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CONOR Football News 2020

Gotta call out a line in the article about the poll ranking. Wake was never behind against u*NC-CH. Wake scored first and scored more points in the first half than u*NC-CH scored the whole game. The rally fell short around mid field. There was a lot of grass between the ball spot on the last play and the end zone.

Utah State was a true last second win, scoring the final TD when behind at the time of the score.
 
Gotta call out a line in the article about the poll ranking. Wake was never behind against u*NC-CH. Wake scored first and scored more points in the first half than u*NC-CH scored the whole game. The rally fell short around mid field. There was a lot of grass between the ball spot on the last play and the end zone.

Utah State was a true last second win, scoring the final TD when behind at the time of the score.

All true. Was going more on Clawson's way of thinking (and telling us) that both games were determined in the final.
 
I cannot thank Conor enough for the film review as it is an enjoyable reminder of the wins and a learning tool for fans on losses. Thanks for doing that. I’m sure it’s time consuming but I think those of us on the board really enjoy it.
 
All true. Was going more on Clawson's way of thinking (and telling us) that both games were determined in the final.

I appreciate all you do in reporting on Wake. I enjoy your stuff, and I read all of it I can find. I am sure that the article accurately reflects Clawson's thinking and statements.

I was looking at the article from the perspective of someone outside the area and reading it without the context you have from Clawson. I am sure he felt that the outcome was in doubt until the final whistle.

A different take on the game could be that Wake got a big lead early and then withstood a late game rally. The prevent defense did its job in this case. Gave up some ground, while requiring the offense to use clock and ultimately causing the offense to run out of time when they were still a distance from the end zone.

You are about to get (indirectly) a much larger audience than the readers of the Winston-Salem newspaper. As the only print journalist covering Wake regularly, your writing has a great influence on the national perception of Wake.

With Wake stepping into the national spotlight with a top 25 ranking, your stuff will be forming the basis for the national narrative about "cinderella" Wake making noise in the ACC. The Associated Press wire service gets their stuff from somewhere, and for Wake football, it is your write-ups.

Keep up the good work.
 
I appreciate all you do in reporting on Wake. I enjoy your stuff, and I read all of it I can find. I am sure that the article accurately reflects Clawson's thinking and statements.

I was looking at the article from the perspective of someone outside the area and reading it without the context you have from Clawson. I am sure he felt that the outcome was in doubt until the final whistle.

A different take on the game could be that Wake got a big lead early and then withstood a late game rally. The prevent defense did its job in this case. Gave up some ground, while requiring the offense to use clock and ultimately causing the offense to run out of time when they were still a distance from the end zone.

You are about to get (indirectly) a much larger audience than the readers of the Winston-Salem newspaper. As the only print journalist covering Wake regularly, your writing has a great influence on the national perception of Wake.

With Wake stepping into the national spotlight with a top 25 ranking, your stuff will be forming the basis for the national narrative about "cinderella" Wake making noise in the ACC. The Associated Press wire service gets their stuff from somewhere, and for Wake football, it is your write-ups.

Keep up the good work.

Thank you, and the rest of yall, for reading and for the kind words!

I'll take however large an audience I can get. It'll make the clicks-driven editors happy, hahaha.
 
I’m sure that Sciba will never be late for a play again. He’s trained the page and setting records now.
Also cool how Clawson and the specialists talk.......about anything and everything.

That last line is part of what makes Clawson such a great coach. Most of the guys playing football at Wake know that an NFL career is a long shot at best. They have a wider world view because they are going to "turn pro" in something other than football.

The head coach meeting with the specialists also puts an emphasis on how important those guys are in Clawson's view.
 
@CONeil, I really appreciate you posting your Top 25 ballot each week. Can you explain your thinking more on a team like Michigan? In a vacuum, a team with an ok win over a lower tier program, a super shaky, razor-thin OT win, and a blowout loss, doesn’t make for ranked material to me. Seems them being ranked is more a function of voters being anchored by their pre-season top 10 ranking. If rankings didn’t start until after the first three games of the season, I have to believe they wouldn’t be ranked right now. Would love your take - thanks!
 
Thank you, and the rest of yall, for reading and for the kind words!

I'll take however large an audience I can get. It'll make the clicks-driven editors happy, hahaha.

Xmas is coming. Ever think about getting those editors castanets to reinforce their desires?
 
@CONeil, I really appreciate you posting your Top 25 ballot each week. Can you explain your thinking more on a team like Michigan? In a vacuum, a team with an ok win over a lower tier program, a super shaky, razor-thin OT win, and a blowout loss, doesn’t make for ranked material to me. Seems them being ranked is more a function of voters being anchored by their pre-season top 10 ranking. If rankings didn’t start until after the first three games of the season, I have to believe they wouldn’t be ranked right now. Would love your take - thanks!

Oof, it's tricky.

I was just talking to somebody yesterday about the difficulty in deciding when preseason expectations have to be thrown out and body of work has to become the determining factor of rankings. But I think that's something that needs to gradually happen over the first month or so -- otherwise you'd have one week where you just decide that because Alabama has beaten Duke, NM State, South Carolina and Southern Miss. (mediocre difficulty at best), they're not a top-5 team. ... I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I know Alabama is one of the five (really, two) best teams in the country (sorry, Biff).

So, the short answer is: I'm trying to gradually ignore preseason rankings/hype/thoughts. This early in the season, though, I don't think it can be all about body of work.

Also, I'm not going to drop a team astronomically far (15-plus spots) for losing a road game against a team I'm moving into the top 10.
 
Xmas is coming. Ever think about getting those editors castanets to reinforce their desires?

hah, had to Google castanets.

I don't think I'll get emails updating me on progress of those kinds of clicks.
 
Oof, it's tricky.

I was just talking to somebody yesterday about the difficulty in deciding when preseason expectations have to be thrown out and body of work has to become the determining factor of rankings. But I think that's something that needs to gradually happen over the first month or so -- otherwise you'd have one week where you just decide that because Alabama has beaten Duke, NM State, South Carolina and Southern Miss. (mediocre difficulty at best), they're not a top-5 team. ... I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I know Alabama is one of the five (really, two) best teams in the country (sorry, Biff).

So, the short answer is: I'm trying to gradually ignore preseason rankings/hype/thoughts. This early in the season, though, I don't think it can be all about body of work.

Also, I'm not going to drop a team astronomically far (15-plus spots) for losing a road game against a team I'm moving into the top 10.

No apologies necessary. I've got Alabama at #1 and Clemson at #2. I think you dropped Notre Dame a little too far though. Georgia, LSU, and Auburn deserve high rankings because they've actually beaten someone that we perceive to be good at this point. Things will look drastically different in a month, but we still might not know how good Clemson and Ohio State really are.
 
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Oh god, Clemson dominates Texas A&M, and we don't know how good they are, but we know how good Auburn is after Oregon pushed them around for 3.5 quarters and after A&M out-gained Auburn by 100 yards? How many games does Clemson have to win against the SEC (and Notre Dame) before you know good Clemson "really is"?
 
Oh wait ! Auburn dominated A&M for three quarters in College Station !
 
Conor, are there any other teams that you think are flying under the radar now, and will end up in the top 10 or 25?
 
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