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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 .
06 was defintely a shocker for every Wake fan alive. But I do recall a decent amount of optimism that we could at least have a winning record going into that fall. Hence why the Mauk injury seemed so devastating and augmented our collective belief that we as a fanbase are cursed.

There is no such optimism heading into this season. Love to be wrong. But there's no spark. More like a pall. Nikita, Camp, and that well-made commercial are about all that excite me at present.

After our [Redacted] experience, this fanbase is ready to explode. Just give us something, anything to be excited about again. The bar is pretty low for most of us given how desperate we are for something positive to happen.
 
We were 4-7 in 2005 though, so I don't think it it's a far cry from fan expectations entering that year. Only difference is there's so much more negativity toward basketball and Wellman that it's seeped over.

And also we were 3-9 in 2010 and almost won the division in 2011, so who really knows.

I do think there's a lot of veteran talent on this team and we could be 8 win good. But I don't blame fans for being pessimistic.

And TBF there are significantly more votes for making a bowl than not on the poll so maybe there is still some optimism out there
 
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]Originally Posted by PhDeac
Grobe's success from 2006-08 was primarily due to players who committed between Dec 2002 (Jon Abbate, Steve Justice, Kevin Marion, Kenny Moore - 2003 class) and late Jan/early Feb 2005 (John Russell, Riley Skinner, Boo Robinson - 2005 class). That's a 26 month period that ended over 8 years ago. Recruiting since then has been flat.

Think about that for a second. Grobe was recruiting based on the promise of going to the Seattle Bowl in 2002. BB&T Field was still Groves.
]Most importantly, it was eons ago in terms of recruiting. YouTube went on line Feb 14, 2005. All of a sudden, it wasn't up to some guy from Scout or Rivals to find videos of a prospect and make them available in a crappy format behind a premium subscription. Players and their family/handlers could upload videos themselves and coaches could just scan the internet for clips of players to help fill out their classes. The odds of a player like Aaron Curry only have offers from ECU and Wake two weeks before signing day or a Boo Robinson being signed at the last minute are much lower now than they were pre-YouTube.

The bold is dead on. Our staff can't just bank on under the radar kids when the radar has gotten much larger.
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I am very appreciate that you shared this information with me, and now I can logically understand why our recruiting classes over the last few years have been terrible. I currently live near Philly and thus I am not privy to a lot of the inner workings of the Program. I base my theories on WFU Football only from what I see during the games. However, now that it is more difficult to find "hidden talent" I find it very disturbing that this staff has been unable to find a new method when they have had 7-8 years from the change in recruiting tactics. Again, this is one more example of Grobe's inability to adapt to a new situation.

For example, when Jim Harbaugh was at Stanford he had a plan, and recruited a ton of QBs, MLBs, and FBs every year. Also, he focused on players who were very big, physical, and tough. Seriously, he normally had over 10 QBs every year, and would covert them to either DBs because they understood coverage schemes from playing QB in High School, or WRs because they knew the routes. Also, he converted roughly 10 FBs and MLBs into either RBs or TEs; hence, this is why they had depth at with RB as well as the fact that they were big physical runners. Then, he used formations with 2 or 3 TEs sets. Finally, he X Factor was that his players were not just smart, but physically tough as well. Harbaugh understood he could not compete against USC and Oregon in recruiting, and was already handicapped with the higher academic standards. Therefore, he formed a unique strategy that is explained above, and executed with great results.
 
wsc8521s said:
It was a magical year. If Chip Vaughan doesn't block that FG vs. Duke -- which looked to be clearly heading in -- it could've been completely different
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How the hell can you tell if a FG is clearly heading in when it travels all of eight yards? (And it was a horrible kick - flat as a pancake.)

And leave it to Wake fans to downplay and qualify its only football championship in 42 years. Self-loathing is awesome. Y'all must be a hell of a lot of fun at parties.
 
Ok, so let's say Vaughan doesn't block it, and the kicker for an 0-12 team shanks a 28 yard FG that would've given them the win ((just watched the replay again and it was going in, but I'll play along). Is that any less lucky?

I think the luck that we had along the way ADDED to the title, not detracted from it ... that's what you said. It shows the amount of obstacles we had to overcome to win a truly remarkable title. But my point is we can't expect that moving forward under Grobe.

And that's how this part of the argument got started, with doofus getting upset about people saying we shouldn't expect ACC titles moving forward. If you want to join him on his side, feel free. That argument needs help
 
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VaDeac, It would have went through the uprights, because for 90+ years, those kicks always went through. Check out the Clemson game from that year and you'll get a taste of what it was like for us since the move to W-S in '56. Our '06 was like Northwestern's '95 season, they occur with the comet passing by.
 
