Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Football
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Sept. 8, 1997 Deacs Down Wildcats / Pirates Up NextWake Forest opened its 1997 season in impressive style this past Saturday with a 27-20 victory over the nationally 21st-ranked Northwestern Wildcats. The Demon Deacons have little time to savor their win, however, as they face another formidable non-conference opponent this Saturday (Sept.13) when they travel to East Carolina. Kickoff time in ECU's Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium is 3:30 pm. The game, which is the first meeting between the two schools since 1979, will be televised regionally on Fox Sports South. Team DataWAKE FOREST (1-0) EAST CAROLINA (0-1) Offense: Multiple Offense: Pro Set Lettermen/Starters Back: 19/9 Lettermen/Starters Back: 17/4 Defense: Multiple Defense: Multiple 50 Lettermen/Starters Back: 20/8 Lettermen/Starters Back: 20/4 Total Lettermen Back: 42 Total Lettermen Back: 39 Head Coach: Jim Caldwell (5th year) Head Coach: Steve Logan (6th year) W-10, L-35 W-31, L-27 same record overall same record overall first meeting with ECU first meeting with Wake Forest 1997 Schedule 1997 Schedule 9/6 Northwestern W 27-20 9/6 at West Virginia L 17-24 9/13 at East Carolina 3:30 (FSS) 9/13 Wake Forest 9/20 Georgia Tech 6:30 9/20 South Carolina 9/25 N.C.State 8:00 (ESPN) 10/4 at Syracuse 10/4 at Virginia tba 10/11 Southern Miss 10/11 at North Carolina tba 10/18 at Tulane 10/18 Maryland 1:00* 10/25 Memphis 10/25 at Duke tba 11/1 Louisville 11/1 Clemson 1:00* 11/8 at Houston 11/8 at Rutgers tba 11/13 Cincinnati 11/15 at Florida State tba 11/22 at N.C.State *tentative - subject to change THE SERIES WITH EAST CAROLINA - Wake Forest and East Carolina have met two times previously, but not since 1979. The first get-together between the Deacs and Pirates occurred in 1963 (September 21, 1963) when Wake traveled to Greenville and absorbed a 20-10 defeat. The Demon Deacons won their second encounter with ECU 16 years later (September 22, 1979), 23-20, in a game played in Groves Stadium. That 1963 contest was the dedication game for ECU's Ficklen Stadium. This year's contest came about when East Carolina announced plans to open an expanded portion to that facility (now Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium) and invited Wake Forest to again be the guest institution Construction problems with the new upper-deck seating area, which will increase the stadium's capacity from 35,000 to 43,000., have prevented the new seats from being available for this game, however. Wake Forest and ECU have also made plans for an extended series beginning in 2001. 1997 CAPTAINS - Wake Forest players have selected four seniors to serve as co-captains throughout the '97 season. They are wide receiver THABITI DAVIS, defensive end ROBERT FATZINGER, center CHRIS GASKELL and defensive back D'ANGELO SOLOMON. THE DEACS LAST WEEK - Wake Forest defeated visiting Northwestern, 27-20, behind a solid defensive effort and the accurate arm of quarterback Brian Kuklick. The Demon Deacons surrendered only 63 yards in rushing offense to the #21-ranked Wildcats and had limited them to fewer than 300 yards in total offense until a last-minute drive. Kuklick completed 23 of 33 passes for 273 yards and a pair of touchdowns on the day, but did most of his damage in the second half when he connected on 15 of 19 throws for 183 yards. Wake was its own worst enemy in the opening two periods, turning the ball over three times on fumbles. Two of those turnovers came inside the Northwestern 30-yard-line. The other by D'Angelo Solomon on a punt return set up a Wildcat field goal. The Deacon offense totaled 210 yards in the first half but put just six points on the board on two Matthew Burdick field goals. The game turned in the third quarter when Kuklick directed his team to back-to-back TDs in less than two minutes. First he and Jammie Deese joined on a 12-yard scoring play that culminated a 75-yard drive, then the Deacon QB found his favorite receiver on the day, Desmond Clark, for a 37-yard TD. Those two plays gave the Deacs a 20-10 lead, which they increased to 27-10 on a Morgan Kane one-yard plunge early in the fourth quarter. The Wildcats rallied with a field goal and then a touchdown at the 1:13 mark for the final score. Clark finished with nine