Wake Forest Depth Chart vs. Towson

There are a few things that you don’t want to see as a fan, especially in the second week of the season, and one of them is a lot of changes to the depth chart after just one game.

Unfortunately, due to injuries sustained to a handful of players in the season opening 23-17 win over Tulane last Thursday, there are a few necessary alterations that the coaching staff had to make for Wake Forest ahead of the home opener against Towson on Saturday.

Let’s take a look at what we’ve got:

• The most obvious player missing is left tackle Justin Herron, who will see his 38 start streak end due to a leg injury that will sideline him the rest of the season. Jake Benzinger slides over to left tackle and Nathan Gilliam moves to right tackle. Sean McGinn is now listed as the backup at LG, while Loic Ngassam Nya is listed as the backup at RG. That would likely be a fluid situation if there were to be a mid-game injury though.
• The starters on defense mostly remain the same, with only Amari Henderson and Ja’Sir Taylor sporting an “OR”, and that’s due to an injury that Henderson sustained during the Tulane game.
• Redshirt freshman Tyriq Hardimon is now listed as the backup at strong safety after it was announced that Coby Davis will also miss the rest of the season due to a knee injury.
• In non-injury news (to the best of my knowledge), Nate Mays is now listed as an “OR” alongside Jake Simpson at the backup BUCK position to Justin Strnad.
• The special teams all stayed the same as last week despite freshman placekicker Nick Sciba missing a 24-yarder. I like not having a quick trigger there and am pleased to see he will remain there.

Overall not a ton of changes outside the injuries, but just enough to take a look at. I would expect the offensive starters to get more time on Saturday against Towson than they perhaps would have given a healthy line. This will be good for reps and continuity as Benzinger and Gilliam adjust to their new roles.