I wouldn't say it's lucky that Chip blocked a field goal to win the game. That's our players making a play. Lucky is when you have no control over the situation and it happens to work out in your favor. Like 2 years ago when Alabama watched Ok. State shank a field goal in their only loss of the season to pave the way for Bama to get back into and win the title game.

If you think that a player making a play in a big time scenario is luck, then you just compromised the entire history of sports.
 
Fine. Let's go with "small margins" instead of "luck"
 
bobknightfan said:
"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
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"Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown" means "you can't change things, it's the way things are and the way they will be, regardless of how much you tilt at windmills." The line is about the futility of fighting injustices and darkness in the world. It's about giving up and looking away, because nothing can be done anyway lest you become another casualty of injustice.

Chinatown is the world. Jake is everyone. Forgetting about it is what we all do anyway, and so what we may as well keep doing. That's the true message, I feel (not that I agree, just stating what the film's "message" is there).
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Interesting.
 
Demonwolverine said:
I wouldn't say it's lucky that Chip blocked a field goal to win the game. That's our players making a play. Lucky is when you have no control over the situation and it happens to work out in your favor. Like 2 years ago when Alabama watched Ok. State shank a field goal in their only loss of the season to pave the way for Bama to get back into and win the title game.

If you think that a player making a play in a big time scenario is luck, then you just compromised the entire history of sports.
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Great post. 2006 was about great college players making great plays within a system that fit them. People who defend Grobe by calling it luck that we shouldn't expect again have it wrong.
 
@bobknightfan I would agree that a new young hotshot coach won't change the dynamics much. It couldn't hurt, but the problem goes deeper. As I stated on another post, even firing Wellman won't solve things if TPTB just hire a Wellman clone to replace him. It may be that Wake Forest as an institution is not that interested in winning at sports, but somehow enjoys the futility of participating in them at a level they can never really compete. That is tragic.
 
I think a huge opportunity was lost after the Orange Bowl. I had hoped we'd see an upgrade in recruits.
 
BobStackFan4Life said:
I think a huge opportunity was lost after the Orange Bowl. I had hoped we'd see an upgrade in recruits.
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mebanedeac said:
That is reasonable and puzzling as why it didn't happen to a greater extent.
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The Seattle Bowl netted us fantastic recruits.

The Orange Bowl netted us worse players than the Seattle Bowl team.
 
The '07 class had 6 committs before the season started, 7 after the OB. There aren't many kids who grow up wanting to be Deacons. How many classmates at Wake do you know, who had us as their first choice of schools. Wake has a rep as being the Switzerland of the ACC, "Oh yeah, those guys". The '09 class was the first after the OB to be solid from top to bottom according to the HS scouting services. They were getting into HS when Wake had their big year. What the players became is another story. DJ Jones, Dom Tate and Muncy didn't make it. Gallagher and Rucker were medically unable to play. Wulfeck,Newman,Lowe and Cross said 4 yrs were enough. Bolling...nuff said. Nikita,Olsen,JJ, Redding, Zach, Souza, Camp,Barnes and Mack are the backbone of this team. Can they lead this team? That's the question.
 
By comparison the 2003 post-Seattle bowl class had 5 commits before the season started (inc. Tucker, Terenshinki, and Mauk) and 9 after the game (inc. Bryant, Andrews, Robinson, and Stukes).

The 2004 and 2005 classes weren't all that great according to the services but they were the backbone of our best stretch ever. So then what was the difference between recruiting the 2004/05 classes and the 2008/09 classes?
 
I see Ph is doing his going too far with one variable thing again
 
bobknightfan said:
Our 2006 season wasn't "luck"....as you correctly said. However, it is highly unlikely that we will ever be able to repeat such a set of circumstances and/or have such group of complimentary great players together at the same time to take advantage of those circumstances......no matter who is our coach. And totally impossible that we could ever do it on any kind of a regular basis. As I said, this is "Chinatown". There are certain facts that you simply cannot change. You can rail about people being "LOWF" until the cows come home, but that doesn't change the facts. If you or anyone else on this board thinks that those facts don't matter and that all we have to do is get a young, hotshot coach and all of a sudden we will be right there in the mix with Alabama, Florida, Ohio State & USC, etc., you are stone-cold crazy.
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So, why pay the guy $2 million dollars, then? I'm sure that Grobe has had more than his share of Moonz dinners on that salary.
 
BamaDeac said:
However, now that it is more difficult to find "hidden talent" I find it very disturbing that this staff has been unable to find a new method when they have had 7-8 years from the change in recruiting tactics. Again, this is one more example of Grobe's inability to adapt to a new situation.
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This is another conversation that we're not allowed to have on here, and I agree with you completely.
 
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