Gold Rush Feature: Positive Finish
1/4/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
Jan. 4, 2011
This article was originally published in the Dec. 18 edition of Gold Rush.
By Sam Walker
Character can be revealed in many ways, but it's possibly most glaringly authentic when things aren't going your way, when challenges can seem insurmountable, when wins aren't coming your way. Historically, Wake Forest has lived on both ends of the win-loss spectrum, and the success of recent years possibly makes the sting of this season's record more intense.
"The message has never changed since I've been here and that's work hard during the week and play hard on Saturday," Coach Jim Grobe said late in a season that saw the Deacons finish 3-9. "I think, for us, we're certainly a team that's not very confident. That's the way young guys are. We haven't had any success and without success, it's tough to be a confident football team. Our message for the past few weeks has always been let's get better, let's work hard during the week and see if we can't play better on Saturday. I think we have done that."
This season was trying to say the least. But the Deacons ended on a winning note against SEC foe Vanderbilt with a 34-13 victory, leaving the young Deacons a positive finish to take with them into winter workouts and spring practices.
"I told our team that if I could give them a win, no matter what it cost me, I would give it to them," Grobe said before the game. "I would love to be able to hand them a win, because they work so hard. I don't know that there's a more deserving team in the country than ours, as far as how hard we've worked, how hard we've pushed our players. Unfortunately, they have to earn it and go get it."
They did.
After winning their first two contests of the season, the Deacons dropped nine straight games with midseason back-to-back heartbreakers against defending ACC champion Georgia Tech and Navy. Those were games that could have helped confidence produce momentum and ease some stinging losses to Stanford and Florida State earlier in the year.
Against Georgia Tech, Joshua Nesbitt hit third-string wide receiver Correy Earls on a slant pattern with 15 seconds left that defeated Wake 24-20 at BB&T Field. Against Navy, quarterback Ricky Dobbs, who faked the option keeper, found Greg Jones in the back of the end zone with 26.4 seconds remaining in the game, and kicker Joe Buckley added the extra point to deliver a 28-27 win.
They were tough losses for a young team which entered the season with no experienced quarterback. Wake Forest used four different quarterbacks, all of which have seen significant action. Sophomore Ted Stachitas started three games, and true freshman Tanner Price started four. Junior Skylar Jones and redshirt freshman Brendan Cross also played quarterback.
Price was the first true freshman quarterback starter to lead Wake Forest to a win since Anthony Young led Wake to a 28-26 victory over Duke on Nov. 4, 2000. And Price was the first true freshman quarterback starter to lead Wake Forest to a road win since Brian Kuklick delivered a 20-13 win at Georgia Tech on Nov. 19, 1994.
During Grobe's tenure as head coach, Wake Forest is now 30-12 against non-conference opponents, and Wake Forest has won its final regular season game of the year five consecutive seasons. Wake Forest has defeated Vanderbilt three straight times.
Wake Forest's senior class finishes with a four-year record of 25-25. For the senior class who came in as young, willing learners and enjoyed success, the one trait to which they've clung this season is optimism.
Take senior Marshall Williams for instance. The wide receiver from Durham who basically lost a year to injury and played through this season with an injury has never failed to remain positive. He says it's something he learned early on in the Jim Grobe program. He learned to play with a chip on his shoulder, to always feel that each game is an opportunity to prove yourself, and that a win or a loss lasts only as long as the game itself -- four 15-miunute quarters. Passing that on has been the job he inherited this season.
"He's one of the best leaders on the team," said Price, the true freshman quarterback. "He always has a positive attitude, great work ethic, and he's a great receiver, a great target to throw to. He's always upbeat, always ready to get better, and he has been a big role model for everybody. He's always joking around and having fun, and that makes the game more fun and that's been big for this team."
"More than Marshall's football ability he's just a great guy," Grobe said. "He's a really good person, and we're really going to miss him. I was disappointed he had the compound dislocation in his finger and that really affected him for quite a while. It may still be affecting him, but he persevered and kept going with toughness. He's worked hard every day at practice, and he is just a guy you like having in your program.
