I couldn't attend the scrimmage this morning like I had hoped, but do have the official release from Wake Forest. It's posted after the jump. Looks like the offense did a lot better, but still has a long way to go. I am concerned about the complexity of the offense. I was talking to a few of the players and parents at the Deacon Slugfest that I was working, and they said that some of it was hard to get down and there were over 500 plays.
It also appears that the offense took the things that Coach Grobe said to heart. I hope they all continue to improve and get better before the spring game on April 16th.
Click through for official release.
Wake Forest holds second spring scrimmage
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest’s offense scored a pair of touchdowns and the defense recorded three sacks and recovered a pair of fumbles in Saturday’s controlled scrimmage at BB&T Field.
The Demon Deacons scored on a 65-yard swing pass from Brendan Cross to Lovell Jackson and on a 12-yard run by Brandon Pendergrass.
The offense used five quarterbacks in the hour-long scrimmage, rotating between returning starter Tanner Price along with Brendan Cross, Ted Stachitas and Patrick Thompson. Redshirt freshman Keenon Rush engineered the final drive of the scrimmage. Each of the top four quarterbacks either accounted for a scoring drive or drove the team into field goal range. Stachitas was at the helm on Pendergrass’ 12-yard touchdown run while Cross had a one-play scoring drive with his swing pass to Jackson that resulted in a 65-yard touchdown. Price drove the Deacons to the 11 and 29 while Stachitas had a drive that ended at the 9. Thompson led Wake to the 1 before a fumble at the goalline negated the scoring threat.
Each quarterback also had at least one completion of 35 yards or longer. Price hit Michael Campanaro with a 41-yard pass. Stachitas and Chris Givens teamed up on a 35-yard completion and Thompson hit redshirt freshman Matt James with a 48-yarder that gave the offense a first-and-goal at the four. Cross and Jackson combined for a 65-yard touchdown connection.
Redshirt senior Brandon Pendergrass led all rushers with 52 yards on just four carries. He had the longest run of the day on a 34-yard carry. Nick Knott had 13 yards on four carries.
Campanaro led all receivers with six receptions, gaining 77 yards. Jackson had five catches for a team-high 91 yards while James finished the scrimmage with 67 yards on three receptions. Givens caught three passes for 42 yards while fullback Tommy Bohanon had three receptions for 26 yards.
"The offense got tired of embarrassing themselves," said head coach Jim Grobe following the scrimmage. "Between the 20s, we got the ball going again. It was a good day offensively. I thought all our quarterbacks competed hard today. I think we’ll see (on tape) that our offensive line played pretty good today. I thought our wide receivers stepped up. We found out we don’t need tight ends. If those guys don’t get healthy and get in there, we can play with three wides and two running backs. I thought our fullback-halfback combinations with three wide receivers was a really good set up for us today. We were hoping to come out of spring with a go-to guy but we’ve got four or five guys who are clawing to get the football. If we can continue to get good blocking, I think we’ll have a pretty good receiving corps.
"(The only thing) I was disappointed with (offensively) was we screwed up four or five play calls. We were trying to do some wristband stuff and some signal stuff and I thought we didn’t concentrate very well some times. We would have gotten beat a couple times on play clocks but all in all, I think we had a pretty good day offensively.
"Our consistency’s been bad because at our running back position and our tight end position, we’ve had a lot of guys banged up," said Grobe. "But today I thought we had good play out of Brandon Pendergrass and Nick Knott did a really nice job running the football. And I thought our wide outs stepped up. We still need to get the tight ends back in there but I thought our consistency was much better."
Grobe was asked if there was a message being conveyed to the Deacons this spring.
"Last season doesn’t cut it," said Grobe. "It’s not like we have a season like we had last year, we can’t all get together at Chuck E. Cheese and hand out trophies. At this level, it just doesn’t happen and our guys have to understand it. If you don’t practice, it’s going to be hard for us to be a good football team. We have to have durable and dependable guys."
Defensively, Zachary Allen, Riley Haynes and Mike Olson all recorded sacks during the scrimmage. Kris Redding and Gelo Orange each recovered fumbles.
STATISTICS
Rushing (Atts-Net Yds)
Brandon Pendergrass (4-52)
Khiry Sutton (5-2)
Nick Knott (4-13)
Ben Emert (3-7)
Keenon Rush (1-2)
Passing (Cmp-Att-Yds)
Tanner Price (7-14-98)
Brendan Cross (4-5-98)
Ted Stachitas (11-13-99)
Patrick Thompson (2-4-57)
Keenon Rush (1-1-3)
Receiving (Rcpts-Yds)
Michael Campanaro (6-77)
Danny Dembry (2-14)
Tommy Bohanon (3-26)
Chris Givens (3-42)
Lovell Jackson (5-91)
Matt James (3-67)
Brandon Pendergrass (2-19)