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16 close losses since the Orange Bowl

My take is that we typcially aren't as talented as our better opponents but we often develop a gameplan that lulls them to sleep/takes advantage of their mistakes and lets us get a lead or stay in the game. But when it is crunch time and they are really focused, they usually get the better of play.

Lots of close losses to bowl teams and traditional football powers on that list.
 
Coach K is about to surpass Bob Knight. The pupil has become the master.
 
Seems like we are doing what it takes to have a chance to win against teams that have better talent than we do.
 
ChrisL68 said:
My take is that we typcially aren't as talented as our better opponents but we often develop a gameplan that lulls them to sleep/takes advantage of their mistakes and lets us get a lead or stay in the game. But when it is crunch time and they are really focused, they usually get the better of play.

Lots of close losses to bowl teams and traditional football powers on that list.
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bingo
 
Out of all of these games, I think Baylor is the only team that didn't make a bowl, and that was because RGIII got hurt midway through the season.
 
TBR said:
Navy, Baylor, Syracuse?
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I'm not going to take the time to look up the rankings and all that, but even if I am incorrect with those three teams, it makes a lot of sense.

Cuse and Baylor are probably aberrations, and Navy runs a completely different offense than we are used to.
 
ChrisL68 said:
My take is that we typcially aren't as talented as our better opponents but we often develop a gameplan that lulls them to sleep/takes advantage of their mistakes and lets us get a lead or stay in the game. But when it is crunch time and they are really focused, they usually get the better of play.

Lots of close losses to bowl teams and traditional football powers on that list.
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That sounds like a copout, to be honest.

Good teams win close games consistently, because they execute when it matters. We haven't done that. It has nothing to do with the talent disparity between Wake and other schools. We had the talent and capability to win most of the games listed here. There wasn't any magic trickery that "lulled an opponent to sleep" for 3+ quarters.

I'm finding myself questioning Grobe's in-game coaching ability the more and more Wake football I watch. It's confusing to me that the same people who are praising him for that mystical sleep-inducing phantom gameplan to start the game are making excuses for his late game management. You can't have it both ways. He's obviously brought this program to where it is, and he's exception with regards to sleeper recruiting and player development. I personally wouldn't replace him right now or in the near future (obviously), but his in-game coaching ability is just not good, and it's been pretty apparent to me, even just based on 2008-09 and this year. Adjustments have to be made somewhere, and I'm not 100% positive that Grobe's immune from the Lobo/Billings/Knorr criticism.
 
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Deacsfan27 said:
I'm not going to take the time to look up the rankings and all that, but even if I am incorrect with those three teams, it makes a lot of sense.

Cuse and Baylor are probably aberrations, and Navy runs a completely different offense than we are used to.
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Fair enough, but we played Navy 4 times over 3 years and went 1-3. I don't think a lack of familiarity was the problem, especially when you add two contests against Georgia Tech over that same period (which we lost in similar fashion).
 
TBR said:
Fair enough, but we played Navy 4 times over 3 years and went 1-3. I don't think a lack of familiarity was the problem, especially when you add two contests against Georgia Tech over that same period (which we lost in similar fashion).
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Fine....it probably says that we aren't very good against defending the triple option...add us to the list of teams across the nation.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
I'm at a loss as to what this has to do with us losing close games. Didn't realize that K or BK coached football against or for Wake Forest...
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Just tweaking my main man BKF. :thumbsup: By the way, how many students were at the game Friday and what would you guess was the total attendance? Someone on here guessed 500 people. I guessed anywhere from 2,500-3,000. Oh shit, this also has nothing to do with the original post. :eek:
 
BobStackFan4Life said:
Just tweaking my main man BKF. :thumbsup: By the way, how many students were at the game Friday and what would you guess was the total attendance? Someone on here guessed 500 people. I guessed anywhere from 2,500-3,000. Oh shit, this also has nothing to do with the original post. :eek:
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haha students around 100 (minus the band), and probably 4,500 overall.
 
bobknightfan said:
During that same time we won 12 games by a touchdown or less.....with 4 of those coming against Duke:

2007: Maryland-7, Duke-5, FSU-3
2008: Mississippi-2, Clemson-5, Duke-3
2009: Stanford-7, NC State-6
2010: Duke-6
2011: NC State-7, FSU-5, Duke-1
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So offset Duke and Navy, and we have 1 throw-away win, along with (arguably) 2 throw-away losses with Cuse and Baylor.

I'll take the other wins compared to the losses based on what we were dealing with before Coach Grobe got here. Not sure what the point is...
 
bobknightfan said:
By the way, I'm just throwing this stuff out for discussion. I don't have any hidden agenda. I'm 100% behind Jim Grobe. However, I think we have been losing a lot of games during the last five years that we should've won. We don't seem to be very effective at closing wins in the 4th quarter.....and I just thought this thread might offer up some reasons why posters think this has been the case.
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We are in a lot of close games because we have Jim Grobe. We line up with two, sometimes three times per season on an even basis.
 
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