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Wake Forest Football Preseason Thread

DEACS76 said:
Against Nebraska in '05 we out gained them and had the ToP advantage and lost by 28. Does being a Deacon fan mean that we hang our hats on stats instead of scores? For many years I did. The "Yeah, but" club had me as a member. I expect more out of Clawson. As for Ruggerio, its what have you done for me lately. His system worked against small, slow defenses of the MAC, but not against a bunch of pro prospects from F$U et al.
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Also worked at K-State with Josh Freeman at QB. That K-State team had the worst defense in forever and gave up an average of 40+ points per game. They still won 5 games and put up 45 points at Texas A&M, 35 against Oklahoma in a 23 point loss, etc... What is apparent if you look a little closer at his bio is that he is really good with QBs and that almost nothing happens without establishing a really really good QB first. Makes sense as he have really done a good job in landing potentially elite QBs the last 12-18 months. The problem is that those QBs are either redshirting or not on campus yet.
 
PhDeac said:
The opening drive at Miami in 2008. 10 plays, 66 yards, 4:59. Thing of beauty. Haven't had too many of those since.
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Odd game to choose, PH. I think this was the game that a lot of folks started to jump off the Jim Grobe bandwagon. By the fourth quarter of that game, Miami was playing 10 in the box because we just inexplicably stopped throwing the ball. Grobe made some sort of statement to his detractors who were saying we were too dependent on Riley and he basically pulled a Kobe (Kobe refused to shoot for 1 half a decade or so ago after some criticism on his shellfishness).

You could really see the frustration on the faces of the players. A broken Miami team we should have beat by 10+ on the road and we lose a clunker in bad weather in a game Riley threw 8 passes.
 
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Clawson and Ruggerio both have strong QB track records. I'm confident that between the guys on our roster and our recruits, we've got some studs. Just gotta keep them upright and find some semblance of a running game.
 
jaybone said:
Odd game to choose, PH. I think this was the game that a lot of folks started to jump off the Jim Grobe bandwagon. By the fourth quarter of that game, Miami was playing 10 in the box because we just inexplicably stopped throwing the ball. Grobe made some sort of statement to his detractors who were saying we were too dependent on Riley and he basically pulled a Kobe (Kobe refused to shoot for 1 half a decade or so ago after some criticism on his shellfishness).

You could really see the frustration on the faces of the players. A broken Miami team we should have beat by 10+ on the road and we lose a clunker in bad weather in a game Riley threw 8 passes.
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It's not an odd game to choose because it's the last memorable long drive. Skinner was injured that game and Grobe didn't want to risk injury, but he went about it the wrong way.
 
Our blocking has been so poor all along the front including wide-outs that our only hope has been either to hit an open receiver down field or have the QB make a play with his feet. And all of that has been stymied due to the pass rush and the inability of our backs to pick up blitzes.

Everything depends on blocking in terms of building consistency on offense. We have much better skill people but do we have better blocking?
 
Jaybone, my concern isn't the QB, it's the OL and it's blocking scheme. The first contact after the snap is the DL hitting the OL on our side of the neutral zone. The OL engage the DL and steer them to one side or the other. This is how you block a draw play, but the initial blow is delivered by the DL. The OL absorbs the hit instead of giving it. We are giving up our advantage of the snap count. The DL are just bull rushing the OL into the backfield. If you look at the highlights of the spring game, Terry is getting driven back into the QB on each play. We'll know after the Duke game if anything has changed. It won't matter who the QB,RB's or WR's are if our plays die a quick death 3 yards behind the Center.
 
JacksonvilleDeac said:
Not the most flattering description of our offense here from a respected writer. Interesting question from this article. If the Deacs win 4 is Clawson on the hot seat? With this schedule, not sure he would get fired, but would face a lot of heat going into 2017.

http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...n-les-miles-charlie-strong-gus-malzahn-082416
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Given the schedule 4 wins is unacceptable. We are almost guaranteed 3 wins between Army, Delaware, and Tulane (Probably a 2.80+ value on those games). That means we would go 1-2 vs. BC, Cuse, and UVA at home, and win none of the Duke, State, Indiana road games.

The OOC schedule is tougher next year, and we get Cuse/BC on the road. We need to win at least 5 this year.
 
