Wake Forest Athletics
Football Practice Report No. 4
8/9/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Aug. 9, 2010
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest football team completed its fourth practice of the preseason on Monday night at the Doc Martin Football Practice Complex and will prepare for Tuesday night's practice, the team's first in full pads.
The Demon Deacons gave a great effort on Monday night despite the hot and humid conditions.
"Great work tonight," said head coach Jim Grobe. "It was a really physical practice. We don't have much left right now, our guys are completely gassed. I don't think we could have practiced another minute tonight. We had great effort, we had some really good periods. We had some good coaching and teaching and some good competition between the offense and defense. I'd say the defense continues to be pretty far ahead of the offense right now but that's just what happens at the start of practice, whether it's the start of spring or the start of fall. The defense always starts out ahead and the offense has to catch up."
Grobe was impressed with the attitude of the freshman class.
"I liked watching our young guys, they're not backing off," said Grobe. "A lot of times, the freshmen come in and are kind of walking on egg shells for a few practices. I didn't see any of that out here. As I watched practice tonight, I couldn't find anybody taking a lazy step. It was good energy yet good attitude on this team and they're working really hard in some pretty tough conditions. It was really humid tonight and it's going to get hotter as the week goes on. Our guys don't seem to mind, they're just out here working. We've got two more days of summer school so we've got to be balanced and be careful we don't spend too much time with football and not enough time in the classroom. So we're giving our guys plenty of time to study to try and get these last two days of summer school out of the way and then Thursday we can focus on football."
The second session of summer school ends on Wednesday. And while Tuesday will mark the first day the team can practice in full pads, it won't change how the Deacons approach practice.
One of the main reasons we go full pads is just to make them used to wearing their pants," said Grobe. "They sometimes don't like to have the thigh pads and the hip pads and all that stuff on. But for us, it gives our offensive linemen a little more opportunity to block lower. Tonight we couldn't go live field goal because we're in shorts. We probably should have put some pressure on our kickers but we can't because we're in shorts. We'll be able to get some live field goal, block a little bit lower up front with our offensive line. Then when we run perimeter plays, the backs can block out on the perimeter. It will be good for our defense to get their hands down, we've been a little too high lately. That's why you put the full pads on. But as far as the way we practice, there won't be much difference."
Wake Forest is scheduled to practice at 8 p.m. Tuesday night at the Doc Martin Complex on campus.
