It's a slow news day in Demon Deacon nation, so it's the perfect opportunity to start the day with a football practice photo gallery, courtesy of Dean Shore. More of his pictures are available here.

Having some problems with images...They'll be fixed ASAP...appears to be a server problem, hopefully they'll be fixed tonight.

Freshman quarterback Ted Stachitas gets ready to drop back

Gelo Orange (#57) and Josh Bush (#25?) work on defensive drills.

Offensive linemen Joe Looney (#78) and Russell Nenon (#72) work on a 1-on-1 drill as Gabe Irby looks on.

Gabe Irby (#79) works against Dennis Godfry (#98) during linemen drills.

The defensive secondary takes a break

Read More...

Following this afternoon's practice, left guard Russell Nenon checked in with these notes from practice:

• Practice had high intensity today for the first day in shells.

• The defense did real well in the team segment at the beginning of practice, but...

• The first team offense looked very good in the team segment at the end of practice.

• There were lots of installations of special teams today.

Other observers checked in with the following details:

• The defense in particular was excited to have some pads on and hit some people.

• At one point Devon "Y'lou" Brown took a hit from behind and sat out the rest of practice, but was still on the field watching.

• During 1-on-1 drills Chip Brinkman made a good grab on a deep ball but was tripped up by Chip Vaughn, landed awkwardly, and also sat out the rest of practice. Hopefully both Brinkman and Y'lou are fine, but we'll have to see if they practice tomorrow.

• Kerry Major practiced and appears to be just fine.

• During today's Skelly period (7 on 7) the offense had the upper hand except for a pick-6 by Alphonso Smith. Riley Skinner looked particularly good in this drill as well as 1-on-1 drills. DJ Boldin had some good catches, and Brandon Ghee looked good in coverage.

• Punt team work is starting up and looks more stable than it did in the spring. The snaps look pretty good so far.

Read More...

Not surprisingly, Media day for the Demon Deacons means plenty of coverage from a variety of outlets. The story that will probably be read more than any other is this AP story, which talks about Deacon Tower and the high expectations of Wake Forest fans these days.

I've been surprised by how difficult it's been to find photos of the event, but here's a pretty cool shot of everyone getting ready for the team photo. You may notice that the uniforms look a bit different. Russell Nenon has informed me that the new jerseys are "nice with skinnier numbers. The pants are a similar material with a black stripe down the side."

I'm guessing these new uniforms are one of Nike's newer, tighter fitting materials, and probably lighter weight and more breathable for increased player comfort. I'll be curious to see how the new piping on the pants looks in an actual game, and how it translates to the all black uniform.

It's a popular time to profile the 2008 defense, with this Dan Collins article about the players and Stan Cotten writing about new defensive coordinator Brad Lambert.

The Demon Deacons will practice again today at 3:30.

Photo by Bob Hebert

Read More...

As Old Gold & Blog enters its second school year covering Wake Forest athletics, it seemed a fitting time to update the look and layout of things. Hopefully you like the new design and don't have any problems using it, but if any issues arises please let me know. Don't worry, the header images will change on a seasonal basis; other sports will have their chance in the spotlight later in the year.

I also recognize that many of you have become new followers of Old Gold & Blog in the last few months, and I want to point you towards the subscription options over to the right. If you subscribe via RSS you'll be updated every time there's a new post. Subscribing via email puts Old Gold & Blog in your inbox once per day. There's no better way to keep track of the latest Wake Forest news and analysis.

On to the news...

Yesterday was the first day of practice for the Demon Deacons. Besides my report, the Nenon report, and this report from the official website there wasn't a whole lot of specific practice coverage.

Still, yesterday produced plenty of other Wake Forest links. I asked my three questions a couple days ago, but Heather Dinnich finally asks hers. The Raleigh News & Observer has a few questions as well. Dinnich also names Alphonso Smith and Sam Swank as two of the top five clutch players in the conference, and Swank makes it into the nation's top ten.

The previews keep pouring in, this time Dan Collins for the Sporting News.

Want to take a look inside Deacon Tower? Done.

Want to be amazed by Aaron Curry? He can power clean a lot of weight. 374 pounds to be exact. Check it out:

Read More...

As promised, here's the first installment of Old Gold & Blog's player reports from preseason practices.

Left guard Russell Nenon will be checking in on a regular basis to let us know how things are going. Here he is:

Practice was not very eventful today. We had the day in helmets, and the mood was one of excitement as we ran around the field.

The day was spent brushing off the rust on our fundamentals with the majority of time spent with our position coach. The skill guys did the usual skelly periods (ed. note: 7 on 7 drill), and all the quarterbacks looked good flinging the ball around except for Ted Stachitas, the freshman quarterback, who is still rehabbing from shoulder surgery.

Towards the end of practice we went scout and came together as one offense (ed. note: "scout" is the offense going against a scout defense, in this case the 3rd string offense). We looked good running our basic bread and butter plays.

Thanks to Russel for the report. That explains the Stachitas question from the previous post. I'm glad he's not rushing it, but I definitely want to see him getting work as soon as possible.

I think we can all look forward to hearing how things continue from Nenon's perspective.

Read More...

As promised, here's a rundown of the first practice:

-Not the most eventful day of practice, mostly individual position work in helmets only.

- Quarterbacks and receivers worked on some passing drills but there weren't any spectacular plays

- The offense came together to run some plays without a defense and appeared to have some trouble lining up properly. Lots of pre-snap running around and disorganization.

- Freshman TE Andrew Parker has impressive size

- Freshman QB Ted Stachitas did not throw a pass and only worked on handoffs. The reason for this is currently unknown. See the Nenon report for the explanation.

- Once the offense got lined up properly the actual plays they ran looked sharp.

Stay tuned for a player report later tonight.

Read More...