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Wake Football Offseason Thread

My concern is scheme as well. No issues with the defensive scheme. It is attacking and has held up for the most part. We say 3 championships but all at lower levels where he had some of the better players in the league he coached. Don't think it is LOWF to say that we won't ever have FSU or Clemson's players so scheme is very important at that point. I am interested to watch Syracuse and Virginia Tech, particularly Syracuse with the Baylor system. Two teams who have struggled on offense and are bringing in innovative offenses and see how they improve. Our problem at Wake under Clawson is we can't score. 15/game year one and 17/game year 2. Hate to say it, but if I had to bet on it, I think Syracuse will score and mainly due to scheme. Hope I am wrong.
 
Rafi said:
Clawson's system has produced championships at all 3 previous schools at which he coached.
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All schools where he was able to recruit similar or superior talent. That isn't happening here. The offense isn't going to line up and overpower our opponents.
 
A good OL will solve most of our problems with Points and time of possession. The only reports we've been hearing about them is how hard they've worked and how good they look. Sounds like what scouts call "Looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane". The stats from the scrimmage lead me to believe that they had horrible production in the scrimmage and that nothing has change. It won't matter who the other 6 guys are on offense, the scheme won't matter, the FG kicker won't matter if we have another shitty OL.
 
BDL said:
maybe his system is fucked. gotta figure out a way to win with the talent you have.
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Well, yeah, that's why I added "in his system" at the end of my point. We've been pretty vanilla on offense with Clawson, and we fans have assumed it's because of our weak OL. But something has to happen dramatically this coming season or we need to replace Ruggiero and run something else. We can't run another "home for failed OCs" with this regime.
 
After reading the discussion on the offensive scheme I went back to the interview with Coach Ruggiero in the last Clawson radio show of the season. The interviews with Coach R and Coach Elko were both very interesting. Here is the Q&A that I thought people would be the most interested in:

Cotten: When you look at your playbook…will it get fatter every year? Do you continue to add things to your base?

Ruggiero: Yeah, yeah no doubt. You know it’s funny, when we sit in the staff room with some of the guys that have been with me for a while, we will talk about this play and that play we ran 4 years ago, 5 years ago, 6 years ago or whatever that don’t exist right now but they are floating around somewhere. I am sure at some point we will run them, but this year we committed to just running the grass roots and teaching these kids all of the adjustments that they need to make and allowing young kids to at least try and play as fast as they can and not have to think as much. So we’ve kept it simple.
 
BillBrasky said:
If Wolford is the starting QB next season there is no hope. I appreciate his gym rat status but the kid doesn't have the physical attributes to succeed at this level. Especially behind a developing/shaky OL.

Maybe if he had Riley's pocket awareness he could overcome that. But he doesn't. Instead he panics and either throws a dumb interception, has his pass batted down or he checks down for a two yard gain.
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He panics nowhere near as bad as Hinton. Hinton lobs up ints all day when he is pressured.
 
What was the ratio of poor passes to passes batted at the line or tip picks because the wr's can't catch. I see more of that with Wolford than I do with Hinton. If Hinton would just learn to take the sack or throw the ball out of bounds he will be immensely better instead of just throwing up his jump balls.
 
BillBrasky said:
All schools where he was able to recruit similar or superior talent. That isn't happening here. The offense isn't going to line up and overpower our opponents.
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Clawson was at Bowling Green from 2009-2013. His recruiting classes in the MAC (which has 13 teams) from 2009-2012 were ranked as follows by Rivals: #12, #7, #4, #8. I don't think he just relied on recruiting superior talent.
 
I'm assuming the offense should improve this year, probably not by a lot, health of skill players is always a concern. Defense is a little interesting. Our Defense S&P+ has gone from 34, 37 to 60 from 2013-2015. That last jump was expected with the loss of KJ and Bud, but it will be important for Clawson-recruited defensive playmakers to emerge.

As posted a few times before, our offensive numbers over the same period are 111, 128 (dead last by a large margin) and 107 last year.
 
Really think the staff is sharp. I don't see them as committed to a "system", and think that the staff will mold the scheme to the talent or lack of talent on hand.

WF could've had the world's greatest offensive scheme in 2014, and the offense would've been dreadful with a true frosh QB, the worst OL in D-1 and no explosive skill players.

Last year, the offense made a baby step, and you could see a modest improvement in both the OL and the skill players.

This year, the team needs to take a bigger step forward on offense. Really don't care who the coaches pick as the starting QB, as the decision will be made exclusively on who give WF the best chance to win games. There are no agendas other than winning as many games as possible. As it should be.
 
Every team has some sort of system they use. This is normal. I think the coaching staff has had to tweak or simplify the system until the players have worked with it a few years, and until we get a strong enough OL especially, to be able to run it. The other piece of the equation which is extremely important is the mental one. Duke believes they will win. They don't always, and this was not their mind set before Cutcliffe arrived, but they do now. When I listen to Clawson, it sounds like he and his staff are developing a mind set or culture of winning. Mental is a key part of every sport, and Wake needs players to step up and lead in this area too. But this is a key component of every wining football team.
 
You have to admire Wolford for the punishment he took as a freshman; and, to a lesser extent as a sophomore. For that alone, he needs to be in consideration for the starting job. However, at this point, I just do not see the strong arm necessary (see last year's Louisville game) to move us forward. Hinton does throw too many pics, but brings excitement, a running threat on every play (not just when he scrambles,) a strong arm and some much need swagger to the position.
 
Syracuse was very similar to Wake Forest in total offense last year, although they were much better from a scoring offense perspective where Wake was one of the worst. I know it is Spring Football and it doesn't matter, but the scheme at Syracuse will be interesting to see the results. 7 TD's from the first team in their Spring Game according to this article. http://www.syracuse.com/orangefootb.../syracuse_football_spring_game_takeaways.html

I could care less about Syracuse, but think it will be interesting to compare with their up tempo Baylor scheme that is different to the ACC. For those who say our offensive players stink and scheme doesn't matter, how many players from Navy and Air Force would we recruit? All they do is win and go to bowl games and I would say a lot of it is offensive scheme. On defense our scheme is good and results have been good. On offense I hope I am wrong and it improves but it has been ugly so far.
 
JacksonvilleDeac said:
Syracuse was very similar to Wake Forest in total offense last year, although they were much better from a scoring offense perspective where Wake was one of the worst. I know it is Spring Football and it doesn't matter, but the scheme at Syracuse will be interesting to see the results. 7 TD's from the first team in their Spring Game according to this article. http://www.syracuse.com/orangefootb.../syracuse_football_spring_game_takeaways.html
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And contrary to a lot of the conventional wisdom around here, production in Spring Games is predictive and important. Our 2013 Spring Game was a 3-0 score, and just look at how the season turned out offensively (despite super-secret offensive scheme being held back!).
 
If the OL can't block in the spring game, then they'll probably suck during the season. The last good OL we had took us to a Bowl game. That's what I'll be looking for on the 9th.
 
Thought we had a little trouble with shotgun snaps Saturday.
 
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