Deacs Hold Second Spring Scrimmage at BB&T Field
4/2/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeFB)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Tabari Hines caught a short pass from quarterback Kendall Hinton and turned it into a 58-yard touchdown to highlight Saturday's second scrimmage of the spring for the Wake Forest football team.
Head coach Dave Clawson and his staff put the Demon Deacons through a 90-minute scrimmage that featured 98 offensive plays. Outside of Hines' touchdown catch, the Deacon offense converted five of six field goal attempts.
Mike Weaver was successful on three of his four field goal attempts, hitting from 37, 28 and 34 yards. Redshirt sophomore Adam Centers was good from 20 and 32 yards.
"This scrimmage was a little more balanced than a week ago," Clawson told the media afterwards. "The offense made some explosive plays. I thought last week the offense moved the ball more consistently but didn't make any explosives. I thought today they made more explosives but I don't know that we moved the ball as well as a week ago. It was good to see us make an explosive play with Tabari. Obviously with him in there we're a much different football team."
Weaver enters his third season with the Demon Deacons and Clawson felt the redshirt junior performed well on Saturday.
"We missed the one (field goal attempt) that hit the goal post," said Clawson. "But Weav's a competitor. When he misses a kick, I don't care if it's practice, a scrimmage or a game, you don't have to get on him because he's so hard on himself. I would have been shocked if he didn't respond with a good day today. He is one of those guys that (football) is so important to him and he takes it so personally that you just leave him alone, you know he's going to self-correct."
With nearly every practice held inside McCreary Field House, today was the first scrimmage outside at BB&T Field.
"I love McCreary but today we had a little bit of wind and I don't know how well our quarterbacks and receivers handled it," said Clawson. "We've been completing the short balls and the short game at a real high level all spring. Then we got outside today and the wind was blowing and our completion percentage and our efficiency on those plays went way down. I think the offense for the most part is protecting the ball well. After a couple of the big plays I thought the defense held in there pretty good and made some great stops on third and fourth down and held up in the red zone and held up in overtime. It was almost the reverse of a week ago where the offense started faster today and made some big explosive plays early then as the scrimmage wore on, the defense got the stops. Overall I think we're still a more balanced football team than we were a year ago."
Hinton completed seven of 18 passes for 102 yards and the touchdown to Hines. John Wolford was 16-of-26 passes for 117 yards. Kyle Kearns completed three of his seven pass attempts for 45 yards. Kyle Driscoll and Jamie Newman each attempted one pass late in the scrimmage. Combined, the quarterbacks were 26-of-53 for 264 yards with three interceptions.
Tyler Bell gained 35 yards on the ground on 12 carries while freshman Cade Carney had six carries for 18 yards. With backs Isaiah Robinson, Rocky Reid and Matt Colburn sidelined, Trey Ndlovu led all carriers with 15 carries, gaining 14 yards.
At one point during the scrimmage, Carney limped off the field only to return moments later following treatment for a minor football injury.
"We knew he was tough, strong and he makes some real rugged runs for us," said Clawson. "He's a guy that pushes the pile. If it was third and one right now with our current roster he might be the guy we're giving the football to. When he gets his pads low and his weight forward, he pushes the pile. He'll be competing for that job and he'll probably be competing for it with Rocky (Reid). Those are things that I love. He really should be a high school senior and he's in his second scrimmage and there's only two backs and he got hurt and some guys would have said `I'm done for the day.' And he's mad and upset and he went back out there and gave us some good carries. Those are the kinds of guys we want at Wake Forest, guys who are tough, love football and hate not being out there."
Chuck Wade and Jalen Latter each caught five passes to led the receiving corps. Wade gained 35 yards on his receptions while Latter gained 29 yards. Hines led all receivers with 61 yards on his three receptions. Freshman Jeremiah Brown had four catches for 48 yards while Scotty Washington had three catches for 45 yards.
Defensively, linebacker Grant Dawson, cornerback Thomas Dillon and safety Dez Wortham all recorded interceptions. Wortham had a 44 yard return while Dillon brought his pick back 29 yards.
Linebacker Thomas Brown led Wake Forest with six tackles on the day and added a tackle for loss. Cameron Glenn had five tackles along with a half-sack. Linebacker Marquel Lee added four tackles while Duke Ejiofor and Zack Wary each had three stops.
Wake Forest's final scrimmage will be the Spring Game on Saturday, April 9. The scrimmage is slated to start at 3 pm at BB&T Field.
