Saturday was a reminder of what can happen when Wake plays poorly against a team that is more athletically gifted (and more experienced as well). Of course, the hope is that we can close the speed and size gap further over the next 1-2 years. First with better recruiting than we’ve had over the past several years, but also with players having multiple years in Coach Hourigan’s strength and conditioning program. However, Saturday was a reminder of how far Wake still has to go and how difficult the challenge will be.
I’m more than ready to see the blowout losses to come to an end. In Grobe’s last two years 30% of Wake’s games ended in losses of 25 points or more. This was Clawson’s third blowout loss (15% of games he has coached).
The obvious story was big plays. UNC had 7 plays of 20 yards or more (they actually had SIX plays of THIRTY or more yards). In contrast, Wake would manage 3 plays of 20 or more yards, with the longest being a meaningless 32 yard reception by Cam Serigne at the end of the first half. Remarkably, UNC was able to add an additional 11 offensive plays measuring between 10-19 yards.
It’s hard to believe that players like Kendall Hinton will have exhausted their eligibility before Wake plays UNC again.
A LOOK AT UNC’s LONGEST PLAYS
2Q 57 yard pass from Marquise Williams (a four-star, Rivals 250 recruit in the 2011 class) to Mack Hollins. Hollins is a former walk-on who came to UNC via Fork Union Military Academy after he was kicked off his HS team following an altercation with a teammate. Hollins seemed to beat Devin Gaulden easily. Hollins also got behind Zach Dancel who had moved up to cover a receiver running a shorter route. In his halftime comments Clawson referred to this play saying: “we gave up a post route that we knew was coming for an easy touchdown”.
2Q consecutive runs by Elijah Hood (a Rivals 5-star recruit in the 2014 class) of 29 yards and 36 yards. The first run came when redshirt freshman Willie Yarbary was cleared out of his gap and then Thomas Brown missed a tackle that would have held Hood to a 5-6 yard gain. The second run came via a huge hole in the DL, Marquel Lee caught being aggressive and overrunning Hood, and another missed tackle from Thomas Brown. I noted Clawson said in his halftime comments: “the safety needs to step up and make a play at 5 yards”.
2Q 61 yard pass from Williams to Austin Proehl. True freshman Dionte Austin was taken out of the play by a WR blocking near the line of scrimmage. It looked to me like it was Zach Dancel’s play to make, but he took a terrible angle and allowed himself to be taken out of the play by the same WR that was blocking Austin. Hunter Williams had further to run and didn’t have the speed to reach Proehl.
3Q 33 yard run by Williams. A designed QB run. Duke Ejiofor was shoved out of the way at the line of scrimmage. Brandon Chubb wasn’t able to defeat the lead blocker (a RB). Thomas Brown looked to be in a good position initially but then either took a bad angle or simply lacked the speed necessary to keep Williams from getting past him.
4Q Williams 42 yard pass to Hollins. Hollins beat the usually reliable Brad Watson badly. Thomas Brown was the safety that was covering that part of the field, but it looked like Brown took a bad angle and overran the play. Hollins simple cutback move made Brown a nonfactor.
QUARTERBACK
John Wolford had a good outing before aggravating his ankle injury. He was actually in quite a rhythm with the short and intermediate throws, finishing 16-for-22 (73% completion percentage).
RUNNING BACKS
Tyler Bell, Isaiah Robinson and Matt Colburn combined for 22 carries. 55% of their carries went for 3 or more yards. That compares with 68% of their carries against FSU and just 30% against BC. They were stopped for a loss only once (compared to 8 times against BC).
Bell’s longest runs were 9 yards and 11 yards. Robinson had a pair of 6 yarders. Robinson appeared to get the workload that had been going to Matt Colburn over the past few games. Colburn carried only once against UNC. Robinson got five consecutive carries after Bell’s 2Q fumble.
RECEIVERS
I came away from this game even more impressed by Cortez Lewis. Perhaps this was first time in a game situation that he was able to show his elusiveness. Lewis had two receptions of 20+ yards.
