The Huskers next opponent Wake Forest has experienced something that a Bill Callahan's Husker team has not had the pleasure to experience yet, Conference Champion. Yes the Deacons are the ACC defending champion, however last year was last year (prophetic, huh? LOL) Anyway, Wake Forest's defense of their championship did not get off to the strong start that coach Jim Grobe was hoping for.

For starters, the Demon Deacons had 21 yards rushing after their first 4 carries, pretty decent numbers right, but then, 4-hours later they had a total of 24 carries for a grand total of 4 yards as Boston College defeated Wake Forrest 38-28, which compounds the loss since it was an ACC game. Someone is going to have to explain that logic to me at some point. Why would a coach in his right mind schedule their opening game against a conference opponent? Wake is going to have to find an answer to the running game very quickly as the Huskers are coming off of a very dominating defensive game again the University of Nevada and won't be looking to be generous on this first road test.

According to coach Grobe, there were warning signs during fall practice in August that the running game wasn't up to snuff, but Grobe refused to recognize the signs, instead he was more willing to blame it on the "dog days of summer" heat, tired legs and the recovery of the surgically reconstructed knee of Micah Andrews. Instead now Grobe has a week to figure out whether it is his offensive line, running backs, coaching or a combination of all before the Blackshirts come calling to Winston-Salem, as I don't believe that Kevin Cosgrove's until will be in a generous mood.

To compound coach Grobes problems, his top players on both sides of the ball, quarterback Riley Skinner and defensive end Matt Robinson were examined Saturday night by both X-rays and MRIs. Skinner was knocked from the game in the third quarter by a separated shoulder and Robinson was sidelined by a sprained ankle suffered on the first play of the game. Matt Robinson, who missed last season while recovering from a broken kneecap, sprained his ankle on the first play yesterday. He watched the second half standing on crutches, wearing a boot. It is highly unlikely that neither will be available for action Saturday's nationally televised game on ESPN.

On the defensive side of the ball, things do not look much more promising for coach Grobes either. Boston College was able to put up 38 points and Matt Ryan, last season's All-ACC quarterback, completed 32 of 52 passes for 408 yards and five touchdowns. Boston College didn't have much in the rushing category, with 27 carries for 54 yards, but based on their passing numbers, it hard to decipher whether that is because it was so easy to pass or if they just don't have a running game.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment