Deacons Host Media Day Event and Practice
Wake Forest spends morning at BB&T Field, afternoon in practice

Aug. 2, 2008

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - The Wake Forest football team held its annual football media day event on Saturday morning at BB&T Field and then practiced for two hours in the afternoon at the Doc Martin Football Practice Complex.

The afternoon practice started 30 minutes late due to an afternoon thunderstorm. Another thunderstorm shaved a couple of minutes off the end of practice.

"I like what we're doing right now," said head coach Jim Grobe. "We've got kids who are in pretty good shape and we're a pretty strong football team. We'll have to push them a little harder as we go but our coaches have done a really nice job of working the mental part of the game and I think our kids are probably a little bit further along scheme-wise than we have been in the past."

Saturday afternoon's practice included both 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 passing drills. The Demon Deacons also concentrated on punt coverage and kickoff coverage.

"We would have worked on special teams yesterday but we just had so much installation to do offensively and defensively," said Grobe. "This is really early for us. Typically, we don't jump into special teams for a while. I like what we did today, it looks like we found a couple of guys who can snap the football."

Among those working on punt snaps were junior Greg Bechtel, redshirt freshman Collin Granger, senior Ryan McManus and junior Lee Malchow. The Deacons are seeking to replace four-year starter Nick Jarvis who was good enough to play in both the Hula Bowl and the East-West Shrine Game following the 2007 season. Finding a long snapper had been one of Grobe's priorities heading into preseason camp.

"They looked good," said Grobe of his snapping candidates. "I don't think we're going to have any issues. I thought two or three of the kids did a real nice job today. Greg Bechtel being back with us is nice because he was our backup last year. He had a little more pop than the other guys. I thought Ryan McManus had a couple of good snaps and Lee Malchow had a couple of good snaps as well. We'll be fine."

The 23rd-ranked Deacons are scheduled to practice on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. at the Doc Martin Complex. Wake Forest opens its season on Thursday, August 28 at Baylor.

NOTES: Former Wake Forest athletic director Dr. Gene Hooks attended Saturday's practice along with his son David.

Wake Forest Media Day Quotes

Head Coach Jim Grobe

On finding depth on the football team:

"We've been in the position before where we've come into August without a very good feel about our starters. We're in a pretty good situation now where we're trying to develop our depth. Our starting tight ends need to prove themselves. Ben Wooster is going to play a lot. He played a little bit (last year) behind (John) Tereshinski and (Zac) Selmon. He's a guy who needs to step up and have a good year. (Chip) Brinkman and D.J. Boldin have kind of been in the shadows and now they have to step up and play well. We have some good young receivers, we feel good about them. But you like to see your older guys who are in their last year of football step up and make something happen. Kerry Major is a guy who's going to be a senior for us, that's playing out there on the corner. It would be great to see Kerry have a good August and feel like we can throw him out on the corner because he's one of the faster guys on our team. We've got pretty good depth at the linebacker position. Up front, we're in pretty good shape. We'll find three tackles and three ends that will play. Our goal is, rather than find one or two people that have to step up, it's finding a group that can challenge that first unit, to play the backup positions.

Alex Frye is one of those guys, isnt' he? "Alex Frye is one of those guys that has freaky good ability. Not good ability but freaky good ability. He has great foot speed. He made the great play against Maryland (last year) where he ran (the guy) down. His problem is that he's still a young guy, he's hot and cold. He goes to sleep sometimes effort-wise. If we can just get Alex to the point where we get some consistency out of him, he's going to play a lot of football. He's a guy who can really help out Chip (Vaughn) and K.P. (Kevin Patterson) at safety if we can just get him to be a consistent guy. He's a really bright guy and has no problem with our defense, making checks and all those things. We just need him to get out and grind a little bit because he's a really good player. One of my coaches used to say `some guys are artists, not painters.' We need Alex to be a little more of a worker."

QB Riley Skinner completed 72 percent of his passes last year and it was almost taken for granted. What does it mean to have a quarterback that is that accurate?

