Wake Forest Is Having to Prepare for the Unknown
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Season openers are always difficult when it comes to game prep, but Wake Forest is having to prepare for the unknown this week. The Demon Deacons are having to go above the usual lack of insight into an opponent that comes with week one. There are some real unknowns when it comes to the Akron Zips on Thursday night.
Wake Forest Is Having to Prepare for the Unknown
The Akron Quarterback Will Be??
Reese Poffenbarger is the starting quarterback for the Zips. Maybe. Having played at Old Dominion, Albany (two seasons), Miami, and North Texas, he has already had five college football seasons. Even in today’s upside courtroom-influenced college sports world, he would be done. But hold on to your Trinidad Chambliss-autographed helmets given to local judges. Poffenbarger has applied for a medical waiver to get a sixth year. As we publish this on Sunday night, the NCAA has yet to give him an answer. And the season opener is four days away.
And even if we all knew he would be eligible, there is not a lot of recent game film for Wake defensive coordinator Scottie Hazelton to study. Poffenbarger was a backup at Miami and at North Texas the last two years. He appeared in a total of six games over those two seasons and threw a total of 14 passes. His most active time at quarterback was the two years at Albany in 2022 and 2023, where he threw for 99.1% of his total college passing yards.
The Learning Curve
Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert even reached out to the staff at North Texas, where Poffenbarger last played, trying to get some insight. “They didn’t think he even had any eligibility left,” Dickert said. And with Poffenbarger having thrown only seven passes for the Mean Green on the season, there probably was not a lot of intel to hand out.
If Poffenbarger cannot go, the job likely falls to Brayden Roggow, a 6’-4”, 205 -pound redshirt sophomore. He played in three games at Akron last year and was 11 of 17 passing for 91 yards. So, he actually had better stats than the starter had over two seasons.
Dickert said what all focused coaches say in week one. “We’ll kind of see how it all plays out. But at the end of the day, it’s about us,” he said at his game week press conference. He said the defensive staff had been watching high school highlights of some of the other backup quarterbacks for Akron just to be prepared. “Even the coaches are itching to get to game day, just like the players.”
Old Neighbors
It’s not as though Dickert and company are going into the game completely blind. The Wake head coach has “crossed paths” with Akron head coach Joe Moorhead in recent years. Moorhead was the offensive coordinator at Oregon in 2020 and 2021. Dickert was the defensive coordinator and later the interim head coach at Washington State during that time. For what it’s worth, Oregon beat Washington State 43-29 and 38-24 in those two years. But to be fair, Oregon had a large talent gap over everyone else in the Pac-12 back then also.
“It’s going to be very pliable,” Dickert said of Moorhead’s offense. “When he has a runner, whether it’s been Oregon, Mississippi State (head coach 2018-2019), or Akron, the power read series is incredible.” He said Moorhead is very adept at disguising the looks that his offense gives. “He gets people in a lot of different ways, so we’ve been very prepared for that.”
Dickert highlighted Akron receivers Kyan Mason and Marcel Williams as deep threats that cause him some concern.
Mason is entering his third year, all at Akron. He had 33 catches last year as a redshirt freshman for 481 yards and five touchdowns. Williams is also going into his third year. He had 45 catches for 641 yards and two touchdowns last year in his first season at Akron after a redshirt year at Marshall. “I believe their play action pass game is going to be very strong and a highlight of however he kind of formulates those plays together.”
Go To Class and Then the Game
We asked Dickert if he had made any progress with the administration, some of whom were in the press conference room with the media, in getting students the day off from school for either Thursday or Friday of game week, as an inducement to get out to Allegacy Stadium. It was clear his concept is still a work in progress.
Main Image: USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
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