Wake Forest Athletics
Demon Deacon Football Gets Through Spring Practice 11
4/5/2012 12:00:00 AM | Football
April 5, 2012
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest football team wrapped up its last spring practice before some down time for the Easter holiday on Thursday, April 5 at the Doc Martin Football Complex.
With some inclement weather on its way to the area, the Demon Deacons moved practice up an hour and were able to get through a two-hour session without any interruptions from Mother Nature. The shuffle caused the coaching staff to reconfigure the practice a bit, however, focusing more on team-based drills and less on individual player development.
"We actually moved practice around, we had more individual stuff scheduled but they were talking about storms and lightning moving in," said head coach Jim Grobe. "We're trying to get most team stuff done early and then we'll spend a whole practice out here going back to our individual drills. We had some special teams stuff we were going to do early that we kind of put on the back burner, and we'll just see how practice goes."
The Deacs were in full pads for the sixth consecutive practice and started with some scheme and individual drills before moving to 9-on-9 rushing drills and 8-on-8 passing drills. Position specific drills focused on blocking and pass rushing, as well as a good amount of route work for the receivers. Wake Forest wrapped up the evening with some punting and punt coverage reps, as well as getting the field goal units some work. Whereas some practices this spring have been light on contact, there weren't a lot of players shying away from contact on Thursday.
"This is just a practice for us, I think our guys are a little fired up because they know they don't have another practice coming up so they're trying to make the most out of it," said Grobe. "But we haven't specifically planned to be more physical, they're just having fun competing against each other."
With no scrimmages or team activities scheduled for this weekend, Grobe said some, but not all, of the squad will take advantage of a few off days to head home for Easter weekend.
"It's kind of up to the individual player, but one of the things we like to do here whenever we can is give the guys some down time," said Grobe. "When we work, we work pretty hard so when they get a chance to take a break we like to see them do it."
After a few days rest, the team will be back on the practice fields on Tuesday, April 10 for a customary 4:45 p.m. start.
