Gold Rush: Grobe Announces Staff Changes
3/10/2003 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 10, 2003
By Sam Walker
It's only been a few weeks since the Wake Forest football team capped its best season ever under Coach Jim Grobe by winning the Seattle Bowl, but, believe it or not, spring camp has already started at Wake Forest. Since winning the Seattle Bowl with a blowout of Oregon, the Wake Forest football program has signed a new 23-member recruiting class and experienced some coaching changes.
At the coaching level, offensive coordinator Troy Calhoun has left the Wake Forest program to join the staff of the Denver Broncos of the NFL. Head coach Jim Grobe elevated Steed Lebotzke to offensive coordinator in response to Calhoun's departure. Lebotzke has been and will continue to coach centers and offensive guards. Jeff Mullen will become the quarterbacks coach making room for the return of former Wake Forest quarterback and graduate assistant Tom Elrod.
Elrod, a 1997 Wake Forest graduate, served three years as a graduate assistant at Wake Forest before leaving to coach the offensive line at Wofford last season. He returns to take over as the tight ends and tackles coach, the position previously held by Mullen.
Spring practices began Feb. 24 on the campus practice fields and will conclude with the spring game, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday, March 29. There will be 15 designated practice sessions over a period of five weeks. Seventy members of the Deacon football team, fresh off a 7-6 season and Seattle Bowl victory in 2002, return to the field for WFU this spring. The readjusted coaching staff has already made some player position changes to set the stage for the 2003 Demon Deacons.
Running backs Nick Burney and Fred Staton have both moved from tailback to fullback to help fill the void left by the departure of Ovie Mughelli. To bolster depth at tailback, sophomore Dominic Anderson and redshirt freshman Napoleon Sykes have both moved from defensive back spots to tailback. Ricky Perez has been moved from cornerback to wide receiver, and redshirt freshman quarterback Nate Morton will move to wideout as well. Offensive lineman Dan Callahan has been moved to tight end and will spilt time this spring with R.D. Montgomery.
On the defensive side of the ball, Jason Carter moves from cornerback to the Bandit position. Redshirt freshman Jamil Smith and Chris Owen are the only two injured players sitting out of spring practices. Both are expected back by the time Wake Forest opens camp in August.
Joining the 70 returning members of the 2002 team will be Wake Forest's 2003 signing class, a recruiting class of which Grobe is quite pleased. "I'm very excited about this class," said Grobe. "I thought last year's class was one of the strongest we had seen, and I think this year's group is even more talented. We took care of a lot of needs. I think this class has a chance to continue laying the foundation of the program we're trying to build here at Wake Forest."
Headlining the 2003 signing class is quarterback Ben Mauk, Ohio's Mr. Football for 2002. Mauk has set national records for career passing attempts, completions and yards while throwing 179 touchdown passes during his career at Kenton High School.
"We were fortunate enough to have Ben at one of our camps ,and we fell in love with him at camp," Grobe said. "We knew that he was a fine player, and we are friends with his dad, Mike, who is a high school football coach. Mike knew about our program and said it just kind of made sense. He knew what kind of program he wanted Ben to play in, and I think Ben felt very comfortable around us. Ben is the type of character kid that once he tells you something, that's it. A lot of people did try and come back on Ben, but once he made his decision to come to Wake Forest, we felt solid in that. He's really strong academically as well, and there's not a better kid in America."
Local product Matt Brim of Winston-Salem's Carver High School helped lead the Yellow Jackets to the 2002 3-A state championship and is considered one of North Carolina's best prep players as an offensive lineman. Brim initially committed to East Carolina, but later changed his mind and decided to stay at home and become a Demon Deacon.
"We fell in love with Matt last summer when he attended our football camp," Grobe said. "The coaches liked him; he's a very good student. He has great character and a great workout ethic. I think we like everything about him, but he had transferred into Carver and actually his junior film was not very good. And as much as we liked him at camp, we just didn't feel like we could commit a scholarship to him, so he went ahead and committed to East Carolina. Then after we saw him in a couple of scrimmages at the beginning of the season, there was no doubt in our mind that he could be a really good football player for us. So we went back and offered him a scholarship and thank goodness his heart was at Wake Forest. He's a fine player and couldn't be a better person."
The Deacons signed four offensive linemen and five defensive linemen to address what will undoubtedly be depth problems in the coming year. From Florida are offensive line recruits Louis Frazier (Clearwater/Clearwater HS) and Steve Justice (Port Orange/New Smyrna Beach HS). Brodie Overstreet is a Danville, Ky. product (Boyle County HS) and is considered that state's top lineman prospect. Aaron McKenzie (Lakeland/George Jenkins HS) signed with WFU as a defensive lineman as well.
From Georgia are defensive line recruits Jeromy Jones (Wheeler HS) and Zachary Stukes (Sprayberry HS) out of Marietta, along with Matthew Robinson of Cedartown (Cedartown HS). Robinson is considered one of Georgia's highest-regarded prospects as well as one of the nation's top defensive ends. Jyles Tucker, a defensive end who originally signed with WFU in 2002, will join the team after a season at Hargrave Military Academy.
Micah Andrews (Duluth, Ga./Greater Atlanta Christian), son of former NFL running back William Andrews, and Travo Woods (Altamonte Springs, Fla./Lyman HS) will come to Wake Forest as running backs. Devin Blake (Jacksonville, Fla./First Coast HS), D'Angelo Bryant (New Ellenton, S.C./Silver Bluff HS) have been recruited to play in the defensive secondary. Kevin Marion (St. Petersburg, Fla./Dixie Hollins HS), who broke a 16-year-old Florida state record in the long jump (25'5"), comes to WFU as a wide receiver.
Wake Forest also signed quarterback Bruce Hall (Milton, Fla./Milton HS). Hall passed for more than 5,600 yards, rushed for more than 2,500 yards and was responsible for 65 touchdowns during his high school career.
Wake Forest signed highly-regarded North Carolina athletes Kenneth Moore, a cornerback out of Charlotte (Butler HS) and Delon Lowe, a wide receiver from Fayetteville (E.E. Smith) in addition to Carver's Brim. Wake Forest also signed Zac Selmon (Norman, Okla./Norman HS), a tight end who is the son of Dewey Selmon, and the nephew of Lee Roy and Lucious Selmon, all three of whom played football at Oklahoma and in the NFL.
"I feel this is a fairly balanced class," Grobe said. "We would have liked to sign another running back and wide receiver, but overall I feel we took care of our needs on both sides of the ball. Balance was what my staff and I were looking for mostly, and if you ask Ray (McCartney, recruiting coordinator), he would say defensive line was a focus, and I would say that was probably true. But most of all we wanted a balance and we didn't want to over do it. I think we took care of our needs on the defensive line. You know we kind of balanced it out. We took four offensive linemen, and we went after more big guys in this class - guys that had the potential to be great. Last year's class in the offensive line, we went more for the tackle type guys, guys with quicker feet. We've got a little more size in this class. We took a linebacker we really weren't planning on taking, but we got a great one out of Georgia. We took a couple of cornerbacks that will work for us and a safety. I think that we've got some pretty talented secondaries. So we took care of our needs there without overdoing it. "
