Define "big boy." It's not like we play many all that often, though it's an ever shifting thing who is one. I mean FSU won a title six years ago yet we just beat them in a game that wasn't really an upset.
Seems an odd post in a year where we have a very good shot at at least nine wins
9 wins meant a lot more when teams played 11 games. It means less now, as does bowl eligibility in an era of unlimited bowls obviously.
FSU isn’t a big boy at the moment. Hasn’t been in a while. Right now the only big boy in the conference is Clemson, so that is our only game to make potential waves. Big boy schools are the ones who consistently recruit in the top ten and play to that level. They get upset occasionally.
Ph mentions Utah, UCF, and Boise state as schools who have managed to build off big wins. Utah is the only P5 school in the bunch, becoming one in no small part due to the Alabama win. They also are hardly a powerhouse and have lost at least 5 games 5 of their 8 years in the PAC 12. UCF went winless a few years after going unbeaten and winning the fiesta bowl, but they seem to have carved out a niche of recruiting 3 star Florida castoffs into a huge non P5 school. BSU has had prolonged success which predates the fiesta bowl win over OU, and they’ve managed to ride that train again in a non P5 conference.
Wake is a school that focuses on academics, can’t fill its puny stadium even when good, and plays against P5 competition that recruits at a higher level than what BSU and UCF have to face. Even if we were to destroy Clemson this year, there would be no program momentum from that and nowhere to go but down. At this point, we can expect bowl games to happen more often than not because it only requires winning 3 non conference games and 3 conference games in a shitty conference. In many years, we will be 2-1 in non conference play, but 4 conference wins is very doable depending on the schedule.
I’m happy we are going bowling again, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We are a top 40 team with the ability to play like a top 20 team. Most years we will be a top 50-60 team, sometimes we will be horrific, and once in a blue moon we may find ourselves actually finishing in the 15-20 range. We can be a good program more often than not, but 10 win seasons will never become the norm unless we start playing 18 game schedules with Elon, HPU, and Davidson.