AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2006 > November > 29
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Defense rules the day
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In keeping with the bizarre notion of Wake Forest being in the ACC championship game, the Demon Deacons run a bizarre offense. They don’t pass much, although they pass very efficiently with redshirt freshman quarterback Riley Skinner, whose father, Chip, played baseball at Tech.
And they run the ball all weird sorts of ways. The good news is that they don’t run it like Clemson, which is to say with two blinding fast backs behind a behemoth line. The Deacs don’t have that kind of personnel. But they have some speed, and they use it in something of a non-traditional fashion.
Coach Gailey spoke about it yesterday. “The thing you have to worry about with Wake is that they’re trying to run the ball horizontally,” he said. “They are speed to the corners trying to get outside. Then when you get caught up in that is when they throw it down the field. They catch you off-guard with all that sideways stuff, then they run North and South or they split that big fullback up the middle. They’re one of the few teams in the country that get you thinking sideways, and then you have to worry about North and South. They’re unique in that respect.”
If I had to make a prediction, I’d say Tech’s defense is built to be a problem for this style, what with good to very good speed in most positions. In particular, linebackers Philip Wheeler and KaMichael Hall have serious lateral quicks. Although nobody on that defense could touch Clemson running back C.J. Spiller in a straight-line race (who can?), Wake doesn’t have any Spillers.
On to hoops. The Jackets are disjointed on defense. They’re losing track of folks on the weakside, and as Paul Hewitt said after last night’s win over Penn State, they’ve slacked defending on the ball once the ballhandler drives.
Those zones that Penn State laid on the Jackets forced them to shoot outside, and fortunately Tech shot well enough. But PSU also put Tech’s inside guys, other than Jeremis Smith (12 points, eight rebounds), to sleep. It was like Peacock and Dickey had no idea what was going on. When your centers combine to hit 1 of 4 shots, and that’s a 3-pointer, and grab a combined three rebounds (Dickey also had four turnovers in just 14 or so minutes), that’s awful.
That won’t work over the long haul, although nobody will play 39 or 40 minutes of zone like Penn State, which kind of has no choice. They don’t have the athletes to play man.
As I’ve said, the pieces are there. The assembly continues.
