NCAA Football Wake Forest Football

Redshirt freshmen guards don't have people take their pictures, so here's Urban Meyer pointing at something.

Redshirt freshman guard James Wilson has decided that Florida isn't for him:

University of Florida offensive lineman James Wilson, a former Nease High School standout, is unhappy in Gainesville and will transfer. Wilson said Friday that he asked for a release from his scholarship but did not know which school he wants to attend.

"I've got a few schools in mind," said Wilson, who redshirted as a freshman last season after undergoing surgery on his left knee to repair loose cartilage.

"It [UF] really just wasn't for me. "[Coach] Urban [Meyer] tried to convince me to stay. I was supposed to start [in 2008] but my heart's not there anymore."

Unless you're a Florida fan who's into recruiting (or a jilted USC fan), you've probably never heard of James Wilson, but this is kind of a big loss for the Gators: Wilson was the nation's top-ranked guard a year ago and the #12 player nationally. Now he's transferring to somewhere like Wake Forest.

Recruits go busto all the time, but usually not after just one year, and offensive line is one of the few spots on Florida's team that might be something of a concern next year. Two starters are gone and would-have-been starter Phil Trautwein is returning from a stress fracture and did not play in 2007. Wilson was a sizable bullet in the chamber for Florida they no longer have.

Look, until the year Jim Grobe takes one of those sweet jobs at, say, Arkansas or what have you with their reasonable fanbases and expectations, every offseason is going to find in the pool of candidates for open positions. Grobe is well-compensated at Wake Forest, is considered a god amongst its success-starved students and plays in a conference that's weak enough to make a BCS appearance a feasible goal any given year. But still...Arkansas!

As Virginia Tech (and as an opposite case, Virginia) has shown, one of the keys to success is being able to keep a coaching staff intact, which Grobe has accomplished quite nicely since being tabbed in 2001. He's only had one of his assistants jump ship since that time, until this past offseason when DC Dean Hood was named head coach of Eastern Kentucky and now this past week when QB coach Jeff Mullen was nabbed by West Virginia to serve as the OC under Bill Stewart. Can't say I blame him, and from the looks of things, neither does Grobe. While Wake Forest has certainly been able to make inroads in the Florida recruiting game, Wake wasn't going after Sunshine State cats like Noel Devine. And considering Wake was based out of a similar spread-option offense for the most part, even without Steve Slaton and Rich Rodriguez, I can't help but think WVU shouldn't find itself in too much disrepair, provided the school doesn't shelve the team completely until they get every last buck from Rich Rodriguez.

Hellooooooooo Riley Skinner, quarterback of Wake Forest:



If you've ever seen that D'Angelo video where it's like "whoah pelvic cleavage", and I know you have, you have probably come to the realization that this man is not wearing any pants. It's true. He's not. With Leather has a full-body shot with humorous obstruction of the naughty bit.

Why is Riley Skinner naked? Why is the picture of Riley Skinner nekkid on the internet? How many dirtbag camo trucker hats does one naked Wake Forest quarterback need? We may never know the answers to these questions. Except the last one, the answer to which is "six."

Also this week: a running back got kicked off campus for posting that he would "blow up campus" on Facebook. Jim Grobe's head is scheduled to explode Thursday, when a starting linebacker will be arrested for running a clandestine ferret-smuggling operation.

If you're one of the people fortunate enough to be my Facebook friend (hint, hint), you'll find that I recently changed my favorite quote to one of the most retardedly genius things RZA has ever had to say on record. Safe to say, if you've heard "Sunlight" from 8 Diagrams, you know which line I'm talking about. Now, I realize that some people who check their updates might not understand what I'm trying to convey, but at worst, they'll think I'm a fool and keep it moving. Those are the greatest risks I'm willing to take with Facebook, along with drunkenly asking girls I used to date in college to be my "friend."

