Wake Forest Athletics
Deacons Close Preseason Camp With Final Scrimmage
8/24/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 24, 2005
Scrimmage No. 3:
The Deacons were in game simulation mode at Groves Stadium on Wednesday night rehearsing everything all the way down to pre-game warm-ups as the team officially closed preseason camp with a scrimmage.
The team, outfitted in its game uniforms, split into a varsity squad -- comprised of veterans and starters -- and a junior varsity squad -- made up primarily by scout teamers and true freshmen expected to redshirt.
The first team offense marched down the field against the JV defense on its first drive. Benjamin Mauk hit Chris Davis for a long gain to set up a short touchdown plunge by Mauk moments later. The first team defense, without mildly injured linebackers Jon Abbate and Pierre Easley, gave up a first down but then forced the scout team to punt before reaching midfield.
Perhaps the biggest hit of the scrimmage came on the next drive. De'Angelo Bryant broke off a long run up the left sideline and appeared to be heading for a sure touchdown before getting blasted out of bounds near the goal line by Mike Simmons, who has been out of action for most of the preseason with injury.
The varsity defense forced one turnover, a Patrick Ghee interception, but for the most part, the rest of the scrimmage was a passing clinic by the JV offense. True freshman Brett Hodges completed several long gains to a variety of receivers. His first long gain was to fellow freshman Ted Randolph across the middle. Randolph initially juggled the ball before hauling it in and it required three Deacon defenders to haul him to the ground. Moments later, Hodges found Mike Rinfrette in the flat for a short touchdown. On a later drive, Hodges hit Casey Hill on a bomb up the left sideline. Seconds later, on another long ball, Jonathan Jones went up for a touchdown catch.
The first team offense put together another scoring drive to end the session. Benjamin Mauk aired out a long ball to Chris Davis up the left sideline. Davis beat the defender, made the catch and began tip-toeing along the sideline before his momentum finally carried him out of bounds inside the 10 yardline. After a couple of incompletions, including one very nice break-up by Riley Swanson, the Deacons settled for a short field goal by Sam Swank.
Quoting Head Coach Jim Grobe:
On the team's performance as a whole: "Still too many mental mistakes. I'm glad we didn't have to play tonight. It wouldn't have been pretty, but that's why we practice and that's why they pay us to coach these guys. We've got to get these guys coached up in the next week. I thought we accomplished quite a bit as far as getting out here and having a good, physical practice. We came out here with the plan of getting used to the gameday routine and what happened was we had a pretty good, old physical practice."
On getting the younger players to perform to their capabilities: "Mickey the Dunce could figure out this (program is) going the right way when you watch these kids out here right now. I think the future is very bright, but we really want the future to be right now. We don't want to wait around anymore. We spent a couple years in a holding pattern of being competitive, but not winning enough games. We need to start winning football games. I think we have enough talent to win right now. We've just got to get them all going the right direction. That's our job. Right now, we're just making too many mistakes and that's partly on our kids. The second part to that is, we`ve got to do a better job getting these guys in the right position, playing the right techniques. Tonight, we had some guys blow some assignments, but we also had some guys who didn't play real good technique football. That's our job right now is to get these guys lined up and play the way we're supposed to."
On the first team defense: "I didn't see any real spark on the defensive side. It just seemed like it was a practice. I saw much more spark out of our (the JV team), both offensively and defensively. They were fired up, juiced, flying around and having fun. The old guys, I just didn't sense a lot of spark. Maybe that's typical in a scrimmage before you start the season, but we sure need to play with a lot more enthusiasm when we tee it up with Vanderbilt."
On The Sideline:
A number of key players sat out the scrimmage due to minor injuries, including Jon Abbate, Pierre Easley, Johnny Edwards, Willie Idlette and Zac Selmon. None of the injuries are considered serious and all are expected to play against Vanderbilt.
Preseason Coverage:
Visit www.WakeForestSports.com for the latest information on the Deacon football team. In addition to all press releases and practice reports, fans get an inside peek into Wake Forest football with the "Preseason Postcards From Josh Gattis" series. The popular feature "Inside the Deacon Huddle With Stan Cotten" continues each Wednesday leading up to the season opener.
