Sept. 23, 2003

By Sam Walker

Perhaps the biggest change the Wake Forest football program underwent in the off-season was the loss of its offensive coordinator. After spending virtually every football season with Jim Grobe since the age of 18, Troy Calhoun made the jump from the collegiate ranks to the NFL when he took an assistant coaching position with the Denver Broncos. Steed Lobotzke, who had been with Grobe staff for the past six years as an offensive line coach, was named the new offensive coordinator. Two games into the 2003 season, the transition has been seamless. After 70 points and 684 yards of offense in victories over Boston College and 14th-ranked N.C. State, it's been virtually invisible from the bleachers.

Although the numbers aren't quite as gaudy as they once were, a young Wake Forest offense looks just as efficient as the offense it has run the previous two seasons under Grobe.

Lobotzke's promotion marked the first of three life-changing events for him last February. After Jim Grobe signed a 10-year contract at Wake Forest, Lobotzke and his wife Kristen decided to put down more permanent roots in Winston-Salem and purchase a house. The two were just married in early 2002, but about two weeks after they chose a house and made a downpayment, Kristin and Steed found out they were going to become parents.

"The first thing that happened was Troy leaving for the Denver Broncos, and I was lucky enough to be picked for coordinator," Lobotzke said. "My goal for the past couple of years has been to be the guy Coach Grobe would look to as Troy's replacement. I was happy Coach Grobe picked me. I've been on this staff for six years, and so we had four years at Ohio and two years here with everybody (assistant coaches) in the same jobs. When Troy took off, I took the whole offensive line and coordinator...

"Then, Kristin and I went to get a house because we'd been in an apartment for the past couple of years. We (Coach Grobe and his staff) signed a 10-year contract, and we were going to be here for a while, so we went and bought a house. About two weeks after we got the house we found out - by surprise - that she was pregnant and due in December.

"It was something I probably wouldn't have picked this year to do because there are a few other things going on, but December is going to work out fine. If we get to a bowl, it'll make it a little interesting, but it's all worked out pretty good."

The intricate no-huddle for which Wake Forest has become known was something developed not just by Calhoun but also by the entire Wake Forest staff. Lobotzke, an energetic and intense coach, was a natural pick for offensive coordinator for many reasons, according to Grobe.

"I hated to see Troy go because we had been together forever," Grobe said. "I recruited him out of Oregon when we were at the Air Force Academy. Really, we had been together since he was 18 years old. He coached at the academy, coached at Ohio with me, and coached with me here. But choosing Steed - a piece of cake. Steed Lobotzke is as much a part of installing this offense since we've been together as Troy. This offense, that led the league last year, is an offense that was put together by our coaching staff. So it was a matter of trying to get somebody to make it a smooth transition. Steed and Troy had been in the box and basically called the games on Saturday together. So, we're not going to skip a beat.

"I think what it boils down to more than anything is that Lobo was kind of the natural because everything we look to do offensively starts with the offensive line. All of our offense starts with guys up front so the guy that's coaching those guys is a natural to run the show. I know I've got a motivated guy who is here early and home late, and he spends every waking second thinking about ways to move the football. All my guys are like that, but just looking at the way the package was put together it just made sense to have the line coach involved in calling the plays on Saturday."

From the stands, the offense looks the same, but it's really not. At the end of the 2002 season, the Wake Forest coaching staff shifted around some of the coaching duties and began to retool the team following the loss of some prominent players to graduation and the NFL. New player personnel required the changes, and it was then Lobotzke began molding the offense he wanted to run in 2003.

"When we went for spring ball, we kept the same offense, and as we got into spring ball we started changing things piece by piece," Lobotzke said. "The kids didn't feel like there was any change at all the first two weeks. Then we started to introduce some of the newer concepts. Our staff works pretty hard getting ideas from other places. We stole from some people, brainstormed some other ideas, invented some ideas on our own and introduced some of those in the spring and some more in the fall. It's the same offense, and it'll look the same from the stands, but behind the scenes, it's quite a bit different."

The 2003 Wake Forest team is also quite a bit different from the 2002 Seattle Bowl championship team of a season ago. Among the nine ACC schools, the Deacons return the fewest number of offensive starters, so Lobotzke is working with a "green" group of players who still need some seasoning. As those players develop, the gaudy statistics the offense has put up the past couple of seasons may return. "Stats are for losers, and I'm the loser this week," N.C. State coach Chuck Amato said after Wake Forest's 38-24 victory on Sept. 5. "Ten penalties and two turnovers, that's why we lost."

One thing is for sure, you can't find anybody more excited about his job than Lobotzke. Following the victory over N.C. State, Lobotzke pulled up a chair on the outdoor deck of Bridger Field House to watch a raucous group of Wake Forest students try to avoid security and bring down the goal posts. Still intense and wearing a shirt stained with sweat from a hard-day's work, Lobo just wanted to take it all in.

"I like being coordinator," Lobotzke said. "I find myself thinking more about the offense during my free time. I knew Troy wanted to do what he wanted to do with the offense, but now any nugget I can get I can implement it. I find myself thinking more about football, and I find myself with a broader picture of things. It's helped me to be a better line coach because I'm looking at the whole defense instead of being focused on the front seven. I feel really good about what's going on, and I don't think game day is going to be a problem. We aren't a staff that does a whole lot of inventing on game days. We go in with a plan, stick to it, make a couple of modifications here or there, and Coach (Kevin) Sherman and I will be fine making those modifications.

"We always talk about the highlighter and the black pen. We run something, and if it's a bad idea it gets the black pen, and you don't call that anymore. Then you call something else, and if you see what you like that gets the highlighter and you come back to it again later in the game. We've been doing that for two years and I'm comfortable with that process. So it's been good that I've been in the box calling plays."