Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Football Practice Report, Aug. 15
8/15/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 15, 2008
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - On Friday the Wake Forest football team capped off the first two weeks of preseason camp with a 90 minute morning session in shells under humid, sunny skies and a two-hour afternoon practice in pads on a wet field following a brief rain shower at the Doc Martin Football Complex.
Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe assessed the team's condition after the opening weeks of practice.
"They are really tired right now and I don't have a problem with that," Grobe said. "It let's me know we've worked them hard enough. If we've got a football team that is just laughing and enjoying everything we're doing then we're probably not working hard enough. You've got to get them ready to play the first game, but the thing is you can't overwork them to the point where you've got nobody left to play the first game. Somewhere in the middle is where you want to be. I don't know if that's where we are right now but I feel good about our football team."
Grobe also noted that despite the August heat and general team fatigue, the athletes continue to dig deep at practices.
"As long as we're getting good effort at practice then we are going to continue and do what we're doing and know that our guys are going to give us their best shot. They've got to trust us that when it's time to back off a little bit we can do that. But we've got to push hard enough to get ready to play a tough schedule that includes 12 great teams," Grobe said.
The team's 17 true freshmen have officially survived the opening weeks of preseason, but every day still brings new challenges for the Wake Forest rookies.
Andrew Parker, a tight end out of Jacksonville, Fla., said that the first two weeks have been a wake up call.
"It's been pretty tough. Everyone is bigger, stronger and faster than you," Parker said.
A few young athletes are still getting adjusted to having more sideline time than in high school. Joey Ehrmann, a linebacker recruit out of Maryland who logged 87 solo tackles at Gilman High School last season, is one of the Demon Deacons who has only had a few repetitions during practice due to the deep talent at his position.
"I thought they would really throw us in there and we'd be getting our butts kicked. But they are kind of keeping us on the side," Ehrmann said. "We've mostly been working on individual drills and special teams scouts. A lot of it is just trying to learn everything. But a lot of upperclassmen, Aaron Curry, Stanley Arnoux and all the linebackers are really helpful with that. They are very encouraging and work with the younger guys a lot."
Grobe explained that the solid rapport the veterans have with the rookies was not around when he first joined the coaching staff.
"When I first got here it was a terrible situation. I felt like our older players did not treat our young guys very well," Grobe said. "Through the years that's changed. I don't know if in the past guys felt intimidated by younger players, but once the older guys saw that I was looking to make a football team out of veterans it got better. If you go to the dining hall the old guys are sitting with the young guys. In practice the older guys are helping the new guys with techniques. It's a healthy situation. I don't think the old guys are intimidated at all by the younger players. In fact, they know we may have to count on a couple of them to help us. They've been good at trying to get the guys up to speed as quickly as possible."
The team will squeeze in one more practice on Saturday morning before Fan Fest and then take Sunday off. Grobe expects to have everyone that will play against Baylor to be set for practice early next week.
"By Monday we'll start to see our guys get their legs back under them, they'll be in a better frame of mind mentally and start eliminating a few more of the silly mistakes," Grobe said.
"After Tuesday we'll have a little over a week before we go play and hopefully we'll have all the guys that will be playing for us at Baylor healthy and in practice and at full speed."
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