Quote:Q&A With Jim Grobe


Q. Will this be a breakout season for wide receiver Jason Anderson of Butler High?

A.  If we can throw him the football, it might be. We've got to do a better job getting him the ball. He's a special guy, and he's not wrapped up too much (in statistics). But we would like for him to have more catches. He's got a pretty good average per catch (17.1 yards in 2003). If we have a quarterback who can get it to him, if we can protect the quarterback and give him more time, then we can get Jason more involved.

Q. Speaking of quarterbacks, you've got Cory Randolph back, but a good prospect in freshman Ben Mauk also.

A.  We feel pretty good about Ben Mauk backing Cory up. Cory may give us a better opportunity to run more option. You're torn with a guy like Cory because he does run the ball well, but he also throws the ball well. We've been inching our way up each year and hopefully we'll keep running the ball well. And if we can increase our percentage of completions (Randolph was 58.5 percent in '03), that will make us better team.

Q. Talk about changing your defense from a 3-3-5 to 4-3.

A.  The defensive linemen are happy, because more of them are on the field. So those guys are fired up. We haven't had the ability to do that in the past, so that's what I'm excited about. Through recruiting, we've brought in more defensive linemen and we haven't had the opportunity to play more than three until now. Not that we're not going to throw everything out we did in the past, because some of the stuff we did was pretty good. The best thing now is we match up a little better.

Q. You've talked about a "fire zone" defensive scheme. What's that?

A.  That's when you blitz quite a bit but play zone coverage behind it. You don't get locked in a lot of man-to-man coverage, where it's feast or famine. You try to bring pressure and at the same time bring a little bit of security in the secondary.

Q. Has some of the ACC's tradition been lost with Miami and Virginia Tech coming in?

A.  I don't think so. Some of the teams that have been around forever are still a big part of it. Florida State was great for the ACC, and the rest of the teams, at least in football, elevated their play when they came in. Now with the others, we should see another jump in the level of play.

Wake Forest

COACH: Jim Grobe (51-51-1, 9 years; 18-18 at Wake Forest)

LAST SEASON: 5-7

RETURNING STARTERS: 7 offense, 8 defense.

SCHEDULE:

Sept. 4: at Clemson.
Sept. 11: at East Carolina.
Sept. 18: N.C. A&T.
Sept. 25: Boston College.
Oct. 2: at N.C. State.
Oct. 9: Virginia Tech.
Oct. 23: Florida State.
Oct. 30: Duke.
Nov. 13: North Carolina.
Nov. 20: at Miami.
Nov. 27: at Maryland.