The NFL Combine invite list is out, and there are four Demon Deacons on it. Junior Chris Givens, who declared for the NFL Draft after the team's loss to Mississippi State in the Music City Bowl, OL Joe Looney, S Cyhl Quarles and LB Kyle Wilber will all have the chance to improve their draft stock in Indianapolis from Feb. 22-28.

Givens was listed as high as late first round in recent mock draft projections, but is still projected as a second-third round talent. The Combine should give him chances to finally show off his skillset, something that was undervalued nationally. If he can blow away scouts, that grade could rise.

Looney is a strange inclusion, as he tore a ligament during Senior Bowl practices, but he may be working out pre-surgery, and will have teams looking at him with that understanding in mind.

Quarles has the body and the athleticism to make it at the next level, but will need some coaching. If I had to take a guess, I would say he goes fifth-sixth round, and will need to make his impact on special teams to start.

Wilber has the highest upside and the most to prove. He is a freak physically, but played in a scheme that did not maximize his talents. He didn't have gaudy numbers during his senior season, but has the potential to play right away. Scout Tom Melton had this to say about Wilber after the Shrine Game:

Kyle Wilber (Wake Forest) had a good game as he was consistently around the ball, he made a number of tackles (unfortunately I couldn’t track down a stat sheet, so at this time I don’t know how many tackles he finished with) and showed his ability to rush the passer. He’s still pretty light to try to stick at defensive end, but I think he has the potential to shift to outside linebacker at the next level.

I expect Wilber to open some eyes and jump to a possible fourth-fifth round projection, with room to climb.

As always, BSD will have all the Wake-related NFL Draft news, and we're definitely looking forward to seeing what Givens, Wilber, Quarles and Looney can do at the NFL Combine.

If you haven't been keeping up with the day so far, I urge you to look around the website and check out the Wake Forest Primer, as well as the Wake Forest Recap that have been typed up so far. Both provide invaluable information about the group of young men that the staff have assembled for this upcoming year.

Without further ado, here is what Coach Grobe (and his staff) had to say about National Signing Day and this year's class.

"A group of kids that we are going to enjoy coaching. Everybody who was verbally committed to us stayed to us. I think we targeted the right guys and overall it's a very balanced class. At the end there were a couple of guys that if we could have added then we would have."-

We were looking to add one more wide receiver, and possibly at linebacker have taken another on. Overall, I think if you look at the board for next year, I think we have taken players that represent every position group. We might have taken a player here and there, but overall we covered out needs. We may need to ask a couple of these guys to come in and play right away. It's a group of guys that I think we will have fun coaching. Not only will they play hard for us, but they want a quality degree as well."

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National Signing Day is here, and that means the LOI's are being sent in as we speak for schools.

As of 8:00 I have not seen/heard anything solid about a Wake player sending in their LOI yet, although I'm sure it may not have been updated on a lot of recruiting websites. The minute that we hear/read/get word of our guys signing their LOI's it will go up here with links/stats/video of the player.

If you are new to this sort of thing, take a look at the Wake Forest Primer, which is a preview of what Wake Forest is expected to bring in today, as well as who might still choose the Deacs.

Give me a follow @BSD_RAJohnston on the Twitter Machine, as that will be the most up-to-date with other recruiting news, as well as breaking news for the Deacs until at least 9:30.

ALL 19 VERBALS HAVE SENT IN THEIR LETTERS OF INTENT TO WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY.

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via WakeForestSports.com

Tomorrow (or really today) is one of the biggest days, if not THE biggest day for most college football teams in the NCAA, and Wake Forest is certainly not an exception. It is National Signing Day, the day that all the high school senior recruits across the nation sign their National Letter of Intent to their college. This letter binds the athletes to the school that they commit to, and it becomes a rock hard "commit", rather than just a verbal.

Although the Deacs are not a perennial powerhouse in college football by any means, it is still the day when we get our infusion of talent for the next 4 (and for us mostly 5) years. Therefore it is very important to us here at Blogger So Dear, and the readers to stay on our toes about the team and what is coming!

Throughout the day tomorrow we will have a live open blog all day where all discussion can take place about the commits coming in. We will also be updating it throughout the day with information from a plethora of sites around the web. That means there is no reason for y'all to go anywhere else except here to get your Wake Forest recruiting information. There shouldn't be a lot of surprise for us, but last year we got a couple of last day steals, so you never know.

This article will highlight the (currently) 19 guys that have verballed to us and are expected to sign their LOI with us at some point tomorrow to become Demon Deacons.

It goes without saying that we welcome all of these guys with open arms, because I (and all of us I hope) believe that these young men will be making the best decision of their life. Go Deacs!!!

Click through for a list of the football players expected to sign with the Deacs tomorrow, as well as a couple of other guys that we could land who are deciding tomorrow.

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via www.wfu.edu

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest head football coach Jim Grobe has announced that two coaches are leaving the staff to pursue other coaching opportunities.

Special teams coordinator Keith Henry and co-defensive coordinator Tim Billings will not return to the staff in 2012.

Henry came to Wake Forest with Grobe in 2001. He joined Grobe’s first coaching staff at Ohio University in 1995. While at Ohio, Henry was the outside linebackers coach for four seasons and spent two years coaching the receivers. During his time at Wake Forest, he has coached cornerbacks and defensive ends. In 2011, Henry was the special teams coordinator.

Billings spent six years at Wake Forest. He coached the wide receivers in 2006 and 2007 before moving to the secondary in 2008. Billings coached the defensive ends in 2010 and the outside linebackers in 2011.

"Keith and Tim have been valuable members of our staff," said Grobe. "We wish them all the best."

There should be plenty of commentary on these "shake-ups", so let's go ahead and talk about this....interesting...move by Coach Grobe and Ron Wellman.

Well, it wasn't exactly pretty...in the first half.  In the end though, the Deacs exploded from a 7-7 tie at the half to trounce the Terps by 3 touchdowns.  While Wake was plagued by missed tackles (and questionable officiating) all night long, in the end the offense could pull out the big plays and the D tightened up where necessary, leaving the Deacs bowl eligible for the first time since 2008. 

Read more after the jump...

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It's a little bit later on Friday than we usually throw these up, and it can be blamed only on me. I got the questions Wednesday night and didn't get them back to Chris until this morning.

That being said, he took the time to answer some of our questions, just as I did with him. I'll throw up his answers now and get mine in a Fanshot later tonight.

Enjoy the answers, and hopefully we will get a big win tomorrow to become bowl eligible.

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via images.picturesdepot.com

There has been a lot of talk recently among Wake Forest fans that Wake blows an excessive amount of leads in the 4th quarter. I believe that it is more "prisoner of the moment" disease, and have gone through the trouble of looking up all games that Wake Forest won or lost by 7 points or less in the past 10 years.

It took a fair amount of work, and I haven't really dug through the numbers to break them down as much as I could have, but I did get a basic summary of the numbers and the bottom line. I have listed the margin that Wake was either winning or losing by entering the 4th quarter, followed by the result. Of course these numbers don't take into consideration the status of the game at the point of the 4th quarter beginning (for example, a team might have been at the 1 and down 14 entering the 4th, and then scored on the first play, that is much different than being up 14 and driving with the ball at the end of the 3rd quarter).

I hope you will take time to look through the jump and what the numbers really show.

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