Wake Forest Football Season Preview

For the first time in what seemed to be 10 years, someone other than Riley Skinner will be behind the center when Wake Forest plays their first game. Skinner leaves the school as the best quarterback to ever play in Winston-Salem, amassing over 9700 yards passing, and leading Wake Forest to some of the best success it has seen since the middle of the last century. Offense Sophomore Ted Stachitas has some big shoes to fill replacing Skinner. Stachitas won the job after having a pretty strong spring, beating out Tanner Price for the job. Stachitas played a whopping six snaps last year, not even throwing a pass. There is a lot of inexperience at this position, and it could be a problem early on. With the inexperience at quarterback, the running backs will be heavily relied on. Senior running back Josh Adams is a pretty versatile back. Adams is a good runner, and is good pass catcher. Adams ran for 541 yards and four touchdowns, and caught 28 passes for 307 yards, which was fourth on the team. There is also a pretty capable backup in Brandon Pendergrass. The junior ran for 399 yards on 83 carries. When a fullback is on the field, it will likely be Tommy Bohanon. Bohanon was more of a blocker, but did carry the ball 16 times for 51 yards last season. I can see a pretty big uptick in both Adams and Pendergrass’ numbers this year with more emphasis on the running game. With Skinner gone, there won’t be as much of an emphasis on the passing game. But should Stachitas need to rely on them, he does have some pretty good targets to throw to. Senior Marshall Williams had a breakout season, earning second team All ACC after catching 60 passes for 867 yards and six touchdowns. On the other side, Devon Brown had a very nice season, catching 61 passes for 671 yards and six touchdowns. At tight end, Andrew Parker will get the start. Parker started six games for the Deacs last year, and caught nine passes for 90 yards. The offensive line isn’t very experienced, with only two starters back. Center Russell Lenon is the most experienced of the lineman, with 25 starts and 38 games played in three years. The other starter back is guard Joe Looney. Looney has 18 starts in two years. The other guard will be Michael Hoag, who has played in 25 games in his career. The starting tackles are new as well this year. One of them is Dennis Godfrey, who is a massive 335 pounds. At the other tackle spot is junior Doug Weaver, who has started a couple of games and played in 25 in two years. This group may not be as good as last year. Defense Last year’s defense was not as good as it was in years past, mostly in part because it didn’t force the turnovers it had in years past. The Deacs defense averaged 36 turnovers in 2007 and 2008, but only 15 last year. And there is only four starters back this year, and one of them on the defensive line. Tristan Dorty started 11 games last year, finishing with 41 tackles and three sacks. Kyle Wilber is back after only playing in four games last year. Wilber broke his leg, missing most of the season. He did finish with 18 tackles. Junior Gelo Orange will provide some depth on the line this year. Orange started five games, and had 32 tackles and three sacks. But while there is experience at the defensive ends, the defensive tackles are very inexperienced. Both Frank Souza and Nikita Whitlock are redshirt freshmen. Souza looks more like a lineman at 6-4 and 285 pounds, but Whitlock, at 5-11 and 245 pounds, looks more like a fullback. While there is inexperience on the defensive line, there is experience at linebacker, with 25 career starts back at linebacker. Hunter Haynes, the middle linebacker, is the lone senior starter. Haynes started six games last year, and finished with 41 tackles. He has an experienced backup in Matt Woodlief, who was actually fourth on the team in tackles last year with 51. The outside linebackers are both sophomores. Joey Ehrmann did start four games last year, and had 25 tackles and 3.5 sacks. The other linebacker is Riley Haynes, the brother of Hunter Haynes. The younger Haynes played special teams last year, and will get the chance to play alongside his older brother. The strength of the Deacs defense is the passing game, as three of four starters return, led by a gem of a football player in Kenny Okoro. The talented sophomore made second team freshman All American last season, finishing with 38 tackles, 11 passes defended, and three interceptions. He will be joined by junior Josh Bush, who had 25 tackles last year in six starts. Both safeties are back. Alex Frye spent time last year between cornerback and safety, starting six games and finishing with 32 tackles. The other safety is Cyhl Quarles, who was second on the team in tackles with 62. With a lot of the backups returning as well, the 61^st ranked pass defense should be a lot better. Special Teams Both the kicker and the punter are back this season, and looking to improve on their numbers from last year. Kicker Jimmy Newman hit all 34 extra point attempts, but was 11-17 on field goals. In his defense, three of those misses were from over 50 yards. At punter, Shane Popham had a decent season, averaging 38.9 yards per punt, and a 35.0 net. There will be a new person handling kick and punt returns this year. Lovell Jackson, Chris Givens, and Devon Brown handled them last year, but those duties have been given to redshirt freshman Michael Campanaro, who is very fast, and would be a good fit for the job. Schedule The schedule starts off with a relative pushover in Presbyterian, whom they are playing for the first time since 1945, and are still transitioning to the FCS. After that, Wake Forest does challenge itself in the non-conference, traveling to Stanford and Vanderbilt, and hosting Navy. In conference, the tough road games are at Florida State and Virginia Tech, but they do get Boston College, Georgia Tech, and Clemson at home. Fantasy Player toWatch This is a tough team to find a fantasy player on. If I were to look at one person, I would say its running back Josh Adams. While he only carried the ball 113 times last season, the team was more of a passing team last year, and with a new and inexperienced quarterback, will rely upon the ground game. If he can keep his average yards per carry the same as it was last year (4.8), and add an additional 100 carries, he could top 1000 yards. Will’s Thoughts The wild card when making any prediction regarding Wake Forest is head coach Jim Grobe. I don’t know how he does it, but Grobe can flat out coach. He is definitely one of those coaches that will get every bit out of his players. But this year will be a true test for him, with no Riley Skinner, and only 13 starters back. This looks like a team that might finish with a 4-8 or 5-7 record, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Wake Forest pull off an upset and become bowl eligible for the fourth time in five years.