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Drop Vandy Series

PhDeac said:
Wake could lose to ANY team with an effort like we saw today. The idea that the schedule is too tough because the team started and finished poorly against Cuse and Vandy, two of the worst major conference programs over the last decade is just sad.

The real story is we had a middle of the road schedule this season. Lots of beatable teams.
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Their past history is irrelevent. They both were much improved this year. And to say we had a middle of the road schedule this season is definitely 20/20 hindsight. Because our schedule was anything but middle of the road when you looked at it before the season began.
 
Every other team that finished 5-3 in the conference, finished with an 8-4 record. That is, all of them finished with a 3-1 OOC record. Why? I submit the following to you:

UVA's OOC: William and Mary, Indiana, Southern Miss, Idaho
GaTech's OOC: Western Carolina, Middle Tennessee, Kansas, Georgia
FSU's OOC: Louisiana Monroe, Charleston Southern, Oklahoma, Florida

In all cases, to go 3-1, they beat multiple cream puffs (UVA and GaTech had 3; FSU had 2), and then at least for FSU and GaTech they each played ONE team that would make national headlines were they to pull off the upset.

Meanwhile, Wake only played one cream puff, and the rest were at least mid-level BCS caliber teams (Syracuse and Notre Dame both went to a bowl last year, Vandy is a .500 team in the SEC).

Honestly, this supports the earlier claims. We are going to get screwed by the conference in bowl pecking order either way. May as well at least qualify to go to a bowl by playing 1) THREE teams we KNOW we can beat, and 2) ONE team that would make national headlines if we beat them (i.e. Notre Dame caliber).
 
When we signed the Vandy series, we expected that we would improve and they would suck. Same with the Syracuse series. Two teams that are usually at the bottom of their conference (which Syracuse ended up being) improved since we signed with them. Still should be able to beat both, but these were not the cupcakes we thought they would be when we signed them.

I agree Franklin will bolt. Young coach like that is not thinking of Vandy as a career position whereas Grobe is at a much different point in his career. Vandy and Wake are similar, but I'd argue its easier to win at Wake than Vandy because the ACC is average and the SEC is clearly pretty good.
 
campjl00 said:
UVA's OOC: William and Mary, Indiana, Southern Miss, Idaho
GaTech's OOC: Western Carolina, Middle Tennessee, Kansas, Georgia
FSU's OOC: Louisiana Monroe, Charleston Southern, Oklahoma, Florida
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Indiana and Kansas are both comparable to Vandy and Syracuse. Both Vandy and Syracuse are having better years but five years ago scheduling either of them or Indiana and Kansas would have appeared a wash.

The difference is that we got Notre Dame on the schedule which takes away a non automatic qualifier conference team. Tech knows that every year they have UGA, same with FSU and Florida. So they can plan a little easier than we can.

I don't think anyone was going to turn down Notre Dame this year because we already had a Big East and SEC team (that historically suck) on the calendar. The problem with Vandy is the date on the calendar (when it's a home game), not the team.
 
Haven't we played four games in this nine game series and won three of them?
 
keeper said:
Haven't we played four games in this nine game series and won three of them?
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This is beside the point. It is fucking stupid to schedule any mid level BCS team at home Thanksgiving weekend. Stupid! I am never coming - ever. 3 hours away - never. It is fucking stupid, and our motivation and the crowd yesterday proved it.
 
I was somewhere that didn't have ESPNU yesterday, and unlike 99% of weeks where I'd find a sports bar that did, I had no inclination to watch it yesterday. It was a completely meaningless game against a ho-hum opponent and I found I didn't really care, very new territory for me. The same can be said for 3 of the 4 years we've played them over Thanksgiving weekend now, that I'd watch if I could but ultimately didn't care about the matchup enough to go out of my way to watch.

As to how to solve the final week scheduling problem, I'm not sure if there's a better solution. Having a conference home game that weekend would be a competitive disadvantage. Another non-conference cupcake has the same issue with lack of coverage and lack of interest. The people clamoring for a CUSA or MAC team have to be willing to play half the time on the road against those teams as well due to athletic department budgetary concerns that affect scheduling. Imagine losing at Middle Tennessee or Northern Illinois this weekend one year. The board would implode.

So I don't have a great solution to it, I'm just ackowledging that this Vandy series sucks.

As does 1-3 non-conference with wins over GW, losses to Cuse (1-5 BE), Vandy (2-6 SEC), and ND.
 
CaptainAwesome said:
this. they dont have any rival to play the last weekend and it would definitely generate some excitement. and if we can consistently beat them they will begin to hate us
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They would have a home field advantage every year.
 
jamesda3 said:
that is not necessarily true. The students do not make that big of difference. What % of students actually come?
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Fans in general. Our alums may live locally, but their family is from all over. If our alums are from the same locals as the students and love and work in Winston, Raleigh, Charlotte, etc., their families may be from Texas, NJ, FL, etc.
 
Always play an away game Thanksgiving weekend, ideally OOC. That's what needs to happen.
 
Steels said:
Always play an away game Thanksgiving weekend, ideally OOC. That's what needs to happen.
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Doesn't really make sense though because let's say that had happened this year. Would you rather have had 6 home games and a road game at Vandy, or 7 home games with one of them being Vandy where you may only have 15k people? I'd still rather be at home in front of 15k than have to go to Nashville, or anywhere.
 
Steels said:
Always play an away game Thanksgiving weekend, ideally OOC. That's what needs to happen.
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Well, if we keep the Vandy series beyond the current set of games, then it will be at least every other year. Going to be difficult to get an away game every year.
 
Terrible series to end the season & should never have been put in place unless we play them in Sept. We should be ending our season EVERY year against NC State in a normal rivalry game. Most other in state schools do it whether it is conference or not. Why shouldn't we? { VT-UVa, GT-UGa, Bama-Auburn, Clemson-USC, FSU-FL, Oregon-OSU, USC-UCLA }
 
wake did play northern illinois this weekend back in 2001...make up date from the lost weekend after 9/11. there was no atmosphere, very cold and the deacs lost. horrible idea. just play vandy and take care of business.
 
tvcigar said:
wake did play northern illinois this weekend back in 2001...make up date from the lost weekend after 9/11. there was no atmosphere, very cold and the deacs lost. horrible idea. just play vandy and take care of business.
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We won that game by 3.
 
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