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OFFICIAL 2023 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Football Thread

Just looked at FSU’s schedule from last year and I’m not sure why I thought they ended on a high note. They didn’t. They beat Miami and BC by 3 points apiece, lost @home to State by 2 TDs, and lost to Florida. Them being preseason top 10 is absurd.

ETA: I must have been looking at a different season. Disregard.
 
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You are not looking at the correct schedule as FSU finished the season:

Saturday
Oct. 29		Georgia Tech Football ScheduleGeorgia Tech Yellow JacketsDoak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, FL12:00pm ETACCNW 41-16
Saturday
Nov. 5		Miami (FL) Football Scheduleat Miami (FL) HurricanesHard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, FL7:30pm ETABCW 45-3
Saturday
Nov. 12		Syracuse Orange Football Scheduleat Syracuse OrangeJMA Wireless Dome, Syracuse, NY8:00pm ETACCNW 38-3
Saturday
Nov. 19		Louisiana Football ScheduleLouisiana Ragin' CajunsDoak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, FL12:00pm ETRSN/ESPN3W 49-17
Friday
Nov. 25		Florida Football ScheduleFlorida GatorsDoak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, FL7:30pm ETABCW 45-38
CHEEZ-IT BOWL
Thursday
Dec. 29		Oklahoma Sooners Football Schedulevs Oklahoma SoonersCamping World Stadium, Orlando, FL5:30pm ETESPNW 35-32


FSU also beat BC 44-14 early in the season.
 
Oh you’re right. Not sure what the Google just showed me. Disregard.
 
If we put Evan Slocum on elite slot WRs again, we will get absolutely torched. 1) Seems like a bummer he's starting and 2) I hope Carson follows around a team's star receiver a lot. Similar to how we often pigeon hole WRs into one spot in the offense (though this has improved some in recent years), we also seem to pigeon hole DBs into 1 spot on the field. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
 
Agree with the first part. Slocum got picked on last season
 
While much attention is given to replacing Hartman with Griffis and the personnel on defense, I have confidence in the importance of a second year familiarity of Lamberts scheme. That is an underlooked factor
 
DeacsOrDie said:
While much attention is given to replacing Hartman with Griffis and the personnel on defense, I have confidence in the importance of a second year familiarity of Lamberts scheme. That is an underlooked factor
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Agreed. Defense is going to be significantly better this year. Significantly better could still be bad though
 
  • Evan Slocum got picked on coming off an injury and never playing the position before. His first real assignment was covering Zay Flowers. Last couple of games (and especially the bowl game) looked and graded well against tough competition including former 5 star Luther Burden III. He's actually gotten a chance to learn the position and from myself/Les/Conor has looked night and day.
  • every single person on a football team will tell you playing nickel is basically impossible. Mitch joked with us about it at ACC kickoff, but it's the hardest task in football right now and people across all levels of football don't really have an answer for it
  • Wake doesn't pigeon hole WRs or DBs to a single spot based on snap counts. There are preferences, but if something calls for it they'll do it. It also makes little sense to put someone like AT in the slot and then kick a Ke'Shawn Williams out wide. That doesn't really help anyone. Having all three of Banks/Donavon/Perry out there for example really clogs the field and doesn't maximize the three.
 
Deaconman said:
These FCS games are detrimental to Wake. Drops attendance, lowers strength of schedule, and going forward will hurt us qualifying for one of the twelve playoff slots. I thought Clawson/Currie were trying to change the perception of ‘’little old Wake Forest.”
Yes, I know other conferences do this bullshit but this hurts our program more than others.
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Strength of schedule? Is there a football kenpom that I don’t know about? Lol
 
