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Question for Deacons from the 80s

coredeac said:
After living under Al Groh, the reaction was one of awe and somewhat shock. Many were surprised that Dooley would even consider coming to Wake Forest. Also, most overlooked any issues and felt that Dooley would bring a winning knowledge to the program. Dooley delivered a bowl win and then rode off into the sunset. It was a strange marriage for sure. However, Groh was beyond God-awful and Dooley was a breath of fresh air.

My 2 cents.

ETA: Dooley's success, in the eyes of many Wake fans, was from his days at UNC. His Va. Tech's tenure was not of great significance at the time of his hire.
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I agree with this.
 
DeaconVendetta said:
Elkins had his biggest stat year in 1986, Groh's last year. Dooley did make the offense more conservative, but he had better results with W-L's than Groh, to say the least.

We scored a ton of points in 1986, and if a couple of last second FG's go differently, we're 7-4, not 5-6, and Groh may have been retained. I am speculating here, but it would have been hard to push Groh out after going 7-4, and possibly to a bowl.
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And to some extent this. The UVA game was bad clock mgmt which led to a rushed, missed FG. I think the least amount of points we scored that year was maybe 20. Dooley rolls in and starts 5-0 his first year - that was awesome.
 
I remember throwing things at Bill Dooley after we tied App State... He ran the ball three straight times with Mike E at quarterback... and we didnt go to a bowl that year... They had to escort him off the field in the rain cause the students were throwing anything they could find...

I just cant give him any props after that game even with some of the good games he had...
 
The Deacon said:
I remember throwing things at Bill Dooley after we tied App State... He ran the ball three straight times with Mike E at quarterback... and we didnt go to a bowl that year... They had to escort him off the field in the rain cause the students were throwing anything they could find...

I just cant give him any props after that game even with some of the good games he had...
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You remember incorrectly. Game basically ended after an Elkins interception when we were in borderline FG range. It was raining, but we were close enough for Wilson Hoyle to give it a go. Ricky Proehl broke his helmet right in front of me in section 9 after the play. App took a knee and ran out the clock on the next play.
 
Coach Dooley was perhaps the third best coach in Deacon football hx. He recruited me at UNC and even though I signed with Wake I never lost any respect for the old Trenchfighter. Was glad when Wake signed him as coach and hated it when he retired from Wake. Coach Dooley was a player's coach and if you find any of his former players they will all tell you funny stories about him and also reveal their love for him.
 
DeaconVendetta said:
You remember incorrectly. Game basically ended after an Elkins interception when we were in borderline FG range. It was raining, but we were close enough for Wilson Hoyle to give it a go. Ricky Proehl broke his helmet right in front of me in section 9 after the play. App took a knee and ran out the clock on the next play.
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This ^^ is correct. The most infuriating piece of this was right before this interception we turned the ball over on downs in App territory because Elkins missed 2 wide open receivers, which he rarely did. App then fumbled it back to us only to have the above happen. If I remember correctly on the interception, Proehl had gotten by the defender and was open, the ball was underthrown.
 
Didn't Mike Elkins get a cup of coffee in the NFL? Chiefs?
 
Renfield said:
Didn't Mike Elkins get a cup of coffee in the NFL? Chiefs?
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Drafted by the Chiefs, 2nd QB in the 1989 draft taken after Aikman. Sports Illustrated did a big article on him. I think he bounced around a few years before hanging it up.
 
bcobbdeacs said:
Coach Dooley was perhaps the third best coach in Deacon football hx. He recruited me at UNC and even though I signed with Wake I never lost any respect for the old Trenchfighter. Was glad when Wake signed him as coach and hated it when he retired from Wake. Coach Dooley was a player's coach and if you find any of his former players they will all tell you funny stories about him and also reveal their love for him.
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I loved how he always used the word dungarees. I had never heard the term before in my life.
 
Dispatch Deac said:
I remember Bill Dooley saying that when he first met with the team he asked them to tell him what the program most needed. The first thing they asked for was a soft ice cream machine.
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Dave Odom told a story once about landing a recruit and asking him what was the deciding factor in his decision. The recruit's answer was the soft serve ice cream machine in the Pit.

Dave shook his head and used it as an example of never knowing what goes into the decision making process of a teenager.
 
DeaconVendetta said:
You remember incorrectly. Game basically ended after an Elkins interception when we were in borderline FG range. It was raining, but we were close enough for Wilson Hoyle to give it a go. Ricky Proehl broke his helmet right in front of me in section 9 after the play. App took a knee and ran out the clock on the next play.
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We went in to the game with a bowl bid (Tangerine?) already guranteed if we won. I would have sworn that APP scored almost at the end of the game to go down by one, and instead of going for two (by which with a stop we would preserve the win and the bowl bid), APP instead kicked for the tie so in effect we "lost". IIRC the W-S Journal reported that the bowl rep who was there to extend the bid was standing right at the endzone by Bridger, and when the ball went thru the uprights he turned and walked straight out of the stadium to his car. I'm pretty positive that when pressed by the media if he went for the tie to deny Wake a bowl bid, the APP coach said that "no, we fought too hard to risk going home with a loss".
 
On another topic, what were the circumstances on Groh leaving? Was he forced out or what? I recall many people saying we recruited EXTREMELY well under him (even better than we do now). What happened with him? I always thought he was a great Defensive Coach but struggles when he can't get top talent. His tenure at UVA was indicative of that.
 
Groh was not forced out it was just time for him to go. He kept looking for other jobs so Hooks finally gave up on him. Groh was able to recruit some decent skill players and was not afraid to center his offense around the pass, unfortunately, in football it is tough to consistently outscore your oppponent all the time, you have to be able to stop someone at some time to win consistently and Groh never was able to recruit enough defensive players to do the job. Some of the games were fun to watch until you began to realize that even though you might have scored 31 points you still lost 45-31. We always seemed to be 2 scores behind.
 
I remember being glad we got Dooley. I think he was let go before Hooks picked him up. He left also stating the difficulty of recruiting at Wake and in a nice way, said Hooks made it too hard for him and wouldn't allow any concessions. I think he'd be 76 or 77 now....
 
DownEastDeac said:
We went in to the game with a bowl bid (Tangerine?) already guranteed if we won. I would have sworn that APP scored almost at the end of the game to go down by one, and instead of going for two (by which with a stop we would preserve the win and the bowl bid), APP instead kicked for the tie so in effect we "lost". IIRC the W-S Journal reported that the bowl rep who was there to extend the bid was standing right at the endzone by Bridger, and when the ball went thru the uprights he turned and walked straight out of the stadium to his car. I'm pretty positive that when pressed by the media if he went for the tie to deny Wake a bowl bid, the APP coach said that "no, we fought too hard to risk going home with a loss".
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App did score a TD late and you're exactly right on kicking vs going for two. That said, we still had 2 chances after that and blew both of them. Pretty sure the bowl was the Independence Bowl - some group at Wake already had t-shirts printed out.
 
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