Wake Forest had a first two weeks of Spring camp that was full of anticipation and excitement, and extra effort for the new coaching staff. And then it was gone at the start of week three. The Deacs drew Jake Dickert’s ire Monday with a less than pleasing effort, and he let the team know about it in no uncertain terms at the end of the workout.
The plain-to-see issue was that best efforts did not come until red zone drills in the last 20 minutes of practice. Dickert lit into the team at the end of practice at a volume that could possibly be heard across the road in the Maya Angelou freshman dorms.
Deacs’ Effort at Practice Draws Jake Dickert’s Ire
The Energy Problem
He told the media afterward that he sensed early on that it was not an A-level performance day for his team. “I could see it at 6:45 (am) in the meetings. And then we get to the pre-practice stretch. And then we get out to the field. It’s just a standards-over-feelings approach.
He addressed specifics of what rankled him. “I didn’t think it was up to the standard of what the new Wake Forest needs to be, point blank, period,” he said. “From pre-practice, to flex, to our early compete stuff. We didn’t want to compete until the end. We’ve got no time for that,” he said, clearly still animated over what he had just witnessed over two hours.
He noted that it took seven practices to have the bad outing. Though he left some doubt as to whether he thought it was a good thing that it took halfway through the camp to get there, or that it was far too soon in camp to have a bad day. He explained that whichever it was, he was not ok with it. “Everyone’s sore. Everyone’s a little beat up. We’re in the middle of camp. This is football. It’s a tough game. You’ve got to dig in every day and bring it.”
Searching For A Leader
He said he is looking for team leadership to step up and take over those moments. That often comes from the quarterback position. But there is no leader within the position, much less having one of them be a team leader. Transfers Robby Ashford and Deshawn Purdy, along with redshirt freshman Jeremy Hecklinski have separated themselves from the rest of the quarterbacks on the roster. However, one of the more consistent things about the seven practices has been the inconsistency of the quarterbacks. Within the same practice, you can see passes with pinpoint accuracy, followed by head-scratching throws and decisions.
Dickert made note of the inconsistency. “We’ve turned the ball over quite a bit. Some of that is learning. Some of that is the defense flying around,” he said. “Decision making as a whole isn’t where we need it to be.”
He added that he is waiting for someone to separate themselves from the others in terms of team leadership. “In the quarterback room in general, I’m waiting for those guys to just…They’re kind of in their silo. They’re so focused on what they’re doing, which I understand,” Dickert said. “New offense, new scheme.” But he said he is waiting for them to spread some leadership to the rest of the team. He said the best quarterbacks find a way to get teammates to play for them.
He Knows That Sound
Receiver Carlos Hernandez has experience in the Dickert system. He spent two seasons at Washington State with Dickert, playing in 20 games. Hernandez is the first non-Wake-returning player the media has had access to this Spring. He referred to it as a “No-brainer” to follow his WAZZU coach out to Winston-Salem. He was asked if he had heard this kind of post-practice tone from Dickert before. “Plenty of times,” he responded with a chuckle. “He’s a coach that knows what he wants from practice and knows what he wants from us. So I feel like there is a standard, there is a standard every time, and he is going to want that standard from us every time we go out to practice.”
Hernandez joked that he thought the offense was doing great, “But yea,h it was a little bit of a slow start from both sides.”
Practice number eight, of 15, in the Spring session is going to be a full pad scrimmage. Dickert expects to run about 90 plays total with about 60 being full speed, and the remaining 30 being “thud plays,” which stop on full contact.
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