Deacs Complete First Spring Practice
3/17/2011 12:00:00 AM | Football
March 17, 2011
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest completed its first spring football practice of the year on Thursday. The Demon Deacons practiced for just over two hours at the Doc Martin Football Practice Complex on campus.
The Deacons went through their drills in helmets and jerseys. NCAA rules call for teams to go through at least two days of non-contact drills before putting on full padding.
Head coach Jim Grobe said that the club's philosophy this spring will differ somewhat from previous springs.
"We've typically, in the spring, just had fun experimenting," said Grobe. "We've thrown everything but the kitchen sink out there to look at, both offensively and defensively. This spring, we feel like we need to be simpler and concentrate on getting our kids better. Just coaching the fundamentals, all the way from stance to read keys, all the type of things we didn't do well last year."
Grobe expects that this spring's work on fundamentals will pay dividends in the fall.
"We didn't look like a typical Wake Forest football team last fall," said Grobe. "And that was mainly because we had so many young players, but on top that, not only were we physically not quite ready at a lot of positions but we weren't mentally ready at a lot of positions. One of our advantages is that we have pretty smart kids on our football team so what we've got to do is just get the kids to be really good fundamentally."
Wake Forest will continue its spring practice Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. at the Doc Martin Complex.