Living in ACC country, I followed the Wake program pretty closely since 2001 as a regular poster on their board and attending the Wake-UVA game three times. After Ben Mauk was hurt, Riley Skinner came in and did a wonderful job and Wake Football hit their all-time high. However, Wake got away from the option which they ran well, but with some QB's who were decent passers, something Grobe did not have with Kareem or Dontrell.
The last four of five years as the offense fell off very quickly, the pressure from the fans on Steed "Lobo" Lobotzke became very intense. The quality of their line really fell off. Then they tried to put in an option offense last year with a Senior 4-year starter who was not an option QB and without the supporting cast of lineman to execute the plan. The results were horrible.
A couple of years ago when the heat was on Lobo from the alumni/fan base, his adopted daughter who was around two or so at the time had some very serious heart surgery.
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/wake/sports/m-footbl/auto_original/7159234.jpeg Grobe was not about to fire Lobo at that point and stuck with him to the bitter end.
Even after the fall-off at Wake, many at UVA who did not think much of Grobe when he came out of Ohio (not understanding the minor miracle he performed) now feel UVA should have hired him. I do feel the more balanced option and pass attack he used at Wake early on with a higher level of talent at UVA would have done very well. Grobe's recruiting was hurt when he sniffed at a few jobs which would probably have not been an issue had he been at UVA his alma mater.
I think it was a little bit of a lot of stuff that took away their momentum. Most of the fans are still very positive about Grobe while some are bitter about his big contract and the subsequent drop off. When he stepped down, the board was 90% very positive about his contributions. Since this article came out, the board has been pretty brutal towards Grobe:
http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=192&f=1118&t=13054000 I think as time passes, Grobe will be very well thought of by most everybody and some of the existing wounds will heal.
Despite the big drop-off during the Knorr years, I think the Grobe era made it possible to hire Solich. Grobe proved you could have winning seasons at Ohio and improve the graduation rate and that helped motivate Jody Galbreath Phillips to be so generous with her donations to the program that resulted in upgrades to Peden. Grobe left both the Ohio and Wake programs in much better condition than when he arrived. Groves Stadium was a dump prior to their renovation.
Last Edited: 8/19/2014 2:35:35 PM by Bobcat Grad 86