Wake Forest Athletics
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11/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 17, 2008
Redshirt freshman cornerback Josh Bush must get the feeling at times that somebody has made a terrible mistake. Is he really supposed to be out there with the likes of Aaron Curry and Alphonso Smith? Those two alone have ten years of experience between them and have made more plays than any of us can count. Yet there Bush is, the former high school quarterback from Lexington, North Carolina, with a patched up ACL playing with the big boys sooner than most young players ever dream of.
The big head? Hardly.
"I'm just trying to learn as much as I can," said Bush with a chuckle recently, running a little late to practice and dressing on the move. "I didn't play that much defense in high school, so there's a lot to learn. Our defense is full of fifth year seniors so I can learn from just about everyone."
Bush has had to stand in quite a bit recently for Brandon Ghee who got dinged a few weeks back but returned to his starting role against North Carolina State. Coach Jim Grobe sees a tremendous upside to his young understudy.
"If he doesn't hit a sophomore slump next year," says Grobe, "if he doesn't spend too much time reading newspaper clippings and listening to Coach Grobe talk about how great he is, then the upside to Josh Bush is that he's a year or two ahead of the progress that most other kids have made. This is a jumpstart to a great career."
Make no mistake. Josh Bush is talented, but he doesn't rely on giftedness alone.
"You prepare and learn during the week," Bush says. "That's when you get all of the nervousness out. Come Saturday - it's play time. And you take advantage of what you've learned during the week."
"He's got the kind of work ethic to get there," Grobe adds. "It's not like he just shows up on Saturday and plays hard. This is a guy who loves playing football, and he works hard at it every day."
Josh Bush gets his on the job training at one of the toughest positions on the football field. It's very easy to look pretty good one play then look like it's your first game on the next. But this is one Bush whose approval rating is out the roof.
"It's probably somewhere over 100," admits Grobe. "And only because he's a freshman. Certainly he could play better at times, but it's just phenomenal to take a freshman and put him on the field against the people we're playing against and have him play as well as Josh has. I can't say anything bad about his performances. I think he's really been special for our football team."
Asked to rate himself, Bush resists putting himself on the same plane as his defensive teammates and says he's "...just average." "I feel like I'm a step behind out there sometimes. The other guys have been at it for five years, and they know what to do. Then here comes little old me. If 75 is average then I'm a 75...just average."
And so the former Mr. Everything at West Davidson High is, in a way, starting his football career all over again - just trying to learn the ropes of the ACC out there on the island known as The Corner. He's young alright, but he belongs. And the best news for Demon Deacon fans is he's just getting started.
