I managed to swing by practice for about an hour yesterday afternoon and while it was a hot one there was plenty of shade, at least behind the wall! It was more of a traditional practice rather than the special teams focused one that they ran on Monday and ran this morning so I was actually able to see some stuff about the football team!
There is another practice this afternoon at 3:15/3:30 and then the first scrimmage of the fall tomorrow morning at 9. I haven't seen much information about the scrimmage so I don't know if it's open to the public or where it is located (could be at BB&T Field instead of the Martin Football Complex).
If I get that information I'll pass it along via my Twitter (@BSD_RaJohnston).
Click through the jump for an 8/14 practice report
The two biggest things that I observed yesterday were on the injury front (shocker given how this fall has gone as far as injuries).
First of all, there were rumors going around that Colin Summers had fractured a bone in one of his hands that might keep him out for an extended period of time, which Wake Forest obviously cannot afford at this point in the offensive line. I watched him carefully as he went through stretches and then drills and it seemed to me that he was completely fine. He did the contact drills, didn't hold back, and was going 100%. I got confirmation yesterday afternoon that he was in fact fine and nothing was up with him.
The second scare came with about 30 minutes left in practice when all-everything Michael Campanaro came down after a catch and either his left leg up under him or was landed on awkwardly by somebody else. Either way Camp was in a lot of pain for about 5 minutes on the turf before slowly getting up and gingerly walking off the field. It looked to be above the lower part of his ankle which made me think that it was either a high ankle sprain or an injury to the fibula or tibia. Fortunately news was received that he was a little sore after practice and may miss a couple of days but it is nothing serious.
Here are some bullet point rundowns for the rest of practice:
- In a way the Campanaro injury might be a blessing in disguise because it will allow somebody else to step up. Coach Grobe called out WR's coach Lonnie Galloway and his receiving corps in the press (to Dan Collins, comments can be seen here) for their inconsistent efforts in catching the ball. Yesterday afternoon was probably one of the worst practices I've seen by a Wake Forest receiving corps in the 3-4 years I've been attending practice sessions. It seemed like every other ball was hitting the ground. Not all of the throws were picture-perfect, but most of the balls hit a hand of a receiver and then hit the ground. The QB's and Coach Galloway were getting visibly upset with the guys.
- Some first-team news that I managed to see: Terence Davis and Orville Reynolds were both taking first team snaps in the first skeleton drills. Davis is battling Matt James for the outside receiver starting position while Reynolds is battling Josh Harris. Harris also got some reps with the first team as well. I expect both of those battles to go down to the wire unless if somebody really steps up in the scrimmages leading up to the Liberty game.
- Freshman Kevis Jones left the field for an extended amount of time after an apparent right leg injury on one of the other fields. I didn't see what happened in that case. Matt James also left a couple of times but it was hard to tell whether it was for medical treatment or uniform issues that were bothering him.
- Freshman Jared Crump was out again due to his right knee injury but said it's feeling a lot better. Crump was hurt after making a great catch during Friday night's practice session.
- The Tennessee Titans and Seattle Seahawks had scouts out to Wake Forest yesterday. They were more than likely just doing their pre-season scouting report for Wake, but they each spent an extended amount of time watching the secondary and speaking with Coach Galloway of the wide receivers. That would make sense with Campanaro and Bud Noel probably the two best prospects on this team at this juncture.
- Deacs worked a little bit on zone reads today with the QB's and while I don't want to go too deep into specifics had a bunch of different sets and plays running out of the same formation. It looked like the coaching staff was really trying to get certain plays into the playbook that the Deacs will run often this season.
- Bud, Camp, JRoc and Scooby all worked on punt returns again today. Bud Noel had a rough go of a couple of them and had to do some push-ups as a result. I think I've mentioned it before, but my ideal punt returning depth chart would be: 1-Camp, 2-Scooby, 3-JRoc, 4-Bud. Scooby and Bud can keep handling kickoffs imo as well.
- As far as the punting goes it was great to see Alex Wulfeck back out on the field and punting again. He showed his consistency once again and was hitting some good ones throughout. Alex Kinal also showed off his booming leg with a punt that traveled about 60 yards with some insane hangtime. He then followed it up with about a 35 yard clanker so that's about right at this point.
- The secondary dominated the receiving corps in the one-on-one drills and Bud Noel was especially impressive even by his standards while rocking the gold cleats.
- The offensive line seems to be gelling a little bit better and RS junior Devin Bolling took a lot of the first team snaps at left tackle. RS freshman Hunter Goodwin was also involved in a lot of the first team stuff going on as well. It seems that Bolling is the guy to beat at this point for the starting spot. The line looked much better, especially in the running game in terms of getting push and leverage for some outside runs.
- Matt James made the play of the day with a diving catch over who I believe was Kevin Johnson (hard to tell with their jerseys rolled up). James just went up and took it away from KJ and secured the ball as he came down. On a bad day for the receivers it was a bright spot.
- Sherman Ragland III then blew by Allen Ramsey on a blown coverage to back the great catch up with an easy fly route TD catch.