Wake Forest Holds Final Spring Football Scrimmage
4/17/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 17, 2010
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest offense scored a pair of touchdowns and Jimmy Newman converted three field goals in the Demon Deacons' final scrimmage of the spring season in front of an estimated crowd of 5,000 at BB&T Field.
Wide receiver Devon Brown provided the highlight of the day, racing 65 yards on an option pitch from quarterback Skylar Jones for the longest touchdown of the scrimmage. Running back Willie Dixon V also scored on a 3-yard run. Newman booted field goals of 45, 19 and 26 yards.
Jones started the scrimmage at quarterback and was the only quarterback to engineer two scoring drives. He was on the field for Brown's long touchdown run as well as Newman's 45-yard field goal. Brendan Cross, Ted Stachitas, Turner Faulk and Patrick Thompson also saw action at quarterback on Saturday.
Cross completed nine of 12 passes for 73 yards, leading all quarterbacks in attempts, completions and passing yards. Stachitas hit on four of seven passes for eight yards; Jones completed four of five for 38 yards; Thompson was four-for-four for 37 yards while Faulk connected on one of three attempts for five yards. Wide receiver Marshall Williams completed one pass for 33 yards.
"Consistency is the key," said Grobe about his quintet of quarterbacks. "Sky has a leg up, just from durability. He went everyday (this spring) and didn't miss anything. But you could see that Brendan and Ted both have ability, they did some things pretty well. We've got talent at quarterback and the guy who takes the first snap against Presbyterian (in the season opener) will be the most durable guy and also the guy who develops the most consistency."
Marshall Williams and Danny Dembry each had four receptions for 36 yards. Brown had four catches for 21 yards while fullback Tommy Bohanon had three catches. Chris Givens made a pair of receptions for 41 yards including a 33-yard catch.
Brown also led the Deacons in rushing, with four carries for 81 yards including the 65-yard touchdown. Brown finished the day with 102 all-purpose yards. Dixon had nine carries for 29 yards.
Grobe was pleased with the play of Brown, the rising junior from Ashburn, Va.
"He's very similar to Kenny Moore," said Grobe of Brown, referring to the former Deacon receiver now with the Carolina Panthers. "He's got the great hands, he's very elusive. He's not quite as big as Kenny but he's faster than Kenny. He's a guy that we've got to get on the board and draw up plays to get him the ball, whether it's reverses, or inside running plays."
Grobe thinks that there will be real competition for starting jobs on defense when preseason camp opens.
"We've got five or six positions up for grabs," said Grobe. "We've got some real battles going on for starting jobs. I think (the battle is between two) guys who can start for us, not where you've got two backups trying to be a starter. That's where we are at defensive end, the interior defensive line and at linebacker. We have some really good football players battling for snaps right now."
Heading into fall camp, Grobe feels the quarterback position is still up for grabs.
"I would think coming out of spring that Sky's the guy right now, mainly because of his durability," said Grobe. "If the other guys stay durable, we'll go about two weeks into August and compete real hard and make sure that Sky's still the guy. But I'm not telling you anything that he doesn't know. There isn't anybody on our football team, quarterbacks included, that does not understand that every day you have to win your job. I think Sky's had a really good spring but I was impressed today with some of the things that Brendan and Ted did. We'll get back in August and hopefully have a guy who is going to start the season for us. But we've got three guys who are really competitive right now."
Defensively. linebacker Justin Jackson led the Deacons with six tackles including one tackle for loss. Cyhl Quarles, Duran Lowe and Kyle Jarrett each finished with five tackles in the 75-minute scrimmage. Nikita Whitlock, Joey Ehrmann, Tristan Dorty and Zach Thompson all had sacks during the scrimmage.
"The nice thing about Justin is he's a linebacker for us but he runs as fast as any of our defensive backs. He has defensive back foot-speed. He's really improved from day one to today and you saw what he's capable of. He's one of the redshirt freshmen that we're looking at to mature into really good players for us."
