2010 NCAA football preview: Wake Forest
When it comes to fielding a top notch football team it does help when your student body is the size of small to medium sized city. Last year’s champion Alabama has an undergraduate student body of more than 28,000 students.
Wake Forest, on the other hand, has around 4000. Even though they are among the smallest schools in division I football, the Demon Deacons have fielded some pretty competitive teams in a tough football conference, the ACC. In three of the last four seasons, the team has earned the right to play in the post-season, winning the Meineke Car Care Bowl in 2007 and the Eagle Bank Bowl in 2008. While they did lose to Louisville in the 2007 edition of the Orange Bowl, the team still finished ranked in the top 20 of the nation.
However, in 2009 the Demon Deacons found themselves falling on harder times finishing with their first losing record since 2005 (5-7). The poor showing was considered somewhat of a surprise with some of the talent that the team had, especially at quarterback and defensive tackle. Without some of those talented players back in 2010 head coach Jim Grobe might have a hard time avoiding consecutive losing seasons.
Offense
For the first time in four years Jim Grobe has to search for a new quarterback. It was nice having a quality player like Riley Skinner for the last four years. Leading the charge for the position is Skylar Jones. Jones has yet to play in a game but looked the best at spring practice. Redshirt freshman Brendan Cross and sophomore Ted Stachitas could be in competition for the job as well. Cross is the son of a former NFL player and Stachitas took over for Tim Tebow when he graduated high school.
Whoever gets the starting nod will not have much help from the running game. Josh Adams had the most production last season with 541 yards on 113 carries (and four touchdowns). He’ll share time with Brandon Pendergass who had 399 yards on 83 carries. Both backs had a respectable average per carry last season of 4.8; if they can maintain that while getting more carries some of the pressure can be taken off the new starting quarterback.
The wide receivers will take some pressure off the quarterback as well. Back are three very solid players in Devon Brown, Marshall Williams, and Chris Givens; all three had six touchdown and at least 60 catches last season.
Defense
Grobe will have to be hoping that either some of his veterans will improve or a new starter will step up to lead a defense that was not very good in 2009. Against the rush they were tenth in the conference; eighth against the pass; and 10th overall.
The secondary was not too experienced in 2009; if the returning players can build off of last year’s performance then the group could be in decent shape. Alex Frye is the only senior in the group making it possible for the Demon Deacons to have a very seasoned group in 2011 (although that will not help them much for this season). Josh Bush will have the difficult task of moving over to cornerback from free safety.
The front seven is chock full of question marks, and was not very good when it came to stopping the run last year, finishing at 10th in the conference. Defensive ends Tristan Dorty and Kyle Wilber will have to anchor the group; that is if Wilbur is able to return from a broken leg that ended his 2009 season. If he can’t then the duties will likely fall to Gelo Orange. Ramon Booi and Frank Souza need to improve quickly in order to stuff up the interior of the line.
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