CamLemons said:
  • Evan Slocum got picked on coming off an injury and never playing the position before. His first real assignment was covering Zay Flowers. Last couple of games (and especially the bowl game) looked and graded well against tough competition including former 5 star Luther Burden III. He's actually gotten a chance to learn the position and from myself/Les/Conor has looked night and day.
  • every single person on a football team will tell you playing nickel is basically impossible. Mitch joked with us about it at ACC kickoff, but it's the hardest task in football right now and people across all levels of football don't really have an answer for it
  • Wake doesn't pigeon hole WRs or DBs to a single spot based on snap counts. There are preferences, but if something calls for it they'll do it. It also makes little sense to put someone like AT in the slot and then kick a Ke'Shawn Williams out wide. That doesn't really help anyone. Having all three of Banks/Donavon/Perry out there for example really clogs the field and doesn't maximize the three.
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Not going to argue with you. Hope you’re right on Slocum. Seems like a good kid. I don’t remember ever seeing a Wake DB under Clawson follow a WR across formation, but could certainly be wrong. I’m still scarred by the staff’s refusal to play Hines and Dortch together, Hinton and Roberson, etc.
 
I’d bet a good bit of money Wake is not ranked if we go 4-0.


That being said, I am terrified about the DT position, and worries me on our quest to fo 4-0
 
Agree. Those two DT transfers from lower divisions need to be legit ACC players.
 
tigerswood said:
Not going to argue with you. Hope you’re right on Slocum. Seems like a good kid. I don’t remember ever seeing a Wake DB under Clawson follow a WR across formation, but could certainly be wrong. I’m still scarred by the staff’s refusal to play Hines and Dortch together, Hinton and Roberson, etc.
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I had a phone call with Ruggiero and a story about a month before spring practices started in 2018 about the possibility of Hines and Dortch playing together. Warren didn't say it was going to be a staple but there was certainly work going into getting the two of them on the field together -- and then Tabari transferred, if memory serves, less than a week before the first practice.

They didn't play together in 2017 because Tabari had an injury, I think in the App State game. At least, that's the game it was pointed out to me that he was on the sidelines in sweatpants for the 2nd half. I think he was healthy before Dortch's punctured intestine ... but Greg was playing so well, they couldn't take him off the field.

There's also the whole "we don't play two slots because that would mean taking the TE off the field, and we need them to run the ball effectively" part of the equation. It's tied into Wake's OL always being on the smaller side (though this year they're as large as ever, Cam can confirm).

Criticizing Ruggiero and/or Clawson about the offense gets tricky because of how successful it's been in a historical context. I do think they're too beholden to 11 personnel, but you talk yourself into a circle when adding the "small OL" element to the conversation.
 
our coaching staffs primary thesis seems to be that if you get guys to really focus in and learn the system extremely well over years we will beat more talented teams who are younger, less disciplined and less focused.

based on that we spend our (limited) practice time really getting our core offense down pat instead of trick plays and other exceptions that may work for a season but would be detrimental to the program long term.
 
IAppreciateIt said:
our coaching staffs primary thesis seems to be that if you get guys to really focus in and learn the system extremely well over years we will beat more talented teams who are younger, less disciplined and less focused.

based on that we spend our (limited) practice time really getting our core offense down pat instead of trick plays and other exceptions that may work for a season but would be detrimental to the program.
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"if you can't run the 90% of the playbook we actually run correctly, why should we trust you with trick plays?"
 
Yep. We can quibble with the play calls and drives here and there but the overall results speak for themselves.

a11bc72c6ba8fbbbaf14cea5e446fb0d.jpg
 
PhDeac said:
Yep. We can quibble with the play calls and drives here and there but the overall results speak for themselves.

a11bc72c6ba8fbbbaf14cea5e446fb0d.jpg
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Very interesting graphic and stat. Thanks for sharing. Will be curious to see if that streak continues this season with Griffis under center. Here’s hoping.
 
PhDeac said:
Yep. We can quibble with the play calls and drives here and there but the overall results speak for themselves.

a11bc72c6ba8fbbbaf14cea5e446fb0d.jpg
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yeah but when you control for number of possessions the offense is much closer to average
 
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