The case of Wake Forest reserve RB Luke Caparelli certainly makes me feel better about my usage. As to be expected when your campus is literally gated from the rest of the community, going to WFU ain't cheap. And considering that the tragedy at Virginia Tech had Virginia turning the Commonwealth Cup battle into the football version of the Itchy and Scratchy episode where the two kiss, if I were an ACC dude, I wouldn't go in claiming what Caparelli did, even remotely as a joke. As of now, Caparelli's been dismissed from the football team, but I imagine he'll have bigger troubles on his hands soon. Observe:

A Wake Forest reserve running back has been dismissed from the team after writing on his Facebook page that he would "blow up campus." Campus police said 19-year-old Luke Caparelli posted the note on the social-networking page on Jan. 13. The note was written in third person and included a threat that Caparelli would have an Uzi submachine gun "locked and loaded in his bag."

Say word! I considered applying to Wake Forest on the strength of their promotional material positing the place as a happy family of 3,000 strong ... not to mention the fact that they give you a laptop if you enroll (true as of 1998, but still...). Eventually, I had to fall back because my parents thought that any school in the South that wasn't Virginia or Emory was filled with raving anti-Semites, but hey, my big, happy family isn't filled with people who make whiskey-soaked threats of terrorism, so maybe I wouldn't have fit in anyway.

Arkansas obviously wants to make a splash with their next head coach. Instead, they've just made some ACC football coaches richer. First Butch Davis spurned his alma mater for a lucrative contract extension at North Carolina. A fruitless flirtation with Tommy Tuberville kept them looking and back in ACC Country.

Tommy Bowden almost said yes...only to stay at Clemson with the predictable contract extension. Still coachless, it appears the next thought was "if you can't have Tommy Bowden, how about hiring a coaching who actually won the ACC." Enter Jim Grobe. The Wake Forest coach seemed like the better fit. Grobe is a guy who has won at schools with limited resources. His ground-based scheme would work with the talent Houston Nutt left behind. He was ready to take the next step. Yet, you know how the story ends. Grobe left Arkansas at the alter and is staying at Wake Forest. No immediate announcement on a contract extension but I would guess that part of Wake's plea for him to stay included future compensation.

Where does Arkansas turn now? There are still a few ACC coaches they haven't called on yet. Maybe Ralph Friedgen will listen. Or perhaps Al Groh. Frank Beamer has been known to leverage rumor into dollars. As long as Arkansas keeps searching, ACC ADs need to have their checkbooks open.

FanHouse reported last night that Jim Grobe was set to be announced as Arkansas' newest head coach, but breaking at 9:45AM ET Thursday we've received reports that Grobe apparently had a change of heart and will remain at Wake Forest. From Deacon Sports:

According to sources at Arkansas and Wake Forest, Demon Deacon head coach Jim Grobe will remain at Wake Forest. Stay tuned to DeaconSports for further developments.

HawgsIllustrated.com is in agreement: ($)

Sources told Hawgs Illustrated that Jim Grobe changed his mind late Wednesday night and decided to stay at Wake Forest. Earlier in the night Grobe had accepted an offer to take over as head coach at Arkansas.

No word yet on how, what, or why... and we have yet to receive an official announcement from Grobe himself. But it looks like Arkansas most likely will have to go back to the drawing board.

From HawgsIllustrated.com ($):

Sources told Hawgs Illustrated that Jim Grobe has been hired as head football coach at Arkansas. Grobe leaves Wake Forest after seven seasons as head coach, including the 2006 season when the Demon Deacons went 11-3 and won the ACC overall championship earning a BCS berth. Grobe accepted the job and was en route to Fayetteville on Wednesday night.

Northwest Arkansas' Morning News confirmed the story.

FanHouse's Instant Analysis (tm) follows.

I view this as a solid hire for Arkansas and a good fit for all parties. Grobe is one season removed from an ACC championship and BCS bowl game appearance. He was also the AP Coach of the Year for 2006 and has a reputation for instilling discipline and molding a program in his image.

Grobe will have to compete in the hyper-competitive SEC, which has eaten and will continue to eat coaches alive. He'll be going up against Les Miles, Tommy Tuberville, and Nick Saban; should Miles' Tigers defeat Ohio State in the BCS Title game, he'll be facing two national championship coaches at programs with nearly limitless resources compared to Arkansas. His willingness to accept this position must be indicative of his desire for a challenge; he'll have that in spades in Fayetteville.

