Wake Forest Football: 2nd Spring Scrimmage Analysis

The Deacs played their 2nd Spring Scrimmage at BB&T field, and scored just 1 touchdown and made 5-6 field goals. The offense did not move the ball very consistently, and the only touchdown came on a 58 yard run from Tabari Hines after catching a bubble screen. The defense looked much better, coming away with 3 picks,several deflected passes, and keeping the offense from getting any real traction in the ground game at all.

The Quarterbacks

It was not a particularly good day for the Wake Forest QBs. John Wolford and Kendall Hinton took most of the reps, Kyle Kearns led the offense for 2 drives, and Jamie Newman and Kyle Driscoll both got to play for juts 1 drive at the end of the scrimmage. Combined the QBs went 26-53 (49%) for 264 yards and 3 ints. Each of the QB's had their share of bad throws, which Clawson contributed to the strong wind blowing through BB&T.

The Deacs failed to complete any deep passes down the field, and most of their completions came from bubble screens and passes less than 5 yards.

John Wolford threw for 117 yards, completing 16-26 passes (62%). Kendall Hinton finished the scrimmage 7-18 (39%) for 102 yards and the games only touchdown, which came on a bubble screen to Tabari Hines, who ran 58 yards to find the end zone. He also threw 1 pick right into the gut of Grant Dawson. Kyle Kearns completed 3-7 passes (43%) and threw 1 pick on a ball he just put up for grabs into double coverage. Kearns probably had the 2 best throws of the scrimmage. On the first, he was flushed from the pocket and rolled to his left, gathered himself and threw a perfect deep ball to James Sriraman, who unfortunately dropped it. The second was this back shoulder throw to Jeremiah Brown.

The Receivers and the Bubble Screen

The receiving statistics for the scrimmage can be seen below, summed up nicely by @WakeRivals (give him a follow if you have not already). There were several drops from the receivers in this game on balls that could have been caught, and a few of them would have allowed the Deacs to score a few more TDs. Hopefully that will be sorted out when the season rolls around.

Receiving
Chuck Wade 5-35
Jalen Latter 5-29
Jeremiah Brown 4-48
Tabari Hines 3-61, TD
Washington 3-45
Bell 3-16
Claude 2-23
Freudenthal 1-7

— Deacons Illustrated (@WakeRivals) April 2, 2016

As mentioned before, a large amount of the completed passes in the scrimmage, including the only touchdown, came from bubble screens. The bubble screen is a great play to get the ball out of the quarterback's hands quickly (which is great if your O-line isn't the best) and into the hands of your play makers in the open field. This gives the wide receiver a chance to use his athleticism and puts a lot of pressure on the DB to make an open field tackle. It seems like the bubble screen is going to be a much bigger part of the offense for the Deacs this year.

The Run Game

The running game was led by Sophomore Tyler Bell, who rushed the ball 12 times for 35 yards (2.9 ypc). Freshman Cade Carney carried the ball 6 times for 18 yards (3 ypc) and red-shirt Freshman Trey Ndlovu carried the ball 15 times for just 14 yards (0.93 ypc). The run games continues to be a struggle for the Deacs, who haven't really been able to get anything on the ground in 2 years. But hey, at this point let's be optimistic and just attribute it to how good our defense is.

Defense

Speaking of defense, the defense really stood out today. They were all over the field, breaking up passes, blowing up the run game, and picking off passes. The defense as a whole finished with 3 ints, 3 sacks, and 7 tackles for loss. Senior Linebacker Thomas Brown led the Deacs with 9 total tackles. Defensive End Ali Lamot recorded 3 tackles for loss and 1 sack. Dezmond Wortham, Grant Dawson, and Thomas Dillon each had 1 pick on the day.

Play of the Game

The play of the game goes to Dez Wortham, who channeled his inner Josh Norman to come up with than interception on the last play of the scrimmage.