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How do you get Wake to win 2018 National Championship?

I would like to hear some real answers as to how Wake Forest could position itself to contend for BCS games every year though.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
I would like to hear some real answers as to how Wake Forest could position itself to contend for BCS games every year though.
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I think that fb success at WF is most feasible with a wide-open Mackovic type offense coupled with a tough hard-hitting defense. Winning football is normally about controlling the line of scrimmage and the clock. However recruiting the horses necessary for that type offense is too difficult. It is easier to recruit skilled offensive players if you are geared to score a lot and score quickly.
 
It would involve one hell of a lot of luck.

To the extent that you create your own luck... I would put your best athletes on the defensive side of the ball - that's the approach that VT took as they rose to national prominence in the late 90's and early '00s. Offensively I think you can overcome an athleticism deficit more readily by making yourself difficult to prepare for schematically and by flawless execution of your philosophy. I really question Wake's approach of changing offensive philosophies every so often to fit your personnel. I would rather us pick an offensive identity and recruit to it - that way you build a brand and your players know what they're preparing for immediately.

Finally, I would recruit the hell out of the kicker position. I want to have an elite kicker at all times. There are a lot of bad kickers in college football, and we saw with Swank just how meaningful a top kicker can be.

Since so many, myself included, see a natty at Wake as a pipe dream, I'd say that my answer would be the same if the question had been to build an ACC Champ by 2018, or a perineal bowl team, or the other program goals we bat around every so often.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
I would like to hear some real answers as to how Wake Forest could position itself to contend for BCS games every year though.
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Recruiting violations up the wazoo. That's really the only way we could.
 
I'll expand on some of the stuff VaDeac said. I'd run a specific style of offense and practice the hell out of it. Include misdirection, but only run out of a few sets and make sure the defense doesn't know which of the few plays we run and execute to perfection that they're going to see. No switching offensive philosophies game to game.

Recruit a kicker and punter every year until we get THE GUY.

Over recruit on defense.

Develop a data-driven recruiting strategy to predict where the hidden gems are going to be. There is a ton of data out there about their recruits and their outcomes. There's good talent that signs late and has few offers and there are good players who only have non-BCS offers and would probably be more likely to consider Wake. Develop a model that shows what areas of the country aren't being recruited heavily and predict the new hot area before other programs start to figure it out. Find the next Pahokee and establish roots.
 
PhDeac said:
Develop a data-driven recruiting strategy to predict where the hidden gems are going to be. There is a ton of data out there about their recruits and their outcomes. There's good talent that signs late and has few offers and there are good players who only have non-BCS offers and would probably be more likely to consider Wake. Develop a model that shows what areas of the country aren't being recruited heavily and predict the new hot area before other programs start to figure it out. Find the next Pahokee and establish roots.
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As a sabermetrics admirer, I like this. And of course this progressive approach seems right up Jim Grobe's alley.
 
I also think you'd have to begin over-recruiting and taking away scholarships when it's apparent that kids aren't going to contribute.
 
CumberlandDeac said:
I also think you'd have to begin over-recruiting and taking away scholarships when it's apparent that kids aren't going to contribute.
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At least at punter/kicker.
 
I also agree with Ph's post on sabremetrics. Additionally, we should do things that research shows you should do such as going for it almost all of the time on 4th down. I forget exactly what the study showed, but I would mirror that and give ourselves a strategic edge that other teams have yet to incorporate. It would probably be successful, and other teams would mimic it, but in the meantime it would give us an edge/help us win/help us build up recruiting.
 
Whatever we do, we have to be ahead of the game in order to maintain an advantage.
 
Fire [Redacted] and Wellman in grand ceremony with cannons and fireworks and strippers and locking both of them in a dunk tank followed by a public tarring and feathering. Nothing would unite and fire up the students, alumni, and fanbase more. It would be like Rudy combined with We Are Marshall combined with the Fifth Quarter. Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose.
 
Putting all or our athletes on the defensive side of the ball would be the best way to consistently be within striking distance. That's when we use our elite kicker/punter to play the field position game.

Basically what we did from '06-'08 but with hopefully a better and more consistent offense. Misdirection, discipline and recruiting the OL to a T would be the best way to compete on offense.
 
Yep. I don't remember why we overrecruited defense in the FRESH DEACS class and I really don't know why Grobe hasn't tried that strategy again. By overrecruiting, we were able to brush off players who left or didn't pan out and still had enough depth.

We tried to overrecruit the OL in the class after the FRESH DEACS and failed miserably.
 
PhDeac said:
Yep. I don't remember why we overrecruited defense in the FRESH DEACS class and I really don't know why Grobe hasn't tried that strategy again. By overrecruiting, we were able to brush off players who left or didn't pan out and still had enough depth.

We tried to overrecruit the OL in the class after the FRESH DEACS and failed miserably.
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Stockpiling on D seems to be the best move for us I agree.

I think for OL recruiting we need to stick to a strategy that works. We keep recruiting big, small, big small in alternating years and that kills us when we switch offenses because we have recruited to a different system.
 
As far as scheduling, the first 3 years I would be scheduling 1 FCS teams and 3 other cupcakes in my out of conference schedule (preferably 2 of those 3 cupcakes would be home games). I'd use scheduling to manipulate the system, establish Wake as a bowl team. Also, with an artificially inflated schedule, writers/coaches would be more likely to vote us into the top 25 just because of our record alone.

I also agree that we would need to run some type of unique offense and execute that very well. This is essentially what Georgia Tech has done. I'm not saying run the option, but it's tough to beat Florida State and Clemson if we run the same type of offense that they do, therefore we need to run a different system.
 
CumberlandDeac said:
As far as scheduling, the first 3 years I would be scheduling 1 FCS teams and 3 other cupcakes in my out of conference schedule (preferably 2 of those 3 cupcakes would be home games). I'd use scheduling to manipulate the system, establish Wake as a bowl team. Also, with an artificially inflated schedule, writers/coaches would be more likely to vote us into the top 25 just because of our record alone.

I also agree that we would need to run some type of unique offense and execute that very well. This is essentially what Georgia Tech has done. I'm not saying run the option, but it's tough to beat Florida State and Clemson if we run the same type of offense that they do, therefore we need to run a different system.
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The pistol that Duke is bringing out is pretty interesting. It seems like we have some sets in there that are unique but it is not a completely transformative offense.

I like the idea of trying to get to (say) 7 or 8 wins for the first 2-3 and then rely on the recruiting to take it to the next level.
 
Deacsfan27 said:
Stockpiling on D seems to be the best move for us I agree.

I think for OL recruiting we need to stick to a strategy that works. We keep recruiting big, small, big small in alternating years and that kills us when we switch offenses because we have recruited to a different system.
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Is that a trend in who we're recruiting or who we're getting?
 
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