I apologize for not having a more thorough report tonight, but here are some quick notes from the scrimmage:

• The team used this scrimmmage to practice what it's like to prepare for a real game - meaning they did they're real pregame routine, practiced getting on and off the field, etc.

• D.J. Boldin had the catch of the night (no surprise there) with a one handed leaping grab. Might even be the best catch of the preseason.

• Devon "Y'lou" Brown got hit incredibly hard and took a minute before getting up. Appeared to be fine, however.

• C.J. Washington ran well, but was hit hard several times and didn't return after the final hit.

• Brandon Pendergrass had a 10 yard touchdown run, and Josh Adams also ran well.

• Riley Skinner went through pregame warm-ups, but didn't actually participate in the scrimmage. Coach Grobe said afterwards that he tweaked a hammy in the weight room. Brett Hodges took all the first team snaps. This shouldn't be any cause for concern, it was precautionary and he should be fine.
  

• We talked yesterday about Dennis Godfry's move to the offensive line, but he didn't get a whole lot of snaps in the scrimmage. Only a handful in the last few posessions with true freshman/3rd string line. He just moved yesterday, so it makes some sense, but I'm guessing it's somewhat frustrating for him.

I'm traveling tomorrow and probably won't be able to get much (if anything) up. Should be back at it on Thursday, when I should be back at practice.

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For the second straight scrimmage the Wake Forest defense had an impressive performance. Not only did they combine for 11 sacks, but they flew to the ball and provided great pressure all afternoon long.

Matt Robinson single handedly had three sacks, as well as another tackle for loss and five total tackles.

Aaron Curry and Gelo Orange also had five tackles, and John Russell, Anthony Davis, and Kyle Wilbur all had 1.5 sacks.

The only way the offense could get anything done was through the air. Riley Skinner completed 13 of 21 passes for 142 yards with one interception and one touchdown. The interception came on a deep pass to Ben Wooster which was just barely under-thrown and tipped by Josh Bush for an interception. Later Wooster and Skinner got it right and hooked up for a 10 yard touchdown shortly after Skinner had scrambled for a 30 yard gain.

Devon Brown, D.J. Boldin, and Wooster all had four catches on the day. Two of Boldin's catches were one-handed grabs across the middle, and Marshall Williams also had a nice catch coming across the middle which he was able to turn upfield for 10 extra yards. Andrew Wright dropped the first three passes thrown to him, but later in the scrimmage he had a 50 yard catch and run for a touchdown that was called back due to an illegal formation, the product of some of the new formations and motion packages the offense is putting in.

Unfortuantely, the running game continued to struggle this afternoon. Josh Adams had six caries for 19 yards, and Brandon Pendergrass had 19 yards on four carries with one touchdown. The offensive line just isn't getting enough of a push yet, particularly the second string. The first string is showing improvement and I'm confident they'll get the job done, but there just isn't any depth at all. I'm sure the scrimmages are not any fun for Brett Hodges, who constantly has to scramble to avoid pressure.

The only injury of note was to Ryan Britt who went down with a knee/leg injury. I'm not sure of his status.

After two scrimmages I'm still pretty worried about the running game, particularly if the team ever has any injury problems on the offensive line. The second string is nowhere near ready for a real game situation. Even though it wasn't Skinner's best day ever, he still looked fairly good and is definitely ready to lead the offense this season. I think the offense is going to throw the ball a lot more this year, and Skinner will probably need to be ready to scramble some in the process.

The upside to all of this is that the defense continues to look very very good. When all is said and done this year I would not be surprised if they are one of the top units in the nation.

The overall progress is good, but the offense will need to improve even more over the next two weeks to be ready for Baylor.

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Want cheap tickets to see Wake Forest play Baylor on the 28th? As long as you can bring yourself to type "beatwake" into a website and have seats that aren't in the Wake section, it will only cost you 20 bucks.

We knew Grobe would not be hugely impressed by what he saw offensively from Saturday's scrimmage, but I was slightly surprised to see him mention Riley Skinner specifically.

Some basketball coverage from ESPN yesterday, including a variety of positive Wake Forest mentions.

Look for practice coverage this evening, although depending upon some timing issues it may go up pretty late - I've got a lot going on this afternoon/evening. My apologies if it gets put on a back burner for awhile.

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Following this afternoon's practice, left guard Russell Nenon checked in with these notes from practice:

• Practice had high intensity today for the first day in shells.

• The defense did real well in the team segment at the beginning of practice, but...

• The first team offense looked very good in the team segment at the end of practice.

• There were lots of installations of special teams today.

Other observers checked in with the following details:

• The defense in particular was excited to have some pads on and hit some people.

• At one point Devon "Y'lou" Brown took a hit from behind and sat out the rest of practice, but was still on the field watching.

• During 1-on-1 drills Chip Brinkman made a good grab on a deep ball but was tripped up by Chip Vaughn, landed awkwardly, and also sat out the rest of practice. Hopefully both Brinkman and Y'lou are fine, but we'll have to see if they practice tomorrow.

• Kerry Major practiced and appears to be just fine.

• During today's Skelly period (7 on 7) the offense had the upper hand except for a pick-6 by Alphonso Smith. Riley Skinner looked particularly good in this drill as well as 1-on-1 drills. DJ Boldin had some good catches, and Brandon Ghee looked good in coverage.

• Punt team work is starting up and looks more stable than it did in the spring. The snaps look pretty good so far.

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It’s a bye week, which means of course they very little is happening and we probably won’t have much significant news through this weekend. That being said, Dan Collins of the WS Journal reports that the Deacs are looking at moving redshirt sophomore Ted Randolph from tight end to defensive end, at least for this fall.

With two solid 5^th year seniors ahead of him on the depth chart at TE, the move will certainly not have any negative impact on the offense. I'm not sure if he's played in a game, but Randolph has no catching or blocking stats. Defensively it’s hard to make any definitive statements about what affect the move will have, if any. What we do know is that he has some size (6-4 278) and having been a tight end at least a little bit of quickness, so perhaps that bodes well. Either way I doubt anyone could say much at this point since no one has ever seen him play on that side of the ball. I trust the coaches won’t put him on the field unless he is ready to contribute.

It’s pretty much a non event, but it can’t hurt to bring a little attention to it.

In other news (but the same article), Riley says his arm feels fine, and even felt 100% against Maryland. Sure Riley, sure. Nonetheless coach says he can’t use it as an excuse anymore, so I expect to see Riley very near 100% at Duke next week.

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