receptions for 127 yards. Deese contributed seven catches for 53 yards. Sophomore Kito Gary, in his first significant action as a Deacon, gained 74 yards on just eight attempts--all in the first half. Standouts on the defensive side for Wake Forest included tackle Aljamont Joyner (6 tackles, three for negative yardage) and linebackers Dustin Lyman (10 tackles), Kelvin Moses and David Zadel (9 tackles each). Noting the Demon DeaconsHISTORY REPEATS - It was two different teams with different motivations but the result was the same as a year ago. For the second straight season, Northwestern brought a Top 25 ranking into Groves Stadium and left with its first defeat of the year as Wake Forest recorded another surprising--at least to some--victory. In 1996, though, the Demon Deacons had rallied from an 11-point deficit in the fourth quarter for a dramatic come-from-behind win over the 13th-ranked visitors. This time there was little doubt as soon as the Deacs overcame their own first-half mistakes in the form of three fumbles. Wake held the upper hand in nearly every category, outgaining the 21st-rated Wildcats, 452-330, and dominating time of possession (34:06 to 25:54). This year it was Wake Forest with the upper hand early in the fourth stanza at 27-10, and the closest that Northwestern could come was the final seven-point margin (27-20) after a final TD with 1:13 remaining. Wake Forest had waited 17 years (since 1979) to defeat a nationally ranked opponent prior to last season's verdict. Now the Deacons have themselves two impressive wins over a program that has won or tied for the Big Ten championship the past two years. EYEING THE DEACS - Last week's win over Northwestern was televised on a regional basis by ABC in the first national network appearance for Wake Forest since its win over Oregon in the 1992 Independence Bowl. It had been 13 years (since an ABC regional telecast of a Deacon game at Virginia in 1984) since Wake had a regular season contest on a national network. This Saturday, the Deacs are again spotlighted regionally by the Fox Sports South network as it televises the matchup with East Carolina. Later this month (September 25), Wake will host N.C.State in a nationally televised game on ESPN--the first WFU regular season game ever to be televised to the entire country. THE STARTING LINEUP - Only four players made their first career starts for Wake Forest in last Saturday's win. They were fullback CHAD ALEXANDER, cornerback DAMEON DANIEL, defensive end KELVIN JONES and offensive guard SAM SETTAR. No fewer than nine Deacons currently have personal streaks of consecutive starts that have now reached double digits (see chart below), and a total of 13 individuals have started 10-or-more games in their careers. Demon Deacon Career Starts (1997 starts) 24 Robert Fatzinger (1)
12 Desmond Clark (1)
4 DaLawn Parrish (1)
D'Angelo Solomon (1)
Chris Gaskell (1)
3 Reggie Austin
23 Kelvin Moses (1)
11 Taris Clark (1)
2 Herman Lewis
22 David Zadel (1)
Fred Robbins (1)
Mark Makovec
20 Wande' Shaw
10 Joe Zelenka (1)
1 Chad Alexander (1)
18 Jeffrey Muyres (1)
8 Morgan Kane (1)
Dameon Daniel (1)
15 Thabiti Davis (1)
7 Jon Mannon
Kelvin Jones (1)
14 Jeff Flowe (1)
Brian Wolverton (1)
Sam Settar (1)
Aljamont Joyner (1)
6 Dustin Lyman (1)
Kelvin Shackleford
Brian Kuklick (1)
Clinton Wilburn
Consecutive Starts: Solomon - 24; Zadel - 18; D.Clark, Davis, Flowe, Joyner, Kuklick, Moses - 12; Muyres 11 STILL A YOUNG GROUP - The '97 Demon Deacon roster includes just 13 scholarship seniors (and a total of 15 overall). Of that group, eight are in their fifth year in the program but just four fifth-year-men started against Northwestern. They were defensive linemen ROBERT FATZINGER and ALJAMONT JOYNER, center CHRIS GASKELL, and fullback CHAD ALEXANDER. REDSHIRTING RULES - Although he was not able to redshirt the desired number of individuals in his first two classes to Wake Forest, coach JIM CALDWELL has stayed with that course the past two years and the numbers are beginning to reflect that commitment. As noted above, there are only eight fifth-year scholarship players on this year's roster, the lone remainder of Caldwell's first group of Demon Deacon freshmen. His second incoming group (in 1994) had five of 16 players play as true freshmen. But since then, the redshirt numbers have increased considerably. Of 1995's 23 