By Rob Daniels
Staff Writer

WINSTON-SALEM -- It was hanging right there, like a half-hearted lob.

Upon seeing tennis balls thrown in football practice, somebody should have gone McEnroe on Tim Billings with: "You cannot be serious!"

But being open-minded souls, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons let Billings, their receivers coach, play his little game of juxtaposition, concentration and hand-eye coordination.

Four games into a (so far) perfect season, they've suffered only one bad drop in the eyes of the team's newest assistant. Nobody will claim it's all because of the little yellow ball they catch in practice, but they won't throw it back over the fence, either.

"It helps you focus on that one point, just like the point of the ball," tight end John Tereshinski said. "So far, it has been working."

The week after Wake threw only five passes in a victory at Ole Miss, everybody knows offensive diversity will become a point of emphasis in the season's second half. That puts the burden on an often-overlooked skill -- catching the ball.

The unconventional drill has its origins a quarter-century ago in Oklahoma. As part of his duties at Duncan and Norman high schools, Billings was commissioned to coach the girls tennis teams. A defensive secondary specialist in football, he found his mind wandering to cross-training. What if you set up people 10 yards apart and threw them an object that's considerably harder to grasp than the one they must snag in competition?

"It's like a baseball player hitting a baseball and then having a softball to hit," Billings said. "I think it has some carry-over. Otherwise, I wouldn't do it."

While head coach at Southeast Missouri State, Billings had an assistant who had similar thoughts, and one day the genteel -- minus McEnroe -- world of strawberries and cream melded with the brutal combat of football.

When Billings arrived at Wake last spring, he brought the idea with him. To somewhat mixed opinions.

"It was new to me," wide receiver Kenneth Moore said. "It was challenging at first."

Running backs -- perhaps because they have larger hands than most wideouts -- apparently took to it more readily.

"The first time I saw it, I thought it was a pretty good strategy," tailback De'Angelo Bryant said. "Thinking about catching a tennis ball would bring me back to my childhood days, when I would just sit and throw a tennis ball against the wall. I'm pretty good at catching it."

Coach Jim Grobe said he's hesitant to harp on dropped passes because it can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies. But he agrees with Billings that holding onto the passes of quarterback Riley Skinner hasn't been a problem.

"We're to the point now, when we drop a ball," Grobe said, "it shocks me."

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