Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Concludes Second Spring Football Scrimmage
4/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Steve Shutt, Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeFB)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Wake Forest completed its second scrimmage of spring football on Friday morning at BB&T Field with the offense scoring four touchdowns and a pair of field goals against the defense.
"I think this was the most balanced scrimmage since we've been here," said head coach Dave Clawson. "The running attack was better, we opened with a big play down the middle to Tabari (Hines). It may have been the most touchdowns we've scored in a scrimmage."
The first team offense opened the scrimmage with quarterback John Wolford hitting freshman receiver Tabari Hines for a 39-yard gain. Mike Weaver would conclude the opening possession by booting a 36-yard field goal.
"We rushed the ball a lot better," said Clawson. "Offensively, I thought we had more productive plays but we continue to beat ourselves too much. Too many penalties, too many sacks. Part of it is the sacks. Some of it is the O-line but we have to get rid of the football. On defense, we missed some tackles on the perimeter."
The offense ran 84 plays and accumulated 290 yards, 113 on the ground and 177 through the air. Freshman quarterback Kendall Hinton led all rushers with 54 yards on just seven carries including the long run of the day, a 37-yarder. Isaiah Robinson totaled 52 yards rushing on 12 carries. Chris Pearcey had 16 carries for 14 yards and a 1-yard touchdown run.
Neither Hinton or sophomore quarterback John Wolford managed to complete half of their passes, primarily due to a stiff wind at BB&T Field. Wolford finished the day 10 of 24 for 111 yards and two touchdowns. Hinton completed five of 18 for 66 yards and one score.
Wolford threw scoring passes of 15 yards to Hines and 4 yards to Charles Argenzio. Hines' catch may have been the highlight of the scrimmage as he made a one-handed catch and managed to avoid four tacklers en route to the end zone.
Hinton hit tight end Steve Donatell with a 13-yard scoring pass as well. Weaver nailed field goals of 36 and 38 yards but missed a 43-yarder, mostly due to the wind that pushed the kick wide left.
"Most of our scrimmages, the defense has dominated the offense," said Clawson. "I thought it was much more balanced today. Tabari continues to make plays."
The Demon Deacons operated with redshirt freshmen Phil Haynes and Justin Herron at offensive tackle, junior Josh Harris and senior Dylan Intemann at guard and redshirt freshman Ryan Anderson at center.
"If we played a game Saturday, that would be the starting O-line," said Clawson. "But Will Smith is pressing for playing time, Alique Terry is pressing for playing time, Patrick Osterhage is pressing for playing time, and Ty Hayworth is pressing for playing time. Those would be the nine. It hasn't been a great position for us but when you say you've got nine playable guys, you're going in the right direction. And we have three coming in. I think we're better prepared to handle an injury."
The defense was led by redshirt freshman linebacker Zach Wary and sophomore linebacker Grant Dawson who each had seven stops while linebacker Marquel Lee had six stops.
Clawson was upbeat about Friday's scrimmage.
"We've got a long way to go," said Clawson. "My thing is the spring is about improvement and seeing guys develop. There's no question in my mind that a lot of our guys have taken leaps and bounds from where they were last fall. That's on the O-line, at receiver, and on the D-line.
"We're better now than we were a week ago and certainly better than when we started camp. We are better than we were last year. But we were 1-7 last year in the ACC. So that's not our ultimate standard. Being better than we were last year doesn't get us to where we want to go. Are we prepared to put a team out there that will go 8-0 in the ACC? No, we're not. But that's the direction we're going."
Wake Forest will practice on Tuesday and Thursday of this coming week with the spring game slated for Saturday, April 11 at 3 pm at BB&T Field.
