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Pinstripe Bowl vs Michigan State

Hard to win vs a top 10 team when we play only one, or sometimes two a season.

In a case like South Carolina where you play a volume of top 10 teams, it's easier to luck into a win just because of sheer probabilities.
 
Grobe went 0-12 vs. top 10 teams including 4 3-point losses:

'04 vs. FSU
'09 at GT
'11 at Clemson
'13 at Miami


Clawson is 0-9 vs. top 10 teams

If, as of the '13 loss at Miami, WF was 1-53 vs. the top 10, we're now 1-63


All excruciating losses. From most to least painful I'd say Clemson, GT, Miami.
 
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Hard to win vs a top 10 team when we play only one, or sometimes two a season.

In a case like South Carolina where you play a volume of top 10 teams, it's easier to luck into a win just because of sheer probabilities.
 
That GT one was rough. IIRC kicked a FG in OT then they had 4th and 1, sent the FG team out, called TO then snuck it for the first or maybe TD.

Also remember Rinfrette getting crushed in pass pro on a key 3rd down when we were driving to win it. Ugh.
 
That GT one was rough. IIRC kicked a FG in OT then they had 4th and 1, sent the FG team out, called TO then snuck it for the first or maybe TD.

Also remember Rinfrette getting crushed in pass pro on a key 3rd down when we were driving to win it. Ugh.

yeah, I sat there hoping they would kick the fg knowing our defense, which had played its asses off, was tired

that game also featured the lowest flyover (and thus most awesome) I have ever witnessed in person - so low the pilot was permanently grounded, forever, from flying again

oh, and at every stoppage of play, the PA blasted "All the Way Turnt Up" and it was awful
 
Then we need to get significantly lower admission standards and hope that ND is a top 5 team.

Wake should continue to be on the cusp of bowl eligibility as long as it runs a high octane offense. But that really isn’t difficult in today’s college football world, especially with scholarship limitations. But we will never have the personnel to line up and beat the big boys. Best we can hope for is an upset every decade.
Clawson has a shot against anybody with a month to prepare. Clawson wins bowl games.
 
Yeah it’s “bad luck” to some degree just based on sample size. I mean if you have a 5 percent chance to win any individual top 5 game (maybe generous) it’s not unheard of to have 40 games without a win but certainly doesn’t seem more likely than not.
Different sport, but similar enough of a comparison:
Clemson basketball hasn't won in Chapel Hell in 70 forever years. And many of those Tarhole teams have had high rankings, if not top five, over the years.

Statistical probability says they have little reason to have not won at least one or two by now.
Sometimes sports just simply defy all logic and math. Much to our chagrin.
 
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He hasn't beaten anything close to a Top 10 team in a bowl game.

Maybe someday.

He also hasn't played any team close to a top 10 in a bowl game, either. UNDEFEATED vs Top 10 in bowl games!
 
All excruciating losses. From most to least painful I'd say Clemson, GT, Miami.

Well, yeah, the 2011 FB game at Clemson is an all-time epic WF fail. Running a close second to the 2006 home game against Clemson.

Both times: Field Goal disasters.

Grobe always had us believing we could compete and win, whether we did or not - unlike the Caldwell years where we knew we had NO CHANCE several years. But some of Grobe/Lobo/our close calls (mostly losses) were just absolutely incredible.
 
The GT game is all on Grobe. The last play we were in our base defense, with 230 lbs LBs covering 320 lbs Gs. It was a disaster.
 
But some of Grobe/Lobo/our close calls (mostly losses) were just absolutely incredible.


Surprised the Purdue loss at Groves (circa 2003/4/5??) hasn't been mentioned. Loved what Grobe did for Wake but that game was truly ripping defeat from the jaws of victory. I recall a Purdue defensive player said after the game that the entire defense knew the play we were going to run.
 
I don’t think Purdue was ranked top 10.
 
In 2003, when WF lost to Purdue 16-10 (the questionable play call on 4th down game, Purdue was a top 10 team at one point during that season (Week 8)), but Purdue was not ranked when they played WF. WF was ranked #20 going into that game. Purdue opened the 2003 season ranked #16, but lost to Bowling Green in the opener falling out of the polls. After beating WF in Week 2, Purdue climbed back into the polls, and steadily climbed as they won 6 straight including wins over WF, Penn State, Wisconsin and ND. That Purdue team finished the year losing to UGA 34-27 in the Capital One Bowl. They finished the year ranked #18.

Purdue's QB was future NFL bench-warmer Kyle Orton. Purdue had two stud receivers: John Standeford and Taylor Stubblefield (who later coached at WF and is now on the Canes staff).
 
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Grobe going insanely conservative and refusing to attempt forward passes late in games will always stick in my craw. Probably for eternity.

Did so many good things to put us in position to win games and pull upsets, but then got scared at the most important times over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and it turned so many Ws into Ls
 
Grobe going insanely conservative and refusing to attempt forward passes late in games will always stick in my craw. Probably for eternity.

Did so many good things to put us in position to win games and pull upsets, but then got scared at the most important times over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and it turned so many Ws into Ls

I get what you're saying

but that is not what he did in the loss at Clemson (WF goes up 28-14; Clemson answers, WF, leading 28-21; here is the next drive)

W 1-10 W32 WAKE FOREST drive start at 01:15.
W 1-10 W32 Price, T pass complete to Campanaro, M for 3 yards to the WF35 (JENKINS).
W 2-7 W35 Pendergrass, B rush for 6 yards to the WF41 (BREWER).
W 3-1 W41 Price, T pass complete to Campanaro, M for 2 yards to the WF43, 1ST DOWN
WF (JENKINS).

====END OF 3rd QUARTER====
WAKE FOREST 28, CLEMSON 21
==========================

Play-by-Play Summary (4th quarter)
W 1-10 W43 Start of 4th quarter, clock 15:00.
W 1-10 W43 Price, T pass complete to Givens, C for 9 yards to the CU48.
W 2-1 C48 Price, T rush for loss of 1 yard to the CU49, fumble by Price, T recovered
by WF Price, T at CU49.
W 3-2 C49 Price, T rush for 2 yards to the CU47, 1ST DOWN WF (GOODMAN).
W 1-10 C47 Price, T pass complete to Campanaro, M for loss of 1 yard to the CU48
(BREELAND).
W 2-11 C48 Price, T pass complete to Dembry, D for 5 yards to the CU43.
W 3-6 C43 Price, T pass incomplete to Campanaro, M.
W 4-6 C43 Wulfeck, A punt 40 yards to the CU3, downed.

or really the loss at GT (as someone stated, the key play was Rinfrette getting trucked and yielding a sack)
 
Two examples out of many, many, many. He was worse about it earlier in his tenure than later.

We employed the same strategy in 2006 really, but the ACC QBs were so bad that they couldn't pull off final drives against our prevent defense
 
In 2006, it also helped the WF defense was loaded.
 
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