{"id":86102,"date":"2026-03-27T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=86102"},"modified":"2026-03-26T23:02:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T03:02:31","slug":"wake-forest-looking-for-secondary-to-grow-quickly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/03\/27\/wake-forest-looking-for-secondary-to-grow-quickly\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake Forest Looking For Secondary To Grow Quickly"},"content":{"rendered":"

As roster overhauls become the way the game goes in college football every year now, Wake Forest has some holes to fill in reshaping its defense<\/a> for the 2026 season.<\/p>\n

Dylan Hazen, Nick Anderson, and the breakout star of 2026, Karon Prunty, aren\u2019t walking through that door any time soon, as the saying goes. One of the hallmarks of last year\u2019s defense, not giving up explosive plays, needs some work as we get to the end of week two of Spring camp.<\/p>\n

Wake Forest Looking For Secondary To Grow Quickly<\/h2>\n

Thursday was the first day of practice in full pads. The assertiveness was there on both sides of the ball. It was the first day of installing specifics on both sides of the ball. That was certainly an advantage-offense in this case. \u201cWe kind of slogged through it for the first time since we started camp,\u201d head coach Jake Dickert said after the practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefensively, we gave up way too many explosive plays. And that was our calling card last year<\/a>,\u201d Dickert said. \u201cI think we were the best or one of the best in doing it [not giving up explosive plays].\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the challenge for the coaching staff is finding the right mix and match of players, particularly in the secondary. Davaughn Patterson has yet to practice in Spring but is expected back in the last couple of weeks. Rushaun Tongue<\/a> is playing at full speed for the first time since week two of the 2025 season, when a shoulder injury sidelined him for the rest of the year. Braylon Johnson is learning a new position as he moves over to \u201cstar\u201d [the hybrid defensive back position]. Redshirt freshman Jerron Blackwell and sophomore Kordell Bartley are getting a heavy workload right now. Deuce Blades is learning a new defense after transferring from Florida International.<\/p>\n

Pieces to the Puzzle<\/h3>\n

With all the moving pieces, there have been what Dickert called \u201cCommunication busts.\u201d He said there is an overall need to have disciplined eyes, particularly in man coverage. It led to some big yardage through the air from both Gio Lopez and Steele Pizzella with receivers wide open.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you can say that. But I just don\u2019t lean into the excuse part of it,\u201d Dickert said on Thursday when asked if all of the moving and inserting of new pieces was a reason for the communication lapses. Last year had Anderson and Patterson ran the secondary. Now one is gone, and the other is not on the field yet. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to demand more from those guys,\u201d Dickert added. \u201cWe\u2019ll be better because we failed today. It\u2019s got to scar us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the answer, he said, is slowing down some of the installation for the defense in order to create some success before they dive into the next level. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be elite learners.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Different Quarterback Battle<\/h2>\n

There was some honest reporting on Spring and Fall camps last year when it came to the quarterback battle. Anyone who saw both camps and was sincere could see that some days Robby Ashford was the better of the two. Other days, Deshawn Purdie had an ever-so-slight edge. But at the end of the day, neither of them consistently rose up to take total command of the offense.<\/p>\n

This year is different. With Ashford trying to extend his pro football opportunities and Purdie transferring to Liberty University, it is Lopez\u2019s offense to run. Pizzella is also getting his snaps with the redshirt freshman being a clear number two.<\/p>\n

Dickert has found moments to be pleased with the progress of both of them. With a clear number one quarterback, it tweaks the method of installing the offense. \u201cI think it\u2019s still finding the ideal offense for Gio and being able to find it faster,\u201d Dickert said. \u201cIt allows us to get to who we are better. I\u2019ve said it before, but it took too long last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to be dismissive of Steele. Dickert was clear last year. In order to run the offense he wants, you have to be a quarterback who can run. \u201cI think duality is king,\u201d Dickert said. \u201cSteele does have an elite trait. That dude is fast. You see him take off on some third downs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickert described the difference in what any quarterback has as the gap between escapability and runability. He said both Lopez and Steele have the ability to create, and that Steele clearly has runability (Dickert quoted Steele\u2019s high school 100-meter time as 10.6). There will be some work put in to see what kind of runability Lopez develops.<\/p>\n

Main Image: \u00a0Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As roster overhauls become the way the game goes in college football every year now, Wake Forest has some holes to fill in reshaping its defense for the 2026 season. Dylan Hazen, Nick Anderson, and the breakout star of 2026, Karon Prunty, aren\u2019t walking through that door any time soon, as the saying goes. One […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":86110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,17,35643],"tags":[35008,35961,9582,35041],"class_list":["post-86102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-featured","category-news","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-davaughn-patterson","tag-gio-lopez","tag-jake-dickert","tag-steele-pizzella"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86102"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86113,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86102\/revisions\/86113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}