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Does Wake Forest make a bowl game in 2013-2014?

Does Wake go bowling this year

  • Total voters
    284
  • Poll closed .
I just don't buy DeacBama's assertion that we go 2-2 against Presbyterian, BC, ULM, and Army. If we do, you might as well throw your season tickets in the garbage can because this season will be a total waste of time. To say we have no chance against Syracuse and Duke is just silly. These are bad teams.

The following games are all basically pick 'em as far as I'm concerned: at BC, NCST, Maryland, at Syracuse, Duke. That's five games that will make or break the season. Five games where the opponent looks at us and says if we lose that game to Wake, we're screwed.

Still I'm not very optimistic. 8 wins is the absolute best we will do. 5-6 seems most likely. 3 is possible.
 
2-2 against the first four is reasonable to expect. I doubt we beat ULM - they are very solid. Army is improved over last season and we barely beat them a year ago. Plus it's a road game and there will only be about 15,000 people there so we will have no emotion. BC could go either way as usual. We have struggled to beat some of their worst teams.
 
I fully expect that our defense will keep us in games. Everything depends on the offense. Can we score? Can we execute long, time consuming drives? Can we pick up 3rd downs (which we could not do last season)? If we are truly changing our scheme, no one knows how well we will execute. If we go option, turnovers are a huge issue. No one really knows. This maybe the most difficult season to predict since early in Grobe's tenure at Wake. The one thing that should be predictable is that our defense will be smarter, quicker and better tacklers. If those things aren't true, we can forget being successful.
 
What is our new offensive philosophy? Will it work with the personnel we have? These, and the questions that are posted by everybody else, haven't been answered, and might not be til october or november.
 
mebanedeac said:
I fully expect that our defense will keep us in games. Everything depends on the offense. Can we score? Can we execute long, time consuming drives? Can we pick up 3rd downs (which we could not do last season)? If we are truly changing our scheme, no one knows how well we will execute. If we go option, turnovers are a huge issue. No one really knows. This maybe the most difficult season to predict since early in Grobe's tenure at Wake. The one thing that should be predictable is that our defense will be smarter, quicker and better tacklers. If those things aren't true, we can forget being successful.
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Why? Returning starters from a unit that gave up 31.8 ppg last year and only held 4 opponents under 27 points despite having the #25 turnover margin in the country?
 
PhDeac said:
Why? Returning starters from a unit that gave up 31.8 ppg last year and only held 4 opponents under 27 points despite having the #25 turnover margin in the country?
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I'm as pessimistic as anyone about this season but you have to be hopeful for healthy, motivated seasons from Nikita and Bud Noel.. if we get that our defense will be improved.
 
It's not like our defense good in 2011 either.
 
We should be deeper and quicker, especially at linebacker. I think our defensive backs will make better reads. However, my biggest concern on defense will be whether we can substantially improve our tackling.
 
We're not going to improve our tackling if our D-Line can't slow down runners out of the backfield. And they can't.
 
Either way, the D-Line is expected to clog up some portion of the line of scrimmage. That's not happening.
 
We fail to wrap up a lot. Often we just throw a shoulder, and the RB bounces and keeps going. Not disputing the DL factor, but we need to be more fundamental in our tackling.
 
awaken said:
We fail to wrap up a lot. Often we just throw a shoulder, and the RB bounces and keeps going. Not disputing the DL factor, but we need to be more fundamental in our tackling.
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I agree. We need to hit harder and wrap up. And the D-linemen, especially those not named Whitlock, must be a much greater factor.
 
Football is at its essence about blocking and tackling. It sounds obvious, but bears re-stating once in a while. We do neither of these well, btw. We used to block well when we cut block, but we don't do that any more.
 
Past performance is the best predictor of future performance. I don't know why some folks look at a porous defense in past couple of seasons and suddenly expect it to be ACC caliber. Is it because you expect the offense to be so bad that the poor defense begins looking competent? This program has been extremely soft since the end of the 2008 season, and I see no reason at all for optimism except that some believe in the concept of blind faith and that their beliefs will "make a difference".
 
Lohengrin said:
Past performance is the best predictor of future performance. I don't know why some folks look at a porous defense in past couple of seasons and suddenly expect it to be ACC caliber. Is it because you expect the offense to be so bad that the poor defense begins looking competent? This program has been extremely soft since the end of the 2008 season, and I see no reason at all for optimism except that some believe in the concept of blind faith and that their beliefs will "make a difference".
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So we should have expected the results of 2006 based upon the performances in 2004 and 2005?
 
No, it was totally unexpected. Anyone predicting that beforehand wasn't being rational. And it can be argued that if Mauk hadn't been injured, we wouldn't have had that season. Predicting isn't the same thing as it actually happening. The fact that sometimes programs surprise doesn't mean it's then always valid to predict surprises. I would be shocked -- pleased but shocked -- if this team won 7 or 8 games. It's possible, but not likely. Not from what I've observed.
 
HeavyPetter said:
Either way, the D-Line is expected to clog up some portion of the line of scrimmage. That's not happening.
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Because we have a 250 lb NG. I love Nikita but this whole defense is a giant clusterfuck. Any sort of power running attack just runs us over.
 
Lohengrin said:
No, it was totally unexpected. Anyone predicting that beforehand wasn't being rational. And it can be argued that if Mauk hadn't been injured, we wouldn't have had that season. Predicting isn't the same thing as it actually happening. The fact that sometimes programs surprise doesn't mean it's then always valid to predict surprises. I would be shocked -- pleased but shocked -- if this team won 7 or 8 games. It's possible, but not likely. Not from what I've observed.
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I agree; but, it is good to be optimistic at some point. Once the season begins optimism is usually much more difficult to come by.
 
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