WINSTON-SALEM – Rewind things a few years and it was Michael Jurgens taking over at center, with the previous starter moving to another position on Wake Forest’s offensive line.

Now it’s Jurgens moving elsewhere — guard, in this case — as Luke Petitbon has taken the vast majority of first-team reps at center this spring.

Jurgens first broke into the starting lineup when Zach Tom moved from center to left tackle entering the 2020 season.

History repeats itself, though unintentionally for offensive line coach Nick Tabacca.

“I don’t think that’s a conscious thing I do, that all of a sudden I’m going to move a guy later in his career and groom another guy at that position,” Tabacca said on Thursday morning. “But I think … when you play center, it definitely helps you from a mental perspective on the whole O-line.”

The Beef Boys will look different next season; though maybe not as different as you’d think.

Wake’s offensive line is replacing three starters, with guards Sean Maginn and Loic Ngassam Nya and left tackle Je’Vionte’ Nash exhausting their eligibility.

If you went into the spring thinking that would lead to mixing and matching, well, you’d be wrong. Petitbon moving to center and Jurgens moving to guard is the biggest shift; otherwise, jack-of-all-trades Spencer Clapp has stepped in at left tackle, and Nick Sharpe and Matt Gulbin have rotated at right tackle.

“Some guys are getting used to new positions, so I kind of want them to anchor into new positions and get them a ton of reps,” Tabacca said.

DeVonte Gordon is the only returning starter in the same position, at right tackle, though Tabacca noted that Gordon and Clapp have flipped sides of the line occasionally.

Moving to guard has kept Jurgens on his toes.

The Damascus, Md., native has logged almost 2,500 snaps at center (per Pro Football Focus) over the last three years, starting 34 of Wake’s 36 games.

“When you do the same thing for five years, it’s kind of just human nature to get into autopilot,” said Jurgens, who’s entering his sixth season with the Deacons. “Switching positions, it really forces me to be intentional and focused. And it’s just a whole new world and landscape of things to work on.”

Jurgens spent two seasons as Wake’s center with Tom at left tackle. In Wake’s offense, the center is responsible for calling out checks and protections — no easy task, given the warp-speed tempo the Deacons can reach.

In those two seasons, Jurgens said Tom had freedom to make calls as he saw things develop. Now it’s Jurgens who can call out things to Petitbon as the former center.

“Just as Zach and I had a really good relationship, Luke and I have a really good relationship,” Jurgens said. “That’s something that’s really special about our room and about O-line in general.”

While Jurgens can help Petitbon, there’s also value in the fourth-year center making mistakes at this time of year.

“Coach Tabacca and I were talking about that this morning, it’s like, ‘We’re in the spring, he’s been off for a year, if he’s going to make a mistake, it’s kind of good to let him make it,’” Jurgens said. “That’s how you learn.”

It’s how Jurgens learned, now it’s how Petitbon is learning. It’s become the way of life on Wake’s offensive line.

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Here were my observations from Thursday morning’s practice:

- This team’s two best running backs and four of the best six receivers weren’t suited up. That helps Wake’s staff see younger players in elevated roles but also makes it hard to glean anything too significant in performance.

- If tradition holds, Wake Forest will announce captains Saturday before the spring game (starts at 2 p.m.).

My guess for who those will be: Chase Jones and Jurgens (returning), Mitch Griffis, Kevin Pointer and Malik Mustapha.

- 7-on-7 started with a high throw from Griffis that was still brought in by Wesley Grimes.

That was the first of three straight completions to start this segment.

- Will Towns was working as the first-team running back.

- In perhaps a way-too-early proclamation: I think Deuce Alexander is going to be a good receiver in the future. He’s got a good frame, good catch radius, looks like an explosive athlete. Don’t count on him showing up in the upcoming season, just file his name away for the future.

- Griffis-to-Grimes with a bullet into traffic.

- Donavon Greene had a drop in a clunky route, with him slipping as he made a break.

Griffis came back to him on the next play for a catch.

- Michael Kern threw a rope to Jaydn Girard, another receiver I’d put in the category of “don’t expect much this season, but he’s going to help in the future.”

- Full-team work started with Gulbin at right guard.

- Griffis had a nice throw on the run to Michael Frogge, who picked up some yards after the catch. Frogge has had some of the worst injury luck of the past few seasons; good to see him closing the spring on the field.

- See, I got my note about Alexander in *before* this play.

Santino Marucci threw a great deep ball and Alexander made a leaping, over-the-shoulder catch for a gain of roughly 35-40 yards.

- Back for full-team work in a situation, which was: 53 seconds left, defense up by five, both teams have one timeout, ball on the offense’s 27-yard line.

- Griffis alternated completions with incompletions for five plays, hitting Greene on a hitch, Ian Ver Steeg over the middle, and Grimes on a drag.

The throw to Ver Steeg stood out; Grimes’ awareness to sprint out of bounds with 15 seconds left, getting to the 26-yard line.

- Mustapha had a good pass break-up on a short throw to Gavin Ellis.

- And then this is where this drill kind of dies — Dave Clawson doesn’t want players jumping in end-of-game scenarios because of injury concerns, so it comes to an anticlimactic ending. First a play is run with the offense told not to jump so the defense can knock it down, then the defense is told not to jump and let the receivers make a play.

- The second-team offense got a crack at this situation and Kern threw a couple of strikes to Aalijah Kelly to get to midfield.

- Justin Williams forced a fumble, which was recovered by Kern, and then Kern was pressured into throwing the ball away, essentially the end of the second-team’s showing.

- One last full-team period, starting with BJ Williams bottling up a run to the left.

He was taking first-team defensive end reps in place of Jasheen Davis.

- Griffis completed back-to-back throws to Ver Steeg, first to the right for a third-down conversion and then to the left for another chunk of yards.

- DaShawn Jones did just enough for a PBU on Grimes trying to pull in another high throw.

- Griffis got a fourth-down conversion to Kelly … but Clawson either called holding or announced that’s what one of the officials called.

- Second-team in there, with Zamari Stevenson notching a pass break-up.

- Kern came back to Christian Greene, who this time beat Stevenson and racked up yards after the catch.

- Jaylen Hudson had a nice reaction to get a batted-down pass.

- Ending this with a third-down PBU by Jamare Glasker, and a fourth-down PBU by Stevenson.

A lot of this team’s success, at least defensively, is going to hinge on how much growth there is in the secondary.

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Going to end this with a mini-My Take:

If you do one thing this weekend, please make sure it’s to leap to every conclusion possible during and after the spring game.

Griffis gets sacked a bunch? Means Wake’s offensive line will be putrid.

Wake’s defense gives up a bunch of big plays? The defense will give up 50 points a game.

And so on and so forth.

On a serious note: Remember that this is the last of 15 spring practices. It holds just a little more weight than most (not all) of the practices that have come before it because of the scrimmage element. But it is still, in the grand scheme of things, one-fifteenth of the sample from this spring.

Wake Forest isn’t bound to play some of its more-experienced players for more than a few series, nor should it. The most important thing about this is avoiding injuries.

And, of course, the post-game meet-and-greet with players and coaches on the field.