freshman, 22 have been redshirted. And 12 of 16 first-year players a year ago were held out of action as rookies. Deacon Redshirting ProgressClass Total Members* Not Been Redshirted Have Redshirted Senior 13 5 8 Junior 12 1 11 Soph 26 4 22 Redshirt Freshmen 12 *scholarship players only BREAKING DOWN THE TWO-DEEP - The sophomore class dominates the current Wake Forest depth chart. Of the 45 players listed on the most recent two-deep, 22 are current sophs. That's two more than the TOTAL of seniors (11) and juniors (9). There are also three freshmen (2 redshirts, 1 true). The '97 sophomore class consists of 26 individuals. Twenty-two of those entered as freshmen two years ago but have been redshirted either in 1995 or 1996 (DESMOND CLARK is the only '95 newcomer who has not been redshirted). The other four current sophomores played as true freshmen last fall--REGGIE AUSTIN, MATTHEW BURDICK, DA'VAUGHN MELLERSON & DAVID MOORE. STINGY DEACONS - Only once in Jim Caldwell's previous 44 games as Wake Forest head coach has his defense done a better job (at least statistically) against the opposing rushing attack. The Demon Deacons surrendered just 63 yards on the ground to Northwestern this past week on 26 rushing attempts. Even when including the 18 yards that the Wildcats lost on two quarterback sacks, they still totaled only 81 yards on the ground. The only time that a Caldwell-coached squad has been more effective was in a 1995 contest with Maryland when the Deacons held the Terps to just 50 yards rushing. Wake lost that game, however, 9-6. On two other occasions in the past four seasons, Wake Forest has limited the opposition to under 100 yards on the ground, both times in 1993 (80 by App State, 71 by Maryland). PRODUCTIVE DEACONS - Wake Forest's 452 yards of total offense against Northwestern was higher than any single game total from the 1996 campaign. Three times last season, the Demon Deacons surpassed the 400-yard mark in total offense, with a high of 431 coming in the season finale at N.C.State. The 452-yard figure is the highest for a Deacon squad since the final game of the 1995 season when Rusty LaRue passed for an ACC record 545 yards, also against State. KUKLICK IN KONTROL - Demon Deacon quarterback BRIAN KUKLICK turned in perhaps his finest overall career performance against Northwestern. The junior from Hatboro, PA, making his 14th career start, completed 23 of 33 passes for 273 yards and two TDs without an interception. His 69.7% completion rate was the highest of his career for one game, but he was even better than that in the pivotal third period of the contest. In Wake Forest's three touchdown drives (two in the third quarter, one that concluded with 13:05 left in the game), Kuklick connected on 14 of 15 passes for 176 yards. Two of those scoring drives were completed by Kuklick TD passes--the first covering 12 yards to JAMMIE DEESE; the second going for 37 yards to DESMOND CLARK. The 273-yard total, though, was only the fifth-highest for the Deacon signal-caller, who twice last year topped 300 yards through the air. He threw for 330 yards at N.C.State and totaled 301 yards in a win over Appalachian State. MAYBE IT'S THE NEW NUMBER - The past three years, BRIAN KUKLICK wore #17. This year, he's found in the game program as #14, which was his old high school jersey number. That number had previously been worn by starting defensive back Tom Stuetzer, who graduated last spring. OR MAYBE IT'S THE PROTECTION - In 1996, BRIAN KUKLICK was sacked 28 times (and hit quite a few more times). In last week's win over Northwestern, the Demon Deacon quarterback was downed only once by the Wildcat rush, and after the game he praised his offensive line, which he said had protected him so well that he was hit "just three times" the entire afternoon. That line consisted of senior center CHRIS GASKELL, who received the highest grade on the coaches video grade following the contest; guards TARIS CLARK and SAM SETTAR; and tackles JEFF FLOWE and BRIAN WOLVERTON. Gaskell and Wolverton played all 79 offensive snaps in the game. Only two reserves were utilized during the day--sophomore BRIAN WALLS, who played briefly at both guard and tackle, and sophomore WILLIE LAM, who had switched to guard from tight end just a couple of weeks ago. FAVORITE TARGETS - Quarterback BRIAN KUKLICK distributed his 23 completions among