A great grab by Tabari Hines on the 2Q touchdown.
OFFENSIVE LINE
UNC almost always brought 4 rushers and seemed like a very plain-vanilla defensive front 4. I thought the OL pass protected pretty well. I didn’t note any obvious individual breakdowns from the OL in the first half, and just a few in the second half:
Haynes (2) - 3Q beaten by outside rush (twice, with the second one leading to a sack)
Herron (2) – 3Q beaten by outside rush (twice)
DEFENSIVE LINE
Final stat line: 6 solo tackles, 1 sack, 1 tackle for loss, 0 forced fumbles, 0 QB hurries. The DL again failed to provide much disruption in either the passing game or the running game.
The oft-discussed Duke Ejiofor’s only entry in the stat sheet was a 2Q offsides penalty.
Josh Banks 2Q sack was the most impressive individual play by a Wake DL in the game.
I am paying more and more attention to Zeek Rodney. He’s impressive. Wake’s best inside DL despite being only a true sophomore. It’s a shame Wake couldn’t redshirt him last season. Rodney had a nice play on Williams in run support (2Q), got a good hit on Williams as he pitched the ball in 3Q and came very close to a number of other impact plays.
LINEBACKERS
One of the highlights for the Deacs was Rover Demetrius Kemp’s 1Q interception off of a pass deflection by Marquel Lee. Lee also had an impact play midway through the 3Q when he dropped Williams for a sack on third down on a play that could very well have included a fumble that wasn’t called.
SAFETIES
Ryan Janvion was a late scratch (hip).
CORNERBACKS
Devin Gaulden is clearly losing playing time to Dionte Austin. We will have to wait until later this week when the snap count is released to see exactly how it shook out. Austin was victimized on UNC’s 3Q touchdown pass.
SPECIAL TEAMS
I agree with those of you that have pointed out that the kick and punt return and coverage teams are subpar. UNC was kicking the ball short so that they could tackle Wake short of the 20. Too many sloppy penalties from these units. It seems like Tabari Hines should be covering some of the punts that hit the ground before they roll 15 yards down the field.
Kinal fielded a long snap with his knee on the ground for the second time in his career (Clemson game in 2014 was the first time he did it).
I’m more than ready to see the blowout losses to come to an end. In Grobe’s last two years 30% of Wake’s games ended in losses of 25 points or more. This was Clawson’s third blowout loss (15% of games he has coached).
The obvious story was big plays. UNC had 7 plays of 20 yards or more (they actually had SIX plays of THIRTY or more yards). In contrast, Wake would manage 3 plays of 20 or more yards, with the longest being a meaningless 32 yard reception by Cam Serigne at the end of the first half. Remarkably, UNC was able to add an additional 11 offensive plays measuring between 10-19 yards.
It’s hard to believe that players like Kendall Hinton will have exhausted their eligibility before Wake plays UNC again.
A LOOK AT UNC’s LONGEST PLAYS
2Q 57 yard pass from Marquise Williams (a four-star, Rivals 250 recruit in the 2011 class) to Mack Hollins. Hollins is a former walk-on who came to UNC via Fork Union Military Academy after he was kicked off his HS team following an altercation with a teammate. Hollins seemed to beat Devin Gaulden easily. Hollins also got behind Zach Dancel who had moved up to cover a receiver running a shorter route. In his halftime comments Clawson referred to this play saying: “we gave up a post route that we knew was coming for an easy touchdown”.
2Q consecutive runs by Elijah Hood (a Rivals 5-star recruit in the 2014 class) of 29 yards and 36 yards. The first run came when redshirt freshman Willie Yarbary was cleared out of his gap and then Thomas Brown missed a tackle that would have held Hood to a 5-6 yard gain. The second run came via a huge hole in the DL, Marquel Lee caught being aggressive and overrunning Hood, and another missed tackle from Thomas Brown. I noted Clawson said in his halftime comments: “the safety needs to step up and make a play at 5 yards”.
