Brendan Cross making his own name at Wake Forest

"Everyone wants to start. Everyone wants to be on the field, but it never kept me from working hard," the younger Cross said. "I guess the best thing I can say is (there's been) a little bit of frustration, but other than that, I'm happy with myself because I've prepared the way I needed to."

When Wake Forest holds its first practice Aug. 5, Cross will resume his battle for the starting job that has been the sole property of Tanner Price.

Those injuries have left Cross as a backup — and perhaps even a forgotten man — for the past two years.

Cross, a right-handed redshirt junior, says he "messed up my mechanics" when he hurt his right wrist during the spring of 2010. Then, came an injury to his left shoulder during a loss to Georgia Tech.

Those injuries "have been a huge education for him because he was never hurt before," Randy Cross said. "And he struggled with both of those that whole season and part of last year."

Cross saw action in just one game last year, completing his only pass for 9 yards against Gardner-Webb, but encouraged coach Jim Grobe with a strong spring. He spent part of the summer in Tampa, Fla., working with former NFL quarterback Steve DeBerg on speeding up his release and generating more velocity on his throws.

"He did a lot of good things, and if he continues to improve, especially throwing the football, then he'll be competitive for playing time," Grobe said. "Going into the spring, I don't think I would've told you that I thought we had a quarterback I felt comfortable winning with if we had to play him right away.

"But after the spring, I felt better about Brendan that, if something happened to Tanner, we might actually be able to win games with him. He'll have to continue to improve. He's not where he needs to be, but he looks like he's more comfortable throwing the football than he's been since he's been here."