Wake Football Week 1 - Clemson discussion

A solidarity fist and Black Lives Matter on helmets, chosen by the team, eliminates the entertainment value of your college’s football games?


Yeah, that’s on you.

EatLeadCommie said:

Is it not possible... To take issue with the free advertising that BLM gets from all this, which in turn benefits a certain political party?

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If you’re seeing “black lives matter” in sports, you’re understanding the reasons for the protests (which you seem to) and then find yourself taking offense because you think it is not benefiting your political party...you may want to take a step back and reassess things.

Wakeforest22890 said:

I actually think we’re a little bit worse than we were last year. I think Clemson absolutely tears us apart as they’ve tended to do.

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I agree. We're a lot weaker at WR and it's hard to believe our linebackers and secondary will have improved with the losses of Strnad and Bassey.

Interesting that Clemson can lose a ton of talent, and everyone knows that they will be just as a good, if not better. WF can lose less talent, and the assumption is that WF will be down.

At this point, I believe that Clawson has built the program to the point that when good players leave, there are other good players stepping in. Also believe that players get progressively better each year as the staff develops them. FWIW, I think WF has its best set of DL and LBs since the 2006 to 2008 years when WF had a top 20 defense. Also, think that Sam Hartman will have a better year this year than Jamie Newman had last year. On the down-side, the schedule is a nightmare. Two bad losses in the first 3 games could damage the team psyche, and leave the team physically beaten down.

Clemson can be worse to the same extent Wake could be worse. But Clemson would still be a national championship contender.

Yeah, it's called recruiting.

Clemson lost a lot of talent, but they're going to have at least one guy, maybe two, sitting at the Downtown Athletic Club in December (albeit virtually)

Clemson has scored touchdowns on more than half of their possessions vs. WF in the last two years; if WF plays fast, they'll get half a hundred again.

Love the helmets and the players taking advantage of the opportunity to have their voices heard

Bottom line is that I trust Clawson. He knows a lot more about how to motivate and create a team out of 100 men than I ever will. If he is cool with this, then so am I. I was concerned from the descriptions earlier in the week, or misunderstood, that the fists would replace WF on the helmet. Thought that would have been a mistake since WFU is who the men represent, so glad that is not the case. I am not crazy about closed fists as it implies aggression or open hostility but I don't have a better suggestion, and the fists certainly are an easily identified icon.

Hope Hartman, Greene, Nassir (my favorite Deac), Boogie and everyone else have the game of their lives, and surprise Clemson.

Clemson still owes us one for getting them Dabo

Paul Hogan said:

Yeah, it's called recruiting.

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The final score is going to be impossible to predict. I think Dabo will sit his starters at the half if up four touchdowns or more. Clawson may not be quite so quick to rest his starters, but his history against Clemson is to wisely try to avoid injuries, which makes even more sense this year. The final score will likely be decided by the benchwarmers on both squads.

Surely Clawson will abandon, at least partially, the RPO against Clemson this year, right? Smaller QB with a completely unproven backup, 3 new OL, against one of the elite defensive lines in America. While Hartman will assuredly make quicker RPO reads than Newman, we still had plenty of very slow developing RPOs with Wolford that Clemson will eat alive.

Pilchard said:

Interesting that Clemson can lose a ton of talent, and everyone knows that they will be just as a good, if not better. WF can lose less talent, and the assumption is that WF will be down.

At this point, I believe that Clawson has built the program to the point that when good players leave, there are other good players stepping in. Also believe that players get progressively better each year as the staff develops them. FWIW, I think WF has its best set of DL and LBs since the 2006 to 2008 years when WF had a top 20 defense. Also, think that Sam Hartman will have a better year this year than Jamie Newman had last year. On the down-side, the schedule is a nightmare. Two bad losses in the first 3 games could damage the team psyche, and leave the team physically beaten down.

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I mean, the Deacs have lost four of their last five, so it's not like we're starting from a strong position

52-7 or 45-13 feels right. I think around 60 points with Wake under two touchdowns

WFU1977 said:

Bottom line is that I trust Clawson. He knows a lot more about how to motivate and create a team out of 100 men than I ever will. If he is cool with this, then so am I. I was concerned from the descriptions earlier in the week, or misunderstood, that the fists would replace WF on the helmet. Thought that would have been a mistake since WFU is who the men represent, so glad that is not the case. I am not crazy about closed fists as it implies aggression or open hostility but I don't have a better suggestion, and the fists certainly are an easily identified icon.