"It gives us a lot of he'll do that every throw. The thing that Riley did last year when we went to BC, he put a little too much pressure on himself to beat Matt Ryan. He wanted to match up with Matt. He was as nervous as I've ever seen him. I've never seen him be that nervous before. He made a couple of poor red zone decisions. I thought from halfway through the season on, Maryland, he did some great things. Then he really settled down the rest of the season. You have a very comfortable guy in Riley. You've got a guy who realizes he doesn't have to be a rock star, he doesn't have to be `the guy.' He just has to be a guy who doesn't get us beat. Certainly, leading the nation in completion percentage was good but I wouldn't want his goals to be set on being better than last year. I'd like for his goals to be set on winning more games than last year."

On DT Ted Randolph:

"I'm pleased with Ted Randolph as a player. He's come a long way. He came in with his heart set on being a tight end. And as our offensive has evolved, we've really gone more to tight ends as receivers first and blockers second. In the old days, we really wanted a tight end who was more of a tight tackle, was really a physical, grinder guy. So Ted kind of got caught in that deal where we're going more with Ben Wooster, Cameron Ford-type guys who can run and catch first and then block when we need them to. The move to defensive tackle has been a long, hard road. He didn't want to do it last year, he stayed at tight end and, consequently, he didn't play much. This spring he came to me and said `Coach, I just want to play,' which is a sign of maturity. And then, not only did he switch over to defensive tackle, but he played really well there this spring. He makes things a lot more comfortable for us (at defensive tackle). He stirs it up pretty good over there, too, on defense. He looks like he belongs over there. He has a spark, he likes to go after people."

What did you tell the team when you learned of the No. 23 national ranking?

"I congratulated them. I told them I think it's really cool. It's neat to be ranked, not only in the coaches poll but in a lot of the other preseason publications that have us in the top 25. But there's a danger there, obviously. The danger is that the players start chalking up a good season before you even play your first game and that's certainly not what you want. I think our players understand that we have a lot of work to do. Our coaches are very aware that it's easy to become over-confident if you're not careful. I told our players we have a good football team but that doesn't guarantee a good season. You have to make that happen.

What do you make of polls and rankings?

"I thought I saw where our quarterback, Riley Skinner, mentioned in the paper today that two years ago we were picked sixth in our division and we won the ACC Championship. That's a pretty good learning lab right there. If the guys will just look at that. I think maybe what you have to do is look at the two teams in the Atlantic and the Coastal (Divisions) and see who was picked sixth and maybe they're going to win the championship.

How has Riley Skinner's life changed without (former quarterback coach) Jeff Mullen (who left to become the offensive coordinator at West Virginia?

"Probably not much at all. You've got to remember that Jeff was an old offensive line coach and it took him a few years to not coach the quarterbacks the way he used to coach the tackles and tight ends. I thought he was going to get them over on the sleds and start driving 200 pound dummies and all that kind of stuff. But (new quarterback coach) Tommy (Elrod) played quarterback here, played for a great coach in Jim Caldwell, so he has great expertise in having been coached by somebody who is considered a great quarterback coach in the NFL. Tommy's got a great background and Tommy recruited Riley so they have a great relationship. I would say we won't skip a beat there."

Senior cornerback Alphonso Smith

On the reputation of Wake Forest when he was being recruited... "That it was a basketball school. That was during the Chris Paul era. When I was recruited, Wake Forest had a pretty good basketball team. We were number one in the nation my freshman year I think. The feeling was that I was going to a basketball school and they didn't care about football."

On if that reputation has changed since his freshman year... "Definitely. Coming out here on Saturdays and seeing the fan support is incredible. In the spring game my freshman year, you would just see the parents of each of the players. This year we had fans, locals, parents and friends of parents wanting to know about Wake Forest football. It has definitely changed."

On if he's looking ahead to after graduation... "No, I'm just focused on Baylor right now and trying to think about the Baylor Bears."

Senior linebacker Aaron Curry

On how the team is approaching the 2008 season... "We're approaching it the same way. We're trying to come out every day and try to get better. We're going to play hard every snap. We're going to try to be mentally perfect and, hopefully, the scoreboard will take care of itself."

On the differences between the program now and his freshman season... "The Deacon Tower is different. The passion of the game has spread to the entire team. Everybody loves to come out in the heat and go after it. We've won close games and lost some close games. The program is building and it's proven with Deacon Tower."

