Football Completes Practice No. 3 of the 2010 Season
8/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 7, 2010
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - After spending the morning with the media, the Wake Forest football team completed its third practice of the 2010 season on Saturday afternoon at the Doc Martin Football Practice Complex.
Today marked not only the first afternoon practice of the season, but it also served as the first time players practiced in shells.
"Having our shells on today, we had a lot of physical play happening out on the field," said head coach Jim Grobe. "We got some really good fundamental work in today."
The Demon Deacons continued to add to the playbook on both sides of the football during the practice that lasted a little under three hours.
"We installed quite a bit today, so some of their heads might be spinning after today. That's going to be especially true for our younger players," said Grobe. "I really like the fact, though, that our younger players were able to get in a lot of reps today."
As is often the case early in the season, the Deacs were a little bit sharper on the defensive side of the football.
"I think we were really physical and got off blocks really well today on defense. We didn't give the offense a lot of room from a defensive standpoint," said Grobe. "Today I'd give the upper hand to the defense, but that's typical at this stage of the season. I've always found this to be true in our summer practices before the season. The secondary was a bright spot today. I liked the way they were bouncing around and breaking on the football."
Grobe was upbeat about the progress of the quarterbacks following practice.
"I do think the offensive kids did a nice job throwing the ball today and made a lot of completions, so we did do some good things in the passing game," said Grobe.
"The biggest thing I take away from today is that we got a lot of good, hard work done out here today, and it was pretty warm, especially the last half of practice," said Grobe. " We had a couple guys who had some issues with the heat, but the majority of the team did not. We're in really good shape heading into our day off tomorrow."
After taking Sunday off, the Wake Forest football team will be back on the practice field on Monday at 7:30 pm and will look to continue its improvement before the season opener.
"We'll be in shells again, so we will get some more contact for the players," said Grobe. "Most of our emphasis right now is going to be installation. We're adding a little bit of offense and defense every day, and we hope to have basically everything that we'll run added by the end of next week. By then we hope to see fewer mistakes and better execution."
Wake Forest Football Notes:
• Wake Forest opens the season on Thursday, Sept. 2 against Presbyterian.
• This marks the second time in three seasons that the Deacons have opened the season on a Thursday. Wake defeated Baylor 41-13 in Waco on Aug. 28, 2008
• The Demon Deacons have won three straight Thursday night games, defeating Florida State at BB&T Field in 2007 and Clemson in 2008.
• The Deacons are 5-4-1 all-time against Presbyterian and have won the last five games.
• The last time the two teams met, Wake Forest won 53-9 in 1945.
• Presbyterian won the first meeting 13-0 in 1926.
• The two teams played to a scoreless tie in 1929.
• Wake Forest has outscored the Blue Hose 116-15 in the last five games.