Short of winning 2 or fewer games, I don't think Clawson is on the hot seat. I think as well as he seems to be recruiting he's going to get time to develop those guys. Not that it means a hill of beans, but he's kind of on my hotseat, because if we don't win at least 5 games this year I will have lost a lot of confidence in him. I think a lot of us probably feel that way.
 
We have play-makers for the first time in a very long time. We played some decent teams relatively close last season with substantially less offensive fire power. It would be a serious failure not to make a bowl this season, IMO.
 
Maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about, but it seems clear that the delayed hand offs aren't working because we don't have the strength to actually create the holes necessary for that to work. I would think that the best course would be to hit the hole as hard as possible and hope that the OL gets a jump on the DL and that the hole is there.
 
PhDeac said:
It's not an odd game to choose because it's the last memorable long drive. Skinner was injured that game and Grobe didn't want to risk injury, but he went about it the wrong way.
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I talked to Grobe at a meet and greet about this game. He said that "We may have lost the game, but we saved the season". I think he was saying to the OL, it's your game, win it for us.
 
PhDeac said:
At the risk of sounding like 2&2, it's a stretch to say you simulated the season. There's no way you would have ended up with anything different than the original probabilities.
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How would you have done it differently to produce a better simulation?
 
PhDeac said:
At the risk of sounding like 2&2, it's a stretch to say you simulated the season. There's no way you would have ended up with anything different than the original probabilities.
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Ok, if you want to be technical then it's more or less a Poisson distribution. Either way, I think it's an informative piece that let's readers understand the distribution of various record frequencies. Obviously I'm biased because I wrote the thing.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
Given the schedule 4 wins is unacceptable. We are almost guaranteed 3 wins between Army, Delaware, and Tulane (Probably a 2.80+ value on those games). That means we would go 1-2 vs. BC, Cuse, and UVA at home, and win none of the Duke, State, Indiana road games.

The OOC schedule is tougher next year, and we get Cuse/BC on the road. We need to win at least 5 this year.
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I think we get 5 wins. Syracuse is key to avoiding 4, a winnable home game sandwiched between road trips. @IU, @NCST, SU, @FSU all without a bye.

Lose to Syracuse at home and I see 4 as very possible. Especially if BC is playing for their 6th win.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
Maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about, but it seems clear that the delayed hand offs aren't working because we don't have the strength to actually create the holes necessary for that to work. I would think that the best course would be to hit the hole as hard as possible and hope that the OL gets a jump on the DL and that the hole is there.
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This blocking scheme is predicated on which way the DL goes (inside or outside). That's what creates the hole to run through. The technique isn't about our lower body strength as much as catch and shoving with upper body strength. If quicker DLs can't be caught or bigger DLs can't be shoved, you end up with one of the worst offenses in the nation. They should learn how to pass block or run block first, and then try this hybrid technique.
 
PhDeac said:
Why would we assume that? We don't have a complete team. We need a QB who can win with the players we have.
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Sure, but what I meant is the following. Let's say hypothetically Wolford throws it well and is pretty mobile, while Hinton is mobile but throws it poorly. On a team with a broken offensive line, throwing is completely irrelevant, so Hinton would be the right choice.

I don't expect our protection to be such a cluster fuck this year, so Wolford might be the better overall choice if we provide any time to throw. Given our weak schedule this year, it's not real fair to presume anyone knows how each piece of our team will perform in actual games.

Hey, if the #1 play again this year is "QB scramble through broken protection" then by all means Hinton should start. Hopefully that's not the case.
 
Clawson needs to get to a bowl to validate what he has been telling recruits.. We can be good again, but it has to start this year.Very favorable schedule.
 
JacksonvilleDeac said:
Not the most flattering description of our offense here from a respected writer. Interesting question from this article. If the Deacs win 4 is Clawson on the hot seat? With this schedule, not sure he would get fired, but would face a lot of heat going into 2017.

http://www.foxsports.com/college-fo...n-les-miles-charlie-strong-gus-malzahn-082416
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Clawson's ACC record 2-14 is pretty bad, even with a lousy roster. I think we would all like to see a couple of Ws against ACC opponents. Assuming Wake beats Tulane, Delaware, and Army, what are other realistic win opportunities? Syracuse, UVa, and BC are all at home at should all be winnable games. NC State and Duke on the road are possible, although I don't see Wake getting a W in Raleigh this year. With this schedule, 5 wins should be the minimum expectation, and 6 not an unreasonable expectation.
 
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