Having plugged gaping hole of concern, Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe now must unstop another.

Getting ready to host Maryland on Saturday at BB&T Field, Grobe knows that he doesn’t want another case of running game gridlock as he experienced in last weekend’s 30-24 victory against N.C. State.

Wake (3-2, 1-1 ACC) gained a season-low 30 yards that was 96 below its next worst effort and had so much trouble moving on the ground that Grobe decided to go almost exclusively to the air, resulting in quarterback Riley Skinner throwing 45 times for 361 yards.

“We did what we needed to do,” Grobe said. “We didn’t have a lot of success running. We thought if we were going to beat State we were going to have to hang it on Riley a little bit.”

Josh Adams led Wake with 36 yards on nine carries and Brandon Pendergrass got 20 yards on eight tries. The Deacons were without starter Kevin Harris, who was sidelined by a groin injury. Grobe was unsure if Harris will be available this week.

It’s power game was nonexistent, hitting a point of futility when fullback Mike Renfrette was stopped twice on first and second downs inside the State 1 in the fourth quarter. Wake picked up a procedure penalty that proved enough of a set back that it had to settle for a 21-yard field goal by Jimmy Newman that provided what proved to be the final margin.

“Going forward we have to a better job running the ball,” Grobe said. “We got some mileage out of our backs by throwing them the ball on those little dink throws where that turned into 5 or 10 or 15 yards. ... State had a lot to do with our problems. That was as good of a front seven that we’ve faced. But going forward, we’re going to face some good front sevens, and Maryland is physical up front, also.

“We want to run it more and better but your opponent has something to do with that.”

The hole that Grobe believes that he plugged is in his pass coverage. He was so pleased with the work of first-time starters Kenny Okoyo and Josh Busch plus new nickleback Dominique Tate in the defensive secondary that they will stay in the lineup along with veteran Brandon Ghee and newcomer Cyhl Quarles.

They did allow Wolfpack quarterback Russell Wilson to throw of 275 yards and two touchdowns, but they also intercepted Wilson twice and on several occasions shadowed State’s receivers well enough that Wilson was forced the ball away to avoid getting sacked, even after he scrambled for several seconds on some occasions.

“All in all, that’s the best we’ve played against a good quarterback and a good receiving corps,” Grobe said. “(We’ll stick with them) as long as we don’t have injuries. Our four (starters) were really solid and I was pleased with (Tate) even though he got beat one time. Even though (Wilson) can drive you crazy when he runs, I thought the numbers of times he had to pull it down and run showed that we were doing a good job of covering their receivers.”

Grobe believes that offensive lineman Chris DeGeare of High Point will return to the lineup after he had to sit out the second half against State as the result of getting scratched in the eye. Grobe said DeGeare went through light workouts on Monday night.

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