The roles have switched in Wake Forest’s backfield this season.
Last season, when then-sophomore quarterback John Wolford went down with an injury, then-freshman Kendall Hinton came in to play IU and nearly led Wake Forest to victory.
The first-year quarterback ran for 57 yards and two touchdowns on the Hoosiers and threw for a touchdown and 249 yards — the most yards by a Wake Forest quarterback making his first start.
But after being named the starting quarterback for the Demon Deacons two weeks ago, Hinton sprained his knee against Delaware and will miss two to four weeks.
Now it’s Wolford — last season’s starter and this season’s opening starter — who will take the reigns against the Hoosiers on Saturday.
“Wolford is a solid runner, and they are going to run,” IU Coach Kevin Wilson said. “He probably spins the ball a little bit more, so there’s a little bit more pass. So it’s the same offense.”
It was no secret IU’s 2015 defense struggled with dual-threat quarterbacks. The Hoosiers allowed four quarterbacks to rush for more than 50 yards.
Only four of the 13 quarterbacks IU faced ran for fewer than 30 yards when playing the Hoosiers.
This season, though, the most rushing yards IU has allowed to a quarterback was to Ball State’s Riley Neal, who recorded 15. Florida International’s Alex McGough, who tallied 30 yards on the ground against IU in 2015, was held to just 12 in this season’s opener.
Wolford isn’t as prolific a runner as Hinton, but he did record a 70-yard touchdown run against Elon last season. Against Delaware, after Hinton went down to injury, Wolford came in and ran for 71 yards on just seven carries.
“If Wolford was more of a true pro-style, stay-in-the-pocket guy, it’d be different, but he’s really not,” IU defensive coordinator Tom Allen said. “They’re very similar. There’s no question Hinton is more of a runner than Wolford, but the bottom line is that both have very good athleticism.”
The slightest change Wilson said he might expect from Wake Forest’s change at quarterback is moving from a zone-read option style offense — meant for quarterbacks with a run-first mentality — to a run-pass offense.
The latter type of offense is the offense the Hoosiers mostly saw in 2015 — a style that calls for pass plays and allows the quarterback to run when he sees space.
So how well does Wolford pass?
The junior ranks in the top 10 among Wake Forest quarterbacks in career completions, completion percentage, passing efficiency and is ranked 13th in passing yards.
Starting in all 12 games as a true freshman in 2014, Wolford became the third-fastest Wake Forest quarterback to reach 3,000 career passing yards, a mark he reached in his 18th game.
An advantage for the Hoosiers is a year’s experience in the secondary to oppose Wolford this season. In 2015, the IU secondary was comprised of many starters in their first years of experience.
Now, players like junior Rashard Fant, sophomore Jonathan Crawford and sophomore Andre Brown all are in their second years starting for IU, and junior Chase Dutra is back from injury. Thanks to Allen’s new scheme, true freshman Marcelino Ball plays the husky position as the fifth defensive back in the secondary.
He earned the Big Ten Freshman of the Week award for his performance against Ball State on Sept. 10.
Fant said the secondary will be prepared for the change in quarterback because the Hoosiers have quarterbacks in practice who can represent the differing styles.
Junior Zander Diamont acts as the main dual-threat quarterback in practice, and his teammates and coaches have said his arm has improved during the offseason and can keep the defense honest.
Fant also mentioned using sophomore Danny Cameron as a passing quarterback during practice.
“Seeing those things in practice will definitely get us ready to face whoever plays this week,” Fant said “Whichever one it is or whether it’s both of them, we’ll be prepared to go. We’re going to have to be prepared to play both the run and pass, showing them different looks and being aggressive.”
