturdays without any college football. But there is a new season in nine months to look forward to and one I hope will be just as excellent as the past two years.

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Well, Wake Forest managed to avoid a bit of a shock when Coach Jim Grobe decided that his heart and career for now stays in Winston-Salem rather than the position at Arkanas. It would have been a lucrative offer to be sure with the Arkansas booster club putting up nearly $2 million in extra salary for the coach. But Grobe is happy here and for that we are grateful. As Grobe is already paid well and has a long-term contract extension signed last winner, there was no incentive for him to get a more lucrative deal for himself from the university. However, he did asked that his assistants get consideration for a salary increase which the university is considering.

With that distraction out of the way, the team can now look forward to its appearance in the Meinke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte NC on December 29th. They will be facing off against University of Connecticut, aka UConn Huskies. UConn has been one of the better teams in the Big East this year but they have weaknesses and two of them are that they do poorly against a determined running game and also they do less well on the road. For Wake Forest, while the offence is more balanced than in prior years, they still have a potent running game and no one has done it better this year for Wake than Josh Adams, the ACC Rookie of the Year. The game be being in Charlotte, will be essentially a home game for Wake Forest as they can call on the hometown crowd along with the alumni boosters. The current line on the game is Wake by 3.

There will be 32 bowl games from mid December through early January. Doubtful I will see them all but I will see plenty though.

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Today is Championship Day for several of the conferences in NCAA football. Wake Forest will not be a part of this directly but what happens in the ACC Championship game in Jacksonville Florida between Virginia Tech and Boston College will decide which Bowl game bids that the team will receive.

Leading up to the ACC Championship, there has been much discussion on whether the game will return to Jacksonville next year. Attendance is expected to well off the goals set by the organising committee for the game probably causing a net loss of the game. It may be turn out next year the game may be held in Charlotte which may be a better site for many teams’ fans to attend the game.

For my part, I will probably will root for Boston College despite the fact that beat Wake this year. It looks like just a better team to represent the conference.

But this game will be a mere afterthought compared to the other games going on today. The highlight game is the Missouri-Oklahoma game for the Big 12 Championship. A Missouri win will confirm their place in the national championship game. The SEC Championship game between Tennesse and LSU will certainly have an effect on the BCS standings. Other notable games include Army-Navy traditional game, USC-UCLA, even the Hawaii-Washington St game later tonight will have some following to see if Hawaii will go 12-0 for the year and get an at large BCS bid.

Such it is with the ACC in the eyes of many college commentators. Big 10, Big 12, SEC and even Pac -10 conferences are more worthy of coverage than the ACC which is apparently when it comes to football is hardly much better than Conference-USA. If Florida State is in not the hunt for the national championship, then any other team from the conference is just a pretender.

But the ACC’s time to shine will come soon.

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Wake Forest plays Vanderbilt this weekend in its final game of the season. More than anything else, the Deacons are seeking to solidify it selection into a top-tier bowl selection. Given that it will not finish any worse than fifth overall in the ACC, it seems to be on track for the Meinke Bowl game in Charlotte NC. They have an outside chance for the Music City Bowl in Nashville but given that more fans will be able to attend the Meinke Bowl game (just a hour away on the interstate) than for the Music City Bowl game, it may prove to be a better choice. Most pundits seem to agree that this is where Wake will end up except for the guy at MSNBC who seems to think that the Emerald Bowl in the hinterland of San Franciso is more likely but I strongly disagree with that assessment.

Of course the team has to get by the Commodores of Vanderbilt which should not be too difficult but then again in this topsy-turvy season in NCAA football, surefire predictions never seem to come through.

Looking back on the season to date, it is a bit disappointing especially after last year’s tremendous run. There have been several games where if one or two plays went the team’s way, the situation may be much different and the team may still be in the hunt for the ACC Championship. Except for the blowout loss to Clemson, the Deacons have been in every game they lost to the very last play.

Of course, their schedule this year is a more rigourous one than last year’s. But that is one of the benefits of becoming a better team; you start drawing more highly ranked teams for non-conference games and this will enhance bids for national rankings along with better bowl bids and even up to the BCS rankings.

Still, it has been a good season and even with many of the seniors leaving this year, there is a strong nucleus of a team for next year. This team is not a one-year wonder and its performance this year is much better than the team they lost to in the Orange Bowl, Louisville, who looks like to will not go to a bowl game this season.

Looking forward to Bowl season.

(Helmet images courtesy of the Helmet Project)

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