Louisville football: 3 players to watch for Wake Forest

WR Jaquarii Roberson

Roberson is Wake’s biggest threat through the air. The Deacs are looking to run the ball more times than not hovering around a 60-40 split on the season between running and passing plays.

Sam Hartman is Wake Forest’s quarterback and he is a fine game manager that has not thrown an interception in 195 attempts on the year. But the real threat to the Cards is redshirt junior Jaquarii Roberson.

Roberson comes in at 6’1″ 182-pounds.

On the year, he has caught 45 of a total 134 completions by the team. That’s good for about one-third of the team’s total receptions. Roberson has 657 yards and four touchdowns through seven games of action.

Roberson is an interesting watch. He has a nice looking frame for the position and he is a smooth mover with that frame.

He makes plays on all three levels of the defense. Wake likes to throw him a lot of screen passes where he can look to do something with the ball after the catch. Roberson is also very good against zone defense where he can sit down in the middle areas behind the linebackers and in front of deep safeties.

Roberson is best unleashed in the deep passing game where he does a very nice job of selling deep routes (specifically posts) to get defenders off balance.

The Deacons needed a player to step up after Surratt’s opt-out and Roberson has been that guy in 2020. Roberson had just 13 catches in his entire career prior to this season, and he has clearly taken the next step in his development at wideout.

This will likely be Kei’Trel Clark‘s matchup more times than not this Saturday and it will be a fun battle to keep an eye on.