Wake Forest Athletics
Demon Deacons Open Spring Practice
2/28/2017 12:00:00 AM | Football
By Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeFB)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest head football coach Dave Clawson saw a few things he liked after Tuesday's first practice of spring practice.
"I think that every year, the whole first practice gets faster," said Clawson. "With the exception of the fifth-year seniors, this is all these guys have known. I think the offense was able to play really fast and the defense, maybe not so fast since it was the first day of a new defensive system. There's going to be a little bit of catch-up. They kept things simple because they got their base front and their base coverage in. The offense could be a little more spread out and the defense was a little more vanilla. But that's just day one of the installation of a new package."
Tuesday's practice was the first with three new members of the defensive coaching staff and one new coach on the offensive side. Jay Sawvel is Wake Forest's new defensive coordinator and is joined by safeties coach Lyle Hemphill and linebacker coach Brad Sherrod. On offense, Wayne Lineburg is the new tight ends and special teams coach.
Clawson was encouraged by the performance of the offense.
"I hope we start becoming a more balanced team," said Clawson. "This is the first time since we've been here that the majority of the two-deep are in their third, fourth or fifth year. The last two years we've been counting on freshmen and redshirt freshmen to play starting roles. When you see the first offense out there today, with the exception of (running back) Cade Carney, everybody's in at least their third year. You don't mind playing a few younger guys as long as the bulk of it is third, fourth and fifth-year guys and this will be the first time on offense that will be the case. We've got to stay healthy and I expect us to be much better."
The addition of new coaches to the staff has made for more preparation time before each practice.
" There's just a lot more time behind the scenes of going through the practice plan," said Clawson. "(Mike) Elko, (Warren) Ruggiero and I were together eight straight years. The practice plan, you kenw where everybody went, the tempo of the drill. Yesterday when we went over the practice plan, you're going every period: the corners are here, the linebackers are here, the receivers are here. These guys know, they've coached for a lot of years. It's more the logistics of how the practice works.
"These are the drills we like to do. For the players, they'll probably say it's not much different. For the coaches, it's just a lot more preparation goes into every practice because almost half the staff is new. There are just little nuances everywhere, how the play finishes, the logistics of every bit of practice."
Redshirt sophomore Kendall Hinton, who missed the final 10 games of the 2016 season with a knee injury, enters spring practice as the starting quarterback but will be pushed by incumbent John Wolford. But Clawson sees another battle among quarterbacks as being just as important.
"It's really important between (Jamie) Newman and (Kyle) Kearns that we get one of them ready to play," said Clawson. "In my meetings with John and Kendall, I tell them that everybody within our walls and outside of our walls wants us to have one quarterback. And we do too. But those two guys haven't stayed healthy for more than two or three games at a time for the last two years. We're repping them equally with the ones. Kendall is the starter but John's getting a lot of reps with the ones because he has to. And I told them we have to get a third quarterback ready because neither of you have stayed healthy. I think one of the battles that people won't talk about is between Jamie and Kyle. It's tough to get three quarterbacks ready, you can't get four (ready). So that competition between Kyle and Jamie, we'll have to prepare our third quarterback because if we don't, we're just not being prudent."
Clawson also announced that running back Tyler Bell and defensive back Keegan Good each recently suffered a torn ACL and their status for the fall is in doubt. Safety Cam Glenn had shoulder surgery following last season and will miss spring practice but will be ready for fall camp.
Among the position changes noted on Tuesday was the move of redshirt freshman wide receiver Malik Grate to corner and Chuck Wade being moved to an outside receiver from a slot receiver.
"We will play Chucky at both positions. Tabari (Hines) and (Greg) Dortch are slots. Chuck is really smart, he can play all three receiver positions. When he is out there, he just makes plays."
With the loss of Bell, redshirt freshman Arkeem Byrd and true freshman Christian Beal will both receive plenty of reps during the spring.
"We need a home run hitter," said Clawson. "(Matt) Colburn and (Cade) Carney proved that they can play. So we're going to give those other guys a chance to get in the mix as well."
Wake Forest will continue practice on Thursday, March 2 at 3:40 at the Doc Martin Football Practice Complex and McCreary Field House. After a week off for spring break, the Deacons will return to practice on Tuesday, March 14. The annual Spring Game is slated for April 8 at BB&T Field.