"The main thing Marshall, and from all our seniors that our young guys have learned is not to quit, not to quit trying, not to quit working. The guys that take this type season the hardest are the seniors, and our seniors, you really can't tell any difference in them as far as how hard they have worked, how hard they've practiced, how hard they have tried to win from this week to the start of the season, so it's a tribute to not only to Marshall but all of our seniors. With all of this adversity, with all of these young players it would have been easy for our seniors to hang their heads and back off."
A running story line with Williams was his ability throw the ball from the wide receiver position. Until his incompletion against Clemson, Williams had five completions in five attempts for 174 yards and two touchdowns. Basically, if Williams had had enough attempts to qualify, he would be leading the NCAA in passing efficiency. So when his number was called to attempt another pass on a misdirection play against Clemson, and he saw the pass wasn't open, there were a lot of things that ran through his head.
"It was a bittersweet feeling because I was like -- I could just take a knee so my percentage won't go down," Williams jokingly said. "They told me take the read and if it's not there, throw it out of bounds. I saw it, and was like I gotta throw it out bounds. But it was a nice ride." Williams has accomplished much is basically three seasons. He reached the 100-reception plateau against Maryland, finishing with five catches for 62 yards, and entering the final game of the season at Vanderbilt, Williams had 108 receptions for 1,517 yards. He is the 22nd Deacon to record 100 career receptions. However, his redshirt freshman season Williams tore the ligaments between the fibula and tibula, which stabilize the ankle. And as hard as he tried to rehabilitate the ankle, he failed to be able to play that season.
"I think about that a lot," Williams said. "I feel like I got cheated a year because going into the season I was doing a lot of things and so excited about getting involved. Then there was the injury, and I kept trying my hardest to come back, and that ankle was just torn to shreds. The day they made the decision they had to operate on it, it just hurt. Then the summer after I worked my tail off to come back because I came into the year not factored into the game plan and wanted to prove that I could be the same guy I was.
"The biggest thing for me was when I came back no one thought I would factor in and that upset me. I worked to try to shine, and I felt like I could be that guy, because of what they saw early the year before. Coach (Brian) Knorr had just come in so I had to reprove myself and eventually got myself back to playing. That's what defined me -- people counted me out and I came back."
Williams had 26 receptions for 390 yards with two touchdowns as a sophomore, and then factored largely into the offense as a junior with 60 catches for 867 yards and six touchdowns.
The second week of this season Williams was warming up catching passes and one fluttering ball hit his pinky finger on his left hand awkwardly and snapped the bone and dislocated the finger. He "improvised" with protective gear through the Oct. 2 Georgia Tech game determined not lose a second of his senior season.
"I wrapped it up, decided to wear a 3XL glove on one hand and a regular XL glove on the other hand, and I had this big thing wrapped around my two fingers. It was a hassle to try to catch the ball like that -- it was so hard. The first week I tried to the catch the ball it hurt to try to catch the ball just because of the impact of it. Then I had to put so much padding around it, it was like it was bounce off my hand. Blocking was hard because I couldn't get my hands on and I was using my right hand and more my shoulder.
It was either play with the injury and delay (further treatment) or sit out five weeks. It's really messed up looking, and I'll probably have that for life, but that's something I'll carry with me forever. It was a challenge, but I made do with it."
Williams did his best to stabilize a team in flux, portray a positive attitude in the midst of adversity. Wins and loss pass away with each season, but mindset and work ethic usually last. That's been Williams' theory and what he wants left for the young Deacons who will be back next season.
"You take the highs with lows so I just go out there and know I'm blessed to be out there every day," Williams said. `The biggest thing from the seniors is the younger players see how we react. If they see it as a negative way they feel justified to act the same way. I came here and we had success with a young program. Nothing is the same every year. We got out of that identity of the Wake Forest of old, the basement of the ACC and we became competitive. We're not going back to that. This year things didn't happen the way they were supposed to, but we were a young team. We can come back next year, we have all the pieces there, we just have to instill in those guys that we can be good and that's what I'm trying to leave is that we are not what our record defines."
