Derrick Jackson pleased with progress of Wake Forest defensive backs

One of Jim Grobe's biggest talking points so far this spring has been the renewed energy and aggression shown by the Demon Deacon defensive unit. The Wake Forest coaching staff is insistent on a return to the opportunistic defenses of days past, where Deacon defenders swarmed to the football and created turnovers. One of the ways the Deacs hope to accomplish this is the recent decision to move coach Derrick Jackson over to coach the defensive backs, the position he played in college. Blogger So Dear caught up with coach Jackson following the second scrimmage of the spring season.

Overall thoughts on how the DBs played during the scrimmage:

"I'm real, real happy with how we tackled today. One of the things we challenged our guys about was to eliminate any big plays in the run game...I didn't see any explosive run plays. That's really been the point of emphasis with us, to eliminate big plays in that back end, whether it be in the run game or the throw game. I think they got the one big play on the third to last play of the scrimmage. It was great coverage by Bud (Noel), and then the guy (Brandon Terry) went up and made a play."

On his transition from coaching linebackers to coaching the secondary:

"Very, very exciting and fun. It's a new experience, learning guys' personalities, getting a chance to get a feel for a different vantage point of looking at the defense has been fun and exciting."

On the talent level of his young players:

"We've got a lot of talent back there. I said to coach that it's easy to make the transition when you've got players and I think we've got some really good players. Between James Ward, Ryan Janvion and even having a chance to look at Allen Ramsey out there- three guys who haven't played a lot of football and in the case of Ryan Janvion ANY football, this spring has been invaluable because we've had a chance to watch these guys compete."

On redshirt freshman Ryan Janvion (credited with 9 tackles) his performance this spring:

"The thing that you love to see is, the first scrimmage he made some plays here and there, missed some plays where I think there was some confusion in terms of what his role was in the scheme. But he's getting more comfortable, and what you start seeing is that the more comfortable they get in the scheme they keep playing faster, they keep playing more aggressive...that's what I saw today- a guy that really looks comfortable playing the safety position. He didn't look like a redshirt freshman, he looked like a guy that can go out there and play football for us."

Wake Forest will hold its annual spring game on Saturday, April 20 at BB&T Field. The scrimmage will begin at 1:00 p.m. and is free to the public.