I know we all like to use college football as possible equivalents for real life situations, and considering that some people follow a coach's every move more than that of their significant other, one could see the relationship between team and coach as being corporeal. Sometimes, you go your separate ways for reasons that seem shortsighted, but ultimately are important. I realized that an ex who only had a Rod Stewart covers CD to show for her last three months of music purchases may not have been the best match for me. By the same token, Nebraska axed Frank Solich knowing that it might have been a little irrational, but ultimately, a change needed to be made on both parts. And sometimes you need to need to change things up because you can't trust the person you've committed to. See: Tommy Tuberville's possible move to Texas A&M god knows where. But if you've experienced the relationship equivalent of what Bill Callahan did to Nebraska, you've either been on daytime TV or you founded Dashboard Confessional.

There's reason to believe (so maybe that Rod Stewart stuff did kinda take hold) that the Nebraska opening will be treated by the media in a similar fashion that the Alabama one did last year. You know the drill: school steeped in history, but most of their success on a national level came before a time most current recruits were alive for and the expectations have not been diminished one bit from "possibly irrational. " Though it remains to be seen whether the next Nebraska coach will become so under circumstances that turn him into the next Nick Saban, but I'm sure that everyone's favorite lil' engine that could, Wake Forest's Jim Grobe, will be mentioned as if coaching in Winston-Salem couldn't possibly satisfy one of America's greatest coaches (albeit one who totally blew the game against Virginia by a: not testing the Cavs' secondary and b: not trying to improve their field position on the game-deciding field goal).

The ACC gets called a lot of things as far as being a football conference, but "executioner" is most certainly not one of the most oft-used appellations. But as of this past Saturday, that's where they stood as two of its teams stood in the way of their SEC equivalents' dreams. South Carolina had fallen off with a velocity that suggests that maybe the earth is flat after all and was looking to salvage a disappointing season with a scalp against a bitter rival. And as far as Vanderbilt goes, they stood on the precipice of having their bowl bid equation fail once again. You know the math: a couple of OOC gimmes, some wins against the Mississippi schools, and odd upset here and there, voila- 6 wins and a possible postseason berth for the first time in over two decades.

Perhaps it was a minor slap on the wrist for the SEC advocates' incessant superiority complex, but Clemson and Wake Forest managed to get the job done, bolstering their bowl profiles and all but relegating USC and Vandy to December couch potatoes. Clemson, on the strength of Mark Buchholz's game-winning field goal, bested the Gamecocks by the score of 23-20 and Wake had a subtly dominating performance against the Commodores that resulted in a 31-14 victory. South Carolina, now possessing a victory that likely robs UGA of a shot of a national championship has lost five in a row and stands in grave danger of missing the bowl season altogether. Meanwhile, Vanderbilt has performed in a manner that suggests that they could likely sniff at breaking their 23-year itch in 2008, but against possible Nebraska coaching candidate Jim Grobe, they appeared overmatched.

While the Tigers appear headed to either a Gator Bowl or Chick Fil-A Bowl appearance, Wake is a primo candidate for the Meineke Car Care Bowl...which has to constitute the most overlooked 8-4 season from a school with less than 4,000 enrolled undergrads.

So yeah, I'm as guilty as anyone of wondering whether NC State had surpassed Wake Forest as the predominant football team in the state of North Carolina (dear lord, that feels weird to write...until you realize that ECU had played better than any other team in the state except Appalachian). The Demon Deacons were coming off a two-game losing streak that pretty much ran the gamut from heartbreaker to backbreaker, falling in the last seconds to Virginia and getting utterly decimated by Clemson, whereas NC State had righted the ship with four straight wins.

With Humanitarian and Meineke Bowl reps in attendance, Wake sent an emphatic corrective to the doubters (guilty as charged) with a convincing win over the Wolfpack, who play Maryland next week in what will most likely be a bowl elimination game. As for Wake, even with a loss against Vandy next week, the Meineke Bowl seems like a reasonable destination for a 7-5 team. Since Virginia went to the initial two (back when it was called the Continental Tire Bowl), they've selected teams in a manner that have led it to be called (by me and likely few else) the Carolina Invitational. Besides the fact that they bring a better team to the table than either Maryland or NC State (the winner likely headed to Boise), Wake won't have to worry about mobilizing their relatively tiny alumni base to put on a reasonably good show in Charlotte.