Wakeforest22890
Snowpom
True Miami started the year top 25-30 in most metrics I saw
discussing advance metric ratings before, like, week 8 feels silly
discussing advance metric ratings before, like, week 8 feels silly
I listened to the Athletic's CFB podcast this week because the subject was essentially why is the ACC bad? They said it's hard to take the conference seriously outside of Clemson when the other name brands are bad. Sure, the Pac12 doesn't have a Clemson-type team, but does have plenty of ranked teams.
They said they like what Clawson is doing with us and it's a tough job to win here, but who are we kidding, Wake would get destroyed in another conference this year.
I listened to the Athletic's CFB podcast this week because the subject was essentially why is the ACC bad? They said it's hard to take the conference seriously outside of Clemson when the other name brands are bad. Sure, the Pac12 doesn't have a Clemson-type team, but does have plenty of ranked teams.
They said they like what Clawson is doing with us and it's a tough job to win here, but who are we kidding, Wake would get destroyed in another conference this year.
I think it's way too early to say that. Hell, we haven't even had a chance to get destroyed in the ACC yet.
Depends on how good your preseason metrics are over a longer period of time. Also keep in mind that SP+ specifically includes play by play data so the sample size isn't two or three (and is intended as predictive rather than reflective or anything that uses the transitive property).
Pretty sure 2-3 years ago, the same people were saying the ACC Atlantic was the toughest division in football. My how things change.
In that time, 5 programs lost one of the top QBs in their program history (Dungey, Jackson, Finley, Watson, Wolford). FSU has had a lot of drama at QB and BC has been fine with Brown.
Obviously Clemson restocked and Wake seems to be in good shape. The others are struggling.
Finley is one of the best QBs in State history? I mean, I haven't been watching ACC football as long as you, but Rivers, Wilson, and Brissett were all a lot better than Finley.
If you took Clemson out of the ACC, where would you rank it as a conference? I would assume below the American and near the Mountain West, or am I wrong? I cannot remember a conference falling apart so quickly besides one team.
Dan M., Davidson, N.C.
Stewart, If I gave you an over/under of three losses for the ACC team that will play in the Orange Bowl, which way would you go? To put it another way, is anyone in the ACC besides Clemson going to win nine games?
Doug W., Natick, Mass.
It’s been truly astounding to watch the ACC implode to the extent it has. Just three years ago, in 2016, myself and many others declared it the best conference in the country that season. Its teams went 10-4 head-to-head against the SEC and 9-3 in the postseason. Clemson won the national championship, Lamar Jackson won the Heisman, Mitch Trubisky became a No. 2 overall pick, Florida State beat a Top 10 Michigan team in the Orange Bowl and Virginia Tech won 10 games in Justin Fuente’s first season. Things seemed to heading in the right direction.
Three years later, it’s down to Clemson and just one other ranked team — No. 21 Virginia. The much-maligned Pac-12, by contrast, currently has six Top 25 teams.
That Orange Bowl question is interesting. Can I say it will be a push? Because although 10 wins without a conference championship victory is going to be tough, absolutely a couple of teams will go 9-3 if for no other reason than they themselves will be playing a soft schedule. Virginia, still my favorite in the Coastal, is a good bet to be one of them, but watch out for Wake Forest. The 3-0 Deacons have a sneaky-good offense led by QB Jamie Newman, and their next four games are against Elon, Boston College, Louisville and Florida State. I could absolutely see them getting to 7-2 or even 8-1 prior to facing Clemson on Nov. 16.
As for the AAC/Mountain West comparison … top-to-bottom, the ACC would still be stronger because even its worst teams are still better than San Jose State, UNLV, New Mexico, UConn, Tulsa and East Carolina. But if you were just focusing on the better halves – well, put it this way. Mountain West teams are 7-9 against Power 5 non-conference opponents, while AAC teams are 4-10. Remove Clemson’s win against Texas A&M and the ACC is … 1-7.
Not great, Bob.
If true, then what does Wake Forest Athletics do about it? How does WF achieve better attendance from the students, town and region? Folks internally and externally should arrive at some solutions. For example, should the Deacon Club have an inexpensive membership fee? Otherwise, WF will continue to live in this environment more than Rice, Duke or Northwestern. When WF consistently has sell outs of a very small stadium then externally WF will receive more respect.
but watch out for Wake Forest. The 3-0 Deacons have a sneaky-good offense led by QB Jamie Newman, and their next four games are against Elon, Boston College, Louisville and Florida State. I could absolutely see them getting to 7-2 or even 8-1 prior to facing Clemson on Nov. 16.