On football in the state of North Carolina... "We've proven that all these universities play football also. Recruiting is getting better for everyone. High school football in the state of North Carolina is getting better. North Carolina, Duke, NC State and Wake are all getting really good players. We've all proven that at any given moment any of us could win the conference or lose the conference. As long as we're playing good, we can get better and we prove that by showing that football is important by building bigger stadiums and putting buildings like Deacon Tower up."

Junior quarterback Riley Skinner

On the start to last season... "We put too much pressure on ourselves. All we kept thinking was we have to be some spectacular team who goes out and dominates everybody we play and prove that we can play. We kind of got out of our rhythm and what we like to do as a team and managing the game and taking what the defense gives us. Just playing the field position game--we started to get back into that. We started to get back into our rhythm and feel comfortable, and then we started to win a lot of games."

On if learning from last season's rough start will carry over to this season... "After the first two or three games, we all realized what we were doing. We were just playing tense and we weren't playing loose and having fun and doing what we were used to doing. I think it's going to carry over. We have such an experienced team right now with a lot of veterans and a lot of seniors on defense. We know we've been in this situation, we know what it takes to win, we know what it's like to be down, so I think it's going to help us out a lot.

On not facing an ACC Atlantic Division opponent in the first week of 2008... "Starting out [last season] with (BC) was tough. I think it's going to help not having a division game to start off with, but our first division game is at Florida State. And shortly after that is Clemson. Even though it's not right off the bat, we're still starting off with two of our biggest division games in the first four weeks of the season."

On being ranked No. 23 in the preseason poll... "To be honest I didn't know we were in the coaches poll until somebody asked me that in an interview before practice [on Friday]. There wasn't much talk about it. It feels really good to be ranked, but we won the (ACC) championship in 2006, and we were ranked last. That kind of shows you how much the preseason polls mean and how much the people know about predicting the season. We're not really focusing on that; we're just focusing on Baylor. I feel like the first couple of games are going to really determine how we'll play as a team. We're 100 percent focused on Baylor right now and not looking ahead."

"It's good to be in the top 25, but we want to finish a lot higher than that. I think if we stay healthy and we do what the coaches ask and we stay with our game plan we have the chance to finish a lot higher than that."

On being without former quarterbacks coach Jeff Mullen... "I miss him. He was an awesome coach. We're also real good friends, we talked a lot. And we still do. I've probably talked to him five or six times this summer. We just call each other to shoot the breeze or talk about football or about golf. He's really enjoying it up there right now. I think the relationship between me and our other quarterbacks and Coach (Tom) Elrod is great. It's fortunate for us that four quarterbacks in the room were recruited by Coach Elrod, so we have that relationship and not just a football relationship, which is a big part to having chemistry in the quarterbacks room. (Elrod) is a little more laid back, but he still gets after it. We've only had one day of practice, and he even got heated on that first day. We know he's not going to sit back and let us do whatever we want. It helps me and it helps Brett (Hodges), not being as tight and kind of insecure when you're out there on the field knowing that if you screw up you're going to get chewed out. There are some differences and some similarities that I like and dislike."

On what he did this summer to prepare for the season... "I did a lot of training back at home, just throwing and working out. I worked on a lot of shoulder strength, doing a lot of exercises for that trying to get a little more zip on the ball. Now that I've been up here I've been trying to put on a little bit of weight. I've been able to gain about seven or eight pounds, which has been good. I feel good, and I feel like I accomplished what I wanted to. Now we just have to get the offense on the same page and get rolling."

On the offensive line... "I'm not really nervous about our offensive line. Everyone keeps saying that they're new, but I think all five of them have started a game or two. That part doesn't make me nervous because I know those guys are going to get it done up front. They've been working their tails off this summer. It's going to be tough because we're not going to have as much depth. That's the biggest thing and a question mark for our team right now. But our offensive lineman have been getting in such good shape that they won't have to rotate every two or three series. If we can stay healthy, we won't have any problems with our offensive line."

Senior kicker/punter Sam Swank

On fans remembering the kicks you miss... "I don't expect anything else. They remember the ones you miss. It's always `what have you done for me lately.' That's fine with me; I just keep on trucking, do what I know how to do. If they remember me, fine; if not no big deal. You have to be that way because if you have really thin skin it starts eating at you. Everyone has a right to their opinion--let them say whatever they want. You have your own (opinion)."