• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

This season

What I've realized, after many years on our boards, is that these prediction threads are nothing more than "therapy" for our fans. I'm not a psychologist, but I did stay at a Holiday Express last night. While I was there I could not find another person who gave a crap about Wake Forest sports. I was alone as a fan. How could I possibly resolve all my suicidal thoughts while contemplating the upcoming football and basketball seasons. And then I started to read this thread. And I laughed, and laughed, and laughed. I want to jump on the bandwagon. Ok, if we beat Presbyterian, could we go on to beat the Pats in the Super Bowl ? Why not? On these threads that would be a reasonable post. Hell, while I'm at it, why don't we let Jeff coach the women's team too. He's an x's and o's guy. Just what our girls need to vault into the conference top ten. I'm feeling so free, like the weight of a Socialist Athletic dept. has been lifted off my broken back. It's glorious to taste the koolaid( there's definitely something in it, dude). But who cares. I don't . This is a message board where nobody knows me, or cares what I write, or thinks anything about me. So as long as I don't run into another Wake fan I'm perfectly safe from reality. I say we're gonna win the champions league.....it's football, right?
 
The real question is if the injured line last season really had the negative impact I thought it did. We'll find out in short order.
 
Fusiondad10 said:
What I've realized, after many years on our boards, is that these prediction threads are nothing more than "therapy" for our fans. I'm not a psychologist, but I did stay at a Holiday Express last night. While I was there I could not find another person who gave a crap about Wake Forest sports. I was alone as a fan. How could I possibly resolve all my suicidal thoughts while contemplating the upcoming football and basketball seasons. And then I started to read this thread. And I laughed, and laughed, and laughed. I want to jump on the bandwagon. Ok, if we beat Presbyterian, could we go on to beat the Pats in the Super Bowl ? Why not? On these threads that would be a reasonable post. Hell, while I'm at it, why don't we let Jeff coach the women's team too. He's an x's and o's guy. Just what our girls need to vault into the conference top ten. I'm feeling so free, like the weight of a Socialist Athletic dept. has been lifted off my broken back. It's glorious to taste the koolaid( there's definitely something in it, dude). But who cares. I don't . This is a message board where nobody knows me, or cares what I write, or thinks anything about me. So as long as I don't run into another Wake fan I'm perfectly safe from reality. I say we're gonna win the champions league.....it's football, right?
Click to expand...

I think I understand why the sports fans at Wake avoided you.
 
VaDeac said:
But but but depth injuries LOWF blah blah blah.
Click to expand...

It is a valid excuse for a team like Wake and you know it is. How often have we ever been able to afford the injuries and suspensions we had last year?
 
PhDeac said:
Razor thin line between 5 wins and 6 wins. Comes down to starting 3-1 or 4-0 and whether or not Duke has anything to play for the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

I don't think Duke will have anything to play for. I think we benefit from playing at BC before it gets cold and we may surprise them a little on offense.

Presby- W
BC- W
LM- W
Army- W
Clemson- L
NC State- W
MD- L
Miami- L
Syracuse- L
FSU- L
Duke- W
Vandy- L
Click to expand...

I don't know why so many have Maryland or Syracuse beating us they are not better than us. We owe Maryland and the Cuse both a game and I am sure our guys will go into those games remembering that.
 
7-5 or 8-4 no ACC Championship, but a decent season.
 
We've lost to teams that weren't better than us.
 
I've been at 7-5. 8-4 is achievable. Crucial to get off to a 4-0 start. State, Md, Cuse and Dick are all winnable games. Anything less than 7-5, and I will be convinced regime change is necessary.
 
jamesda3 said:
It is a valid excuse for a team like Wake and you know it is. How often have we ever been able to afford the injuries and suspensions we had last year?
Click to expand...

Why is it valid?
Keep in mind that November swoons are not an anomaly in this program, even in years when we aren't as injured.
 
Fall of 2005 I was a freshman at Wake. I had been a huge college football fan, but not a Wake Forest fan (shocker, I know). I didn't know what to expect, except that I knew expectations weren't high. We went 4-7, but as I recall there were some entertaining games. We should have beaten Vanderbilt and we played #14 BC tough in Chesnut Hill.

In 2006 we had a veteran defense and solid O-line. I certainly didn't expect the season we had, but there was certainly reason for optimism.

'07 - '09 we had a core group of keys players and I expected a bowl worthy performance. In '07 and '08 we did.