Hope Hartman, Greene, Nassir (my favorite Deac), Boogie and everyone else have the game of their lives, and surprise Clemson.

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The players represent themselves as well. It’s not about you as a fan. It’s about them. I read the same articles you read. I can’t imagine being so fearful as to think the fist was going to replace the WF. That’s just a weird overreaction.

The closed fist represents solidarity in opposition to aggression and open hostility against Black people in this country. It’s straightforward.

JuiceCrewAllStar said:

I mean, the Deacs have lost four of their last five, so it's not like we're starting from a strong position

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not to mention Clemson has beaten WF 115-6 over the last two years

they string enough of those together, one year they will take us lightly, I'll grant you that

thatguy2016 said:

not to mention Clemson has beaten WF 115-6 over the last two years

they string enough of those together, one year they will take us lightly, I'll grant you that

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Those last two awful losses to Clemson were in far different situations. Two years ago, the defense was completely depleted and WF was playing walk-ons at LB and S; Clemson averaged over 10 ypc in that game. Last year, WF was coming off the VT loss, and was again banged up (no Sage, no Scotty, Greene made his first appearance). After the VT loss, WF had a must win game against Duke on deck. Clawson played that game to just get it over with. I think tomorrow's game will be closer to the 2017 game (28-14) or 2016 game (35-13) when Clemson was still loaded, but WF competed.

Clemson only returns 1 OL starter, and the is missing most of the top players off their defense. Again, not claiming that WF is going to hang in and win, just that this isn't the mismatch the 2018 and 2019 games were.

This season basically comes down to how good the guys stepping up at CB, OL, and WR are able to play.

Ja'Sir Taylor is basically a known quantity, and I don't think he is a huge step down from Bassey/Henderson. CB2 is probably the biggest ? on the team, and if neither of Essissima or Woulard can be serviceable it really limits the ceiling of the defense. I think if we can get even mediocre CB play that this will be a really good defense, with the best DL in years, experienced safeties, and capable LBs in Smenda, Williams and Redd.

On offense, WR obviously lost a ton, but has plenty of young guys that seem capable of stepping up in Greene, Perry, Groulx and Morin. We've been spoiled at this position with the ability to rely heavily on elite players Dortch and Surratt, but I don't think we necessarily require that level of player to have a good pass game in our offense. And I think the demise of the OL is being overstated by some. The starters include 3 R-Jrs and a R-Sr that have all played a lot of football. Tom will be just as good of an OT this year as Herron was, I don't think Nash is much of a step down from Benzinger on the other side, and Nya/Maginn have played enough football to be stable at OG. The only real questions there are how good Jurgens is and how big of a step down would it be if any of the 5 starters got injured.

There's probably more overall question marks going into this season than last, when the primary ?'s going in were DL outside of Boogie and S, but I think it's reasonable to think that this year's team is capable of playing at around the same level as last year, with the record not necessarily reflecting that due to the changes in how the schedule looks. I also don't think any part of this evaluation of the team changes in the Clemson game unless it is actually competitive. Losing 63-6 or whatever changes nothing for me as my current evaluation of the team already places the ceiling well below being competitive with Clemson.

tigerswood said:

Surely Clawson will abandon, at least partially, the RPO against Clemson this year, right? Smaller QB with a completely unproven backup, 3 new OL, against one of the elite defensive lines in America. While Hartman will assuredly make quicker RPO reads than Newman, we still had plenty of very slow developing RPOs with Wolford that Clemson will eat alive.

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Who are the three new OL? Nash, Tom, Maginn, and Nya have all been in the program 4 or 5 years and have played a good amount of football at Wake.

deacon14 said:

also don't think any part of this evaluation of the team changes in the Clemson game unless it is actually competitive. Losing 63-6 or whatever changes nothing for me as my current evaluation of the team already places the ceiling well below being competitive with Clemson.

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Yup.