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2019 Football — Position Battles

Burned shirt:
- Hartman
- Sciba
- Smenda
- Greer
- Bergan

Played 4 or close to 4
- Dicks
- Bothroyd
- Woulard
- Keith

Played 1 or 2 I believe
- McKinney
- Edwards
- Jurgens
- Whiteheart

Not sure if played
- Perry
- Isaac
- Heggs
- Alston
- Francis (? Still in program)
- Gordon (grey shirt)

Left program
- Manning
- Brown

5 players burning their shirt, plus another 4 hitting the max out of the Freshman class means Claws can legit say that talented kids will play.
 
Went back and rewatched the bowl game. I was impressed again with how good and valuable Bachman was. Great hands, guts in the clutch and decent speed. Losing Bachman and Dortch will be difficult even with all the talent we hope to have at WR.

I was also impressed again with how good Newman is. His 4th game is a bowl game and he takes Wake down the field for the winning TD in less than a minute. The kid is cool and has all the skill to be a great QB. He can make all the throws and runs like a tight end.

I paid more attention to the team's responses to one another. There appeared to be great chemistry between the players, which has not always been the case. The improvement in the defense, however, is perhaps the greatest cause for excitement. Even the half-time adjustments were impressive. If we can keep our linebackers healthy and fill in our losses on the d-line, the defense should be solid next season...except for the loss of Glenn. He is the best tackler that I can remember in the defensive back field. Bates was good, but Glenn rarely missed a tackle and he is a hard hitter. I don't see anyone who is ready to take his place.

Just a few random thoughts.
 
Went back and rewatched the bowl game. I was impressed again with how good and valuable Bachman was. Great hands, guts in the clutch and decent speed. Losing Bachman and Dortch will be difficult even with all the talent we hope to have at WR.

I was also impressed again with how good Newman is. His 4th game is a bowl game and he takes Wake down the field for the winning TD in less than a minute. The kid is cool and has all the skill to be a great QB. He can make all the throws and runs like a tight end.

I paid more attention to the team's responses to one another. There appeared to be great chemistry between the players, which has not always been the case. The improvement in the defense, however, is perhaps the greatest cause for excitement. Even the half-time adjustments were impressive. If we can keep our linebackers healthy and fill in our losses on the d-line, the defense should be solid next season...except for the loss of Glenn. He is the best tackler that I can remember in the defensive back field. Bates was good, but Glenn rarely missed a tackle and he is a hard hitter. I don't see anyone who is ready to take his place.

Just a few random thoughts.

Good stuff Mebane. I think the chemistry that's developed with the team is a key reason they didn't collapse mid-season and instead came back strong with some big wins and bowl victory.
I think the biggest positive change will be at LB. We'll be going from literally no healthy players to having a deep and pretty talented group. We're losing some good D linemen, but our improved depth will keep this group solid. We have some potential standouts at DE (Boogie and Mike).
WR will be interesting. We're losing Dortch and Bachman, but we have lots of young talent that will be fighting to take their place. Again, our greatly improved depth will keep us going here. Don't know if we'll have a superstar, but weLl have plenty of very good receivers.
Overall, I'm really optimistic for next year. With a little luck, I can see 9 wins.
 
Good stuff Mebane. I think the chemistry that's developed with the team is a key reason they didn't collapse mid-season and instead came back strong with some big wins and bowl victory.
I think the biggest positive change will be at LB. We'll be going from literally no healthy players to having a deep and pretty talented group. We're losing some good D linemen, but our improved depth will keep this group solid. We have some potential standouts at DE (Boogie and Mike).
WR will be interesting. We're losing Dortch and Bachman, but we have lots of young talent that will be fighting to take their place. Again, our greatly improved depth will keep us going here. Don't know if we'll have a superstar, but weLl have plenty of very good receivers.
Overall, I'm really optimistic for next year. With a little luck, I can see 9 wins.
Mebane had a nice review there.
Still see us as a mostly 6 win team but with greater upside potential than in 2018. Duke, State and Carolina will be ready for WF next year unlike some games from the recent past.
 
Our back 7 was decimated this year. We should definitely be better back there.
 
Mebane had a nice review there.
Still see us as a mostly 6 win team but with greater upside potential than in 2018. Duke, State and Carolina will be ready for WF next year unlike some games from the recent past.

What does next year look like for Duke and State? Seems like State will take a step back and Duke as well.
 
What does next year look like for Duke and State? Seems like State will take a step back and Duke as well.

Duke loses their two top tacklers in Ben Humphreys and Joe Giles Harris but their defense was young overall so won't drop off too much. Other than the game against us, their D played pretty well. Offensively they should drop off with Jones gone and no heir apparent. They also lose 3 receivers and 2 tight ends-guessing that might have played into Jones decision as well to go. They will likely have to establish a running game to be successful.