2009 was disappointing as Riley was a senior, but we still played some very competitive games. We lost to Baylor by 3, BC by 3 in OT, #18 Miami by 1 and #10 GT by 3 in OT. If you look back and see a 5-7 year it seems immediately like it was a wasted season, but we had 4 very close losses. Any one of those becomes a win and we go bowling. In 2005 I would never have believed you if you had told me that in 4 years we'd lose to the #10 team by 3 in OT and would call it a disappointing season.

2010 was rough. We had a true freshman quarterback among many other issues. I didn't expect a bowl game, but I also expected more than 3 wins. This season was disappointing even to someone not expecting 6 wins.

2011 was much improved. We started the season with a game in Syracuse we likely would have one, but Tanner got hurt and we lost in OT. We bounced back to rattle off 4 straight wins including a 35-30 victory at home over #22 FSU. After getting blown out by UNC in Chapel Hill we nearly beat ND at home and were up on #10 Clemson by 14 in the second half. I believe this is the season in which we led in every game except one. I think we were able to bounce back from some losses and wound up going to a bowl. Was losing to Clemson disappointing? You bet. But looking at the season as a whole was it disappointing? Nope.

2012 - I had reasonable expectations that we would make a bowl (probably go 6-6). We were not a good football team at the end and I would call this season a disappointment. Givens left and the combination of teams figuring out that Camp was our entire offense and him getting hurt shut us down completely (and yet we STILL almost went to a bowl).

I recap all of this to say, the mentality here is such that the coaching staff is a huge failure, recruiting is a mess and woe is us. But if I look back on the last 8 seasons, I would really only say 2 have not met reasonable expectations. Those two being '10 and '12. 2009 was disappointing, but we played 4 losses extremely close. In 2006 all of the close games went our way. Some seasons you might be just as good but it they won't all go in your favor.

When I came to Wake Forest my hope was that our football team would be in contention for a bowl every year. Since my freshman year, that's been the case in all but two years ('05 and '10). In '09 and '12 we were just a win away from being bowl eligible.

Don't get me wrong, most of the play calling I don't understand. It's definitely cost us games. It's frustrating to see us punt inside the opponent's territory, to run a draw play on 3rd an 16 every time. But despite that, I don't think the program is nearly as disappointing as some make it seem.

Having followed this program like white on rice for the last 8 years, I believe that the roster of players we have this year plays well to Grobe's style of coaching. We have a veteran defense and a senior quarterback. I think Josh will have a great year as a running back. I don't think Deandre has peaked. We have Camp. Our coaching staff likes a team that doesn't make mistakes and takes the ball away from the other team a lot. We have a lot of the pieces in place to perform quite well at both.

I don't see us going to the ACC championship this year because one major difference between this team and the 2006 team is that we may likely have two true freshmen starting on the line. Due to the other pieces in place, I don't think this will cripple us, but it may lead to a few more mistakes.

I think we go 7-5 or 8-4. If we don't go to a bowl, I will be disappointed, but it would be only the 3rd time in 9 years my expectations weren't met.
 
We need 8 wins to prove to future recruits that we are not adrift as a program.

I don't think we get 8 wins. We'd have to win every game we are favored or about even and that usually doesn't happen.

All that said, I am looking forward to this season more than in the last several years. But the sad truth is that we had Brown and Givens together and then Givens and Camp together and didn't get a whole lot done. Offensive line woes, sure, but it is pretty outrageous considering the string of NFL lineman we had the last decade we can use as a recruiting tool.

I think the funky misdirection offense works to lure ball talent like Camp and Givens, but since it isn't going to get an offensive lineman consistent NFL-like blocking schemes, it makes it hard to get the O-Line talent that think they might want to play on Sunday.
 
If we start 4-0, we've got a good shot at an 8 win season.

If we start 3-1, we should go bowling

2-2 or worse and it's wait until basketball seas....I can't even type the rest of this sentence.
 
Good post, Jaybone.
 
DEACS76 said:
After the unc game last year, I thought that Grobe had his MOJO back. After the first quarter of FSU, I saw he hadn't. The key will be BC. If we struggle (win ugly or lose) against the Eagles, it will be a long season. If we thump them, we should get 6 or 7 wins. If he has fixed the reason why this team went in the tank the last three games last year, then maybe 8 wins.
Click to expand...

If we beat BC I think it's a good sign. Doesn't matter by how much. Just need a win there.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
If we beat BC I think it's a good sign. Doesn't matter by how much. Just need a win there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, short of saying the BC game is a must win, we need to win that game very badly one would think to if we are going to have a good season.
 
If we lose to BC then Wake may not see my big screen again this season.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top