NCAA Gridiron Gab

There aren’t many familiar faces around Brandon Ghee on Wake Forest’s defense.

He’s the only returning starter in the secondary, and he knows how difficult it will be to replace four key contributors who helped the Demon Deacons rise from obscurity to relevance in the Atlantic Coast Conference before being taken in the NFL draft.

Ghee is confident those unknowns soon will make names for themselves.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys, a lot of competition,” Ghee said Saturday. “Last year, a lot of people set the starters … but right now, everybody’s fighting for position and it’s real exciting. We’ve got the same amount of talent, just not as much experience.”

Among the key players lost: linebacker Aaron Curry was selected by Seattle with the fourth overall pick, cornerback Alphonso Smith was taken in Round 2 by Denver, and safety Chip Vaughn and linebacker Stanley Arnoux each went in the fourth round to New Orleans.

They were the cornerstones of a defense that produced a school-record three consecutive bowl berths, a string that started in 2006 when the Demon Deacons claimed an unlikely ACC title and reached the Orange Bowl.

“No doubt, they were leaders on the team,” Ghee said. “It was like they had been here forever (but) now new people have to step up as leaders.”

That assuredly includes Ghee, one of only two defenders with at least 20 career starts. The redshirt senior and defensive lineman Boo Robinson figure to set the example for the 13 redshirt sophomores or freshmen who appear on the defense’s preseason depth chart.

Having so many vacancies also figures to test coach Jim Grobe’s patience-first philosophy of redshirting almost every incoming freshman and spending several seasons grooming them to take over for seniors when they move on. That makes it tough to fill the holes created by the departure of a defense-dominated recruiting class that arrived in 2004.