Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Holds First Preseason Scrimmage
8/9/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 9, 2008
Individual Stats | Defensive Stats | Scoring Summary
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The 23rd-ranked Wake Forest football team held its first controlled scrimmage of the year on Saturday night at BB&T Field. The Deacon offense scored 31 points led by a pair of touchdown passes from Riley Skinner.
Skinner was 11 of 15 passing for 138 yards on the night. He threw a 40-yard scoring pass to D.J. Boldin for the first score of the night. He also connected on a 17-yard scoring pass to tight end Ben Wooster.
Boldin was the top receiver on the night with six catches for 99 yards. Devon Brown had four catches for 20 yards. Givens, Wooster and Chris Langley all had three receptions.
Tailback Josh Adams, the ACC Rookie of the Year in 2007, led all rushers with 55 yards on nine carries, an average of better than six yards per carry. Fullback Kevin Harris had the longest gain of the night, a 29-yard touchdown run. Harris finished with 31 yards on two carries.
Quarterback Brett Hodges completed seven of 16 passes for 99 yards while Ryan McManus was seven of 13 for 83 yards. McManus threw a 30-yard touchdown pass to freshman wide receiver Chris Givens.
Senior kicker Sam Swank closed out the scoring with a 27-yard field.
Skinner wasn't thrilled with the offense's performance.
"We (the offense) looked a little rusty today," said the redshirt junior. "We had way too many penalties on offense. Way too many turnovers, dropped balls and missed reads. We did some good things. We had four touchdowns, I think. We had a lot of opportunities to capitalize, that we missed. For the most part, I think the defense got the best of us today. There were good and bad things that we saw today."
Defensive end Matt Robinson led all defenders with five tackles including a sack. Safety Junior Petit-Jean had four tackles as did a group of linebackers including Aaron Curry, Michael Potteiger and Gelo Orange.
Kerry Major, Kyle Wilber and Will Wright each had an interception on the night.
Cornerback Alphonso Smith was pleased with the defensive unit's performance.
"We flew around out there," said Smith. "We talked about it earlier today and after practice yesterday, that we wanted to come out and fly around and have fun whether we're in the right place or not. We wanted to go out and cause some turnovers and that's what we did tonight."
Head coach Jim Grobe thought the defense performed well in its first test of the year.
"From what I saw, I thought our defense played well," said Grobe. "We'll have to see if we played technique really well, but I think we flew around and had a lot of energy and enthusiasm and it looked like the defensive guys were having fun. I liked the work that we got on special teams tonight. I thought we got some good stuff done there. We're certainly not where we should be right now in order to go win, but we are probably about where we should be for the first scrimmage."
Grobe felt that there were positives among the offensive unit as well.
"I like some of the things our defense tonight," Grobe said. "We did make some big plays on offense tonight, which is nice, but I wasn't pleased with our overall consistency. What we'll be more concerned about is looking at each guy individually. If you look at the offense at a whole, I don't think we had a real good night, but what will happen is we'll get back and look at the film and we'll have some more specific thoughts about individuals who have to step their game up a bit."
A crowd of about 500 people were on hand at BB&T Field to watch the scrimmage which lasted one hour and 47 minutes. The Deacons will be idle Sunday and will hold their first two-a-day practice on Monday. The first session is tentatively scheduled for 10:30 a.m. with the afternoon practice commencing at 4:00 p.m.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Jim Grobe
Overall thoughts on the scrimmage...
"From what I saw, I thought our defense played well. We'll have to see if we played technique really well, but I think we flew around and had a lot of energy and enthusiasm and it looked like of defensive guys were having fun. I liked the work that we got on special teams tonight. I thought we got some good stuff done there. We're certainly not where we should be right now in order to go win, but we are probably about where we should be for the first scrimmage."
On the offensive line's performance tonight...
"I didn't think we were real strong offensively, so obviously I'm not expecting to see a lot of good things tonight. I thought we dropped some balls that killed drives and at times, we didn't protect that well, we had some balls batted down and we put the ball on the ground a couple of times, which you never like to see. But I think the defense had a good night and I think that's what we're going to see. Typically, anything I see in the scrimmage, I go watch the film Sunday or Monday morning and I'm wrong, so I hesitate to be to critical right now. I know we have to get better offensively and I think we will. Early on, if any gets ahead, it's usually the defense."
On D.J. Boldin going across the middle...
"He will. I need to get him to hang on to the football. He made a great catch then dropped the ball. But overall, he's had a great August so far. He's just really doing a nice job. I'm happy for him, because he ahs really worked hard not only in the winter time but also in the spring and he had a really good summer. He's also got his weight down and he's running well and catching the ball, blocking well and he knows his assignments. He's fun right now. He's doing a good job."
On the other receivers' performance...
"It's a little bit hard. We dropped too many balls is evening and I think at times we didn't have the right protection and we didn't put the passes where they needed to be and at times we had balls that were right there and we didn't catch them. So overall, we were not very good. I think the key for us and for every offense is to be consistent play in and play out and I think we did that tonight."
On what you can take from tonight with the offensive line for the week to come...
"No, obviously not. I like some of the things our defense tonight. We did make some big plays tonight on offense tonight, which is nice, but I wasn't pleased with our overall consistency. What we'll be more concerned about is looking at each kid individually. If you look at the offense at a whole, I don't think we had a real good night, but what will happen is we'll get back and look at the film and we'll have some more specific thoughts about individuals who have to step their game up a bit."
On the offensive line...
"It's the same thing offensively. If you don't feel like you played well as a unit, typically you are not dominating people up front. Now that doesn't mean they played terrible but we didn't have much consistency in the run game and that does involve the offensive line. I also thought at times our quarterbacks got hit too much and we may get back and look at the film and see that the quarterbacks had enough time to throw and didn't get rid of the ball in time but I thought overall there was a lot of pushing and shoving going on not a lot of crisp play by the offensive line."
Junior Quarterback Riley Skinner
On the scrimmage...
"We (the offense) looked a little rusty today. We had way too many penalties on offense. Way too many turnovers, dropped balls and missed reads. We did some good things. We had four touchdowns, I think. We had a lot of opportunities to capitalize on that we missed. For the most part, I think the defense got the best of us today. There were good and bad things that we saw today."
On improving after this scrimmage...
"This is the time to get the kinks out. You start installing as much as you can on offense as early as you can in the summer and through these scrimmages, and through competition throughout the week, you start to weed out the stuff that you don't like. We saw some things tonight that we really liked on offense that's new. We also saw some things that we thought was going to work out that we may have to hold off on. I think some of the young guys stepped up and made some good plays. Overall, it was just an average day for the offense. What sticks in our mind is the turnovers and the three and outs."
Senior Cornerback Alphonso Smith
On the scrimmage...
"We flew around out there. We talked about it earlier today and after practice yesterday, that we wanted to come out and fly around and have fun whether we're in the right place or not. We wanted to go out and cause some turnovers and that's what we did tonight."
On what you can learn this early in the summer...
"Going up against our offense everyday, you can learn a lot of things. One of the most vital things that we need to learn is what can hurt us depending on what defense we run. Coach Lobo and the offensive staff are trying to put us in a bind and Coach Lambert and his staff are trying to put us in situations where we fly around and try to get out of it. We have to learn to fight through adversity."
On how much talent he sees on the field...
"I see a lot offensively, defensively and on special teams. The team cares about each other and loves the game. That's the biggest thing we have at Wake Forest. We have a bunch of guys that love the game. When you love the game, it makes it easy to fly around and come out and make plays."
