Deacon Dump 9/9: Deacs look to recover and look forward to Stanford

MRickman84 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:12:09 -0000

Middle of the week always means forgetting about the week before. We've had a few days to soak up the loss and move past it. Now it is time to look towards Stanford. Look for a game preview similar to the one we had last week unless anyone had complaints. The Deacs have a lot of questions to answer, and hopefully they are addressing them during practice this week. Onto the links...

Stanford football: Grading the week | College Sports Hotline
I expect the Deacons, who have a first-rate coach in Jim Grobe, to play much better this week. And the early kickoff and (presumed) humidity make it a difficult assignment for Stanford. But you have to like the Cardinal’s chances for a 2-0 start.

Wake's Russell reflects on disappointing loss to Baylor (video)

Wake Forest receiver takes part in rushing attack, too | Burlington Times News
"I played running back all my life until I got here," Brown said. "But I’m a receiver." Wake Forest put its receivers to use as ball carriers, installing a part of the offense that has worked well in the past. "We want to incorporate some of our running game with our wide receivers," coach Jim Grobe said Tuesday as the team looked ahead toward Saturday afternoon’s game against visiting Stanford.

Grobe plans no changes in Deacons' lineup
Three players he mentioned as needing to play more were defensive tackle Ramon Booi and linebackers Joey Ehrmann and Scott Betros. All are redshirt freshmen. Booi is listed as second team behind senior Boo Robinson, Ehrmann is listed as second team behind junior Hunter Haynes, and Betros has not cracked the two-deep depth chart.

Stanford football's Matt Kopa out 6-8 weeks
All things were not good coming out of Stanford’s 39-13 win over Washington State this past weekend. Starting right tackle Matt Kopa broke a metatarsal bone in his left foot and will require surgery. The senior is expected to miss 6-8 weeks recovering.

My Take on Wake - Accounting for Saturday’s Head Count | JournalNow.com
Steve Shutt, Wake Forest’s director of media relations, said that the attendance Saturday was actually 30,958. The number given Saturday was a mistake stemming from a scanner problem at BB&T Field. In recent years, Wake has scanned all the tickets for the permanent seats and guesstimated Deacon Hill at 3,500 to come up with the total. This year the plan was to scan the tickets for Deacon Hill as well to come up with a more precise count. Tickets for the hill were scanned, and those charged with determining the final attendance thought those tickets had been accounted for. As it turned out, there was a malfunction in the scanner and the Deacon Hill tickets were not included. Hence the incorrect original annoucement.

ACC Power Rankings: Week 1 - ACC - ESPN
8. Wake Forest (0-1) -- The Deacs hurt themselves with four turnovers in their loss to Baylor, but it’s important to realize that Baylor is a much improved team from a year ago. Still, more was expected from quarterback Riley Skinner, who threw three interceptions, and the defense still has some questions to answer.

A Post-Spring Look At: Stanford

Jake Bertalotto — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:46:59 -0000

Toby Gerhart returns as Stanford's leading rusher from 2008. (via Lance Iversen/ The Chronicle)

View full size photo »

(Note: Many of the links below go to SB Nation Player Pages)

Oregon State will host Stanford at Reser Stadium on October 10th. Last year, the Beavers opened their season with Stanford and lost 28-36.

Stanford head coach Jim Harbaugh seemingly summed up Stanford's offensive scheme when he sat down with a local talk show a few weeks ago.

"Number-7 is our signature guy. We are going to get him the ball!"

Toby Gerhart, who wasn't selected in this month's MLB draft, will return to Stanford for his senior year. The two sport star, who made a trip to Omaha with the baseball team last year, is enjoying an extended summer which is allowing him to prepare more for football season. Last year, Gerhart rushed for 1,136 yards and 15 touchdowns. When asked by the Examiner how many yards he would rush for this year, Gerhart did not pause. "2,000 yards."

"I love talking about Toby Gerhart" Harbaugh told a Comcast SportsNet crew. "He has great balance, vision and you have to tackle him down around the legs because if you go high, he'll bounce off of you and he has the speed to break away."

Gerhart will have a good chance to reach his goal behind an experienced line that includes senior tackles Matt Kopa and Chris Marinelli.

Said Harbaugh: "We will have a very physical offensive line, much improved wide receivers and tight ends and fullback Owen Marecic is a special, special player"

Marecic, the former Jesuit High star, has been a key piece of Stanford's blocking schemes over the last two years, but figures to increase his carries this year to take some of the load off of Gerhart.

As for other comments from the coach, he again named Andrew Luck the starting quarterback for Stanford although the competition with Tavita Pritchard will go on. "It is a fluid situation. Andrew Luck is our starter out of spring ball, but Pritchard has 19 career starts and some big wins like against USC. He will compete."

More on Luck: "He had a very good spring game, but it was not just the practice game, he did that well all spring."

Luck completed 18 of 25 passes for 352 yards and five touchdowns to lead the White team to a 42-17 victory over the Cardinal in the annual Cardinal and White Spring Game. He tossed touchdown passes of 41, 16, 20, 4 and 32 yards. Two of the touchdown passes went to Richard Sherman, who also shined on defense for the White team, finishing with eight tackles

SB Nation - Matt Kopa

Deacon Dump 9/9: Deacs look to recover and look forward to Stanford

A Post-Spring Look At: Stanford