2Q 61 yard pass from Williams to Austin Proehl. True freshman Dionte Austin was taken out of the play by a WR blocking near the line of scrimmage. It looked to me like it was Zach Dancel’s play to make, but he took a terrible angle and allowed himself to be taken out of the play by the same WR that was blocking Austin. Hunter Williams had further to run and didn’t have the speed to reach Proehl.
3Q 33 yard run by Williams. A designed QB run. Duke Ejiofor was shoved out of the way at the line of scrimmage. Brandon Chubb wasn’t able to defeat the lead blocker (a RB). Thomas Brown looked to be in a good position initially but then either took a bad angle or simply lacked the speed necessary to keep Williams from getting past him.
4Q Williams 42 yard pass to Hollins. Hollins beat the usually reliable Brad Watson badly. Thomas Brown was the safety that was covering that part of the field, but it looked like Brown took a bad angle and overran the play. Hollins simple cutback move made Brown a nonfactor.
QUARTERBACK
John Wolford had a good outing before aggravating his ankle injury. He was actually in quite a rhythm with the short and intermediate throws, finishing 16-for-22 (73% completion percentage).
RUNNING BACKS
Tyler Bell, Isaiah Robinson and Matt Colburn combined for 22 carries. 55% of their carries went for 3 or more yards. That compares with 68% of their carries against FSU and just 30% against BC. They were stopped for a loss only once (compared to 8 times against BC).
Bell’s longest runs were 9 yards and 11 yards. Robinson had a pair of 6 yarders. Robinson appeared to get the workload that had been going to Matt Colburn over the past few games. Colburn carried only once against UNC. Robinson got five consecutive carries after Bell’s 2Q fumble.
RECEIVERS
I came away from this game even more impressed by Cortez Lewis. Perhaps this was first time in a game situation that he was able to show his elusiveness. Lewis had two receptions of 20+ yards.
A great grab by Tabari Hines on the 2Q touchdown.
OFFENSIVE LINE
UNC almost always brought 4 rushers and seemed like a very plain-vanilla defensive front 4. I thought the OL pass protected pretty well. I didn’t note any obvious individual breakdowns from the OL in the first half, and just a few in the second half:
Haynes (2) - 3Q beaten by outside rush (twice, with the second one leading to a sack)
Herron (2) – 3Q beaten by outside rush (twice)
DEFENSIVE LINE
Final stat line: 6 solo tackles, 1 sack, 1 tackle for loss, 0 forced fumbles, 0 QB hurries. The DL again failed to provide much disruption in either the passing game or the running game.
The oft-discussed Duke Ejiofor’s only entry in the stat sheet was a 2Q offsides penalty.
Josh Banks 2Q sack was the most impressive individual play by a Wake DL in the game.
I am paying more and more attention to Zeek Rodney. He’s impressive. Wake’s best inside DL despite being only a true sophomore. It’s a shame Wake couldn’t redshirt him last season. Rodney had a nice play on Williams in run support (2Q), got a good hit on Williams as he pitched the ball in 3Q and came very close to a number of other impact plays.
LINEBACKERS
One of the highlights for the Deacs was Rover Demetrius Kemp’s 1Q interception off of a pass deflection by Marquel Lee. Lee also had an impact play midway through the 3Q when he dropped Williams for a sack on third down on a play that could very well have included a fumble that wasn’t called.
SAFETIES
Ryan Janvion was a late scratch (hip).
CORNERBACKS
Devin Gaulden is clearly losing playing time to Dionte Austin. We will have to wait until later this week when the snap count is released to see exactly how it shook out. Austin was victimized on UNC’s 3Q touchdown pass.
SPECIAL TEAMS
I agree with those of you that have pointed out that the kick and punt return and coverage teams are subpar. UNC was kicking the ball short so that they could tackle Wake short of the 20. Too many sloppy penalties from these units. It seems like Tabari Hines should be covering some of the punts that hit the ground before they roll 15 yards down the field.
Kinal fielded a long snap with his knee on the ground for the second time in his career (Clemson game in 2014 was the first time he did it).
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