State loses 11 starters with their top 2 receivers leaving early and QB Finley graduating. One of Doeren's biggest faults is never playing their backup QB, even when way up or down so they have no proven QB to step in. They have the transfer from FSU coming in and 2 unproven young guys. With a new OC coming in and unproven QB's they'll be a work in progress most likely. They will have a couple of great running backs in Person if he stays healthy and Zonovan Knight coming in as a freshman. Knight looked really good in the Shrine bowl and could be a thorn in our side the next few years. So like Duke, they will probably need to lean on the running game to help the passing. That said, they lose 3 starters on the OL like we do but also lost their OL coach to Louisville so that could impact the chemistry.

4 starters on defense are gone including their best defensive player in LB Germaine Pratt. They have a ton of talent on their defensive line but I don't think it matters that much because their DC is not that good. Huxtable has had so much talent go through there and the defense has always been a weakness. So State's offense will likely drop off and the defense will be talent filled but probably underperform.

So bottom line is that I think that what we have going over both Duke and State are two proven QB's returning. All 3 teams lose several key components on both sides of the ball, but what we have over both teams in my opinion on top of the QB's are our coaches. Doeren's game coaching has always been suspect and the game plans that we put together against both of them this year were outstanding. My biggest concerns with our coaching and players is the tendency to have a let down like we did against Duke in 2017 and this year we didn't win two in a row until our last two games (but have to give it somewhat of a pass with our injury situation). While I like how we played with our backs against the wall, I'd prefer we not get our backs against the wall. Ready for 2019 to start!
 
JJMG,

Good write-up. Duke's QB next year will be Quentin Harris. He is solid. He started two games last year when Jones was hurt, including a win at Baylor. On the season, he threw 7 TDs and with one pick. He can also run. Duke will suffer some drop-off with Jones leaving, but not as big as you would think with the starter leaving early for the NFL.
 
JJMG,

Good write-up. Duke's QB next year will be Quentin Harris. He is solid. He started two games last year when Jones was hurt, including a win at Baylor. On the season, he threw 7 TDs and with one pick. He can also run. Duke will suffer some drop-off with Jones leaving, but not as big as you would think with the starter leaving early for the NFL.

Good point. I would not be shocked to see him pushed by Gunner Holmberg who will be a redshirt freshman. We offered him and the day after Sam Hartman committed to Wake, he committed to Duke. Knowing Cutcliffe, if Harris stays the guy, he'll have a few packages for Holmberg to break him in and get them some action.
 
Article in Raleigh paper today about Duke's outlook for football next year:

https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/article223981165.html

Good overview. They definitely have some rebuilding to do and starting the season with Alabama will be a huge challenge. Sounds like their defense will be better than their offense, although their running game should be decent. They also have ND and Cuse on their schedule. This should be a win for us, although probably not by 52 points. Think it will be tough for them to get back to a bowl game next year.
 
Has to be Newman's spot to lose given that he was the QB for our three biggest wins. That being said, I don't think he showed he's as accurate a QB as what Hartman showed earlier in the season. Hartman got a bit jumpy as he started taking hits later in the season, but his arm looked sharper
 
Has to be Newman's spot to lose given that he was the QB for our three biggest wins. That being said, I don't think he showed he's as accurate a QB as what Hartman showed earlier in the season. Hartman got a bit jumpy as he started taking hits later in the season, but his arm looked sharper

Agree that Hartman may be "sharper" on shorter routes, but Newman definitely threw a better deep ball. His pocket presence is also much better, in addition to being a much better runner. His job to lose, indeed.
 
Has to be Newman's spot to lose given that he was the QB for our three biggest wins. That being said, I don't think he showed he's as accurate a QB as what Hartman showed earlier in the season. Hartman got a bit jumpy as he started taking hits later in the season, but his arm looked sharper

Hartman looked sharp against the worst teams on our schedule. Newman looked sharp against the teams in that 26-50 range who we have to beat to make bowls.
 
Hartman looked sharp against the worst teams on our schedule. Newman looked sharp against the teams in that 26-50 range who we have to beat to make bowls.

Yeah, there's really no doubt in my mind at this point who the better QB is. Or at least who was better during the 2018 season.
 
My guess is that when the UNC, State, then Duke games roll around in 2019 we will be favored in each of the three games. When, if ever, might that have happened before?

An 8-4 season looks to be a very reasonable expectation: 6-6 floor, 10-2 ceiling.
 
Agree that Hartman may be "sharper" on shorter routes, but Newman definitely threw a better deep ball. His pocket presence is also much better, in addition to being a much better runner. His job to lose, indeed.

Hartman looked sharp against the worst teams on our schedule. Newman looked sharp against the teams in that 26-50 range who we have to beat to make bowls.

Agree on pocket presence and the level of competition each quarterback faced. Just think Hartman threw a better ball when coverage was tighter. I have no evidence to this last point, but i did think the players seemed to rally around Newman more than Hartman.
 
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