eight different receivers last Saturday. That group was comprised of five wide receivers, two tight ends, and running back MORGAN KANE. Two individuals accounted for 16 of the 23 completions, however, as DESMOND CLARK (9 receptions for 127 yards) and sophomore JAMMIE DEESE (7 for 53) both enjoyed very productive afternoons. Deese's seven catches equaled his career-high at N.C.State last year, while Clark's totals were both the second-best of his already notable career. The only better numbers that the Lakeland, FL junior has posted during his first two years at WFU were the 13 receptions for 137 yards that he compiled in the win over Duke last November. BILETNIKOFF CHECKLIST - Wake Forest's two outstanding wide receivers--senior THABITI DAVIS and junior DESMOND CLAR--are included in the preseason checklist for the 1997 "Biletnikoff Award," which is presented annually by the Tallahassee (FL) Quarterback Club to the top receiver in the country. The dynamic Deacon duo are coming off excellent 1996 seasons in which they ranked 2nd and 3rd in the two primary receiving categories in the ACC. Davis was 2nd in receiving yardage (792) and 3rd in receptions (60), while Clark was 2nd in receptions (61) and 3rd in yardage (782). Only six times in Wake Forest history has a receiver caught 60 or more passes. Last year marked the first time that milestone was reached twice in the same season. It was also the fourth time in ACC history that two players on the same team caught at least 60 passes in the same year. The Magic Number is "60"(Wake Forest receptions in a single season) 68 - Marlon Estes (1995) 61 - DESMOND CLARK (1996)
66 - James Brim (1986) Wayne Baumgardner (1979)
65 - Ricky Proehl (1989) 60 - THABITI DAVIS (1996)
NEWCOMER TO THE RUNNING GAME - Returning starting running back MORGAN KANE had missed more than two weeks of preseason drills with a strained hamstring, allowing some younger backs to work with the number-one offensive unit. Demon Deacon fans got their first collective look at one of those promising youngsters last Saturday when sophomore KITO GARY erupted for 74 first-half yards on just eight carries. The first time he touched the ball, on the game's second play from scrimmage, Gary burst through a hole and sprinted 41 yards to set up a MATTHEW BURDICK field goal. He later added a 26-yard run on the Deacs' second possession of the contest. In abbreviated action as a redshirt freshman in 1996, the Miami product had carried the ball just five times, picking up 32 yards. TEAM EFFORT ON THE DEFENSIVE SIDE - Wake Forest's outstanding defensive performance versus Northwestern, which saw the Deacons hold the Wildcats to only 256 yards until a drive in the final two minutes of play, was a result of contributions from numerous individual performers. In fact, 21 different Deacons played on defense in the season opener--18 of those were on the field for more than 15 defensive snaps. The reverse of that figure, of course, is that only four Deacon defenders participated in more than 50 plays in the victory as the Wake Forest coaches constantly rotated personnel in order to have fresh bodies on the field as much as possible. TACKLE LEADERS - Sophomore linebacker DUSTIN LYMAN recorded 10 tackles (4 solo) to lead the Demon Deacons in that department, while his starting mate at inside 'backer, KELVIN MOSES, and outside linebacker DAVID ZADEL were credited with nine stops apiece. Zadel had a team-high six unassisted hits, including two for negative yardage. Up front, senior tackle ALJAMONT "AJ" JOYNER played one of his finest contests as a Deacon. The popular Joyner led all linemen with six tackles, three of which went for losses (a total of 7 yards). SPECIAL TEAMS QUITE SPECIAL, TOO - The kicking game was a definite positive for Wake Forest as well in its opening win. Punter TRIPP MOORE was outstanding, averaging 49.3 yards per punt on four boots. His kicks were returned for a total of only seven yards as well, giving the Deacons an eye-catching 47.5-yard net gain per punt. Sophomore placekicker MATTHEW BURDICK converted field goals of 28 and 46 yards before missing a 40-yarder late in the game. He and his kickoff coverage unit also performed quite well, allowing Northwestern to average just 16.4 yards per return on kickoffs. Redshirt freshman KEYSHORN SMITH was a leader on the coverage team with three tackles. |