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Wake NC State 7:30 PM ESPNU Night Game!

State's D is similar to ours- solid to good DL, weak at LB, iffy in the secondary. Their LBs are probably a bit better than theirs, our safties, when Bates is healthy, are better than theirs. The corners aren't great for either team.
 
I might possibly have been in the locker room at BB&T Field today and may have seen Bate's helmet and jersey all nicely shined up and ready to go in his locker.
 
I’m going to be real disappointed in State fans tomorrow night if we don’t hear Drake chants.
 
From Athlon Sports:
“Final Analysis
Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson should be commended for the job he continues to do in Winston-Salem. Saturday will provide Clawson with his chance to get his first win over a ranked ACC team, but the Wolfpack are very good. It’s also possible that Wake Forest will be without standout defensive end Duke Ejiofor against a quarterback who has been hard to sack this year. The Demon Deacons also are without wide receiver Greg Dortch for the remainder of the year. While NC State’s ACC title hopes died last week with Clemson’s win over Florida State, the Wolfpack are still alive for a 10-win season and a very good bowl game. Dave Doeren's team shouldn't have to worry about being unmotivated.
Prediction: NC State 31, Wake Forest 27”


Time for WF DLmen and the receiving corps to make a statement especially the Bachman’s, Wade’s, Bateman’s and Kamara’s
 
I spent some time looking at playing time trends and researching some other stats. I thought I’d leave my notes here in case they are of interest.

Playing Time – Offense

Scotty Washington is now playing 75-80% of the X-WR snaps and Cortez Lewis is playing about 20-25%.

The Bachman/Wade timeshare looks fluid. Wade got most of the snaps against Louisville, then Bachman got most of the snaps against Notre Dame. Against Syracuse the snaps were divided more evenly.

It looks like Patrick Osterhage and Nathan Gilliam have been dividing the PT at RG fairly evenly. I like that Wake will have six OLs with significant game experience going into next season. Gilliam has 2 starts and 460 snaps under his belt.

Playing Time – Defense

Here was the snap count split at DE against Syracuse (remember that Duke went down early):
Dunn 74
Basham 55
Black 47
Calhoun 31
Ejiofor 23
Note that Black – who’s name still doesn’t appear on the depth chart – played more than Chris Calhoun. If Ejiofor misses the game, I’m eager to see how much Black plays. He’s trying to dig himself out from the hole he dug himself early in the season with a 3 game suspension and a then a costly personal foul penalty (against GT) that drew Clawson’s ire. But now it looks like he is making progress.

At DT, Wille Yarbary led the way in snaps (62) against Cuse. Zeek Rodney, Elontae Bateman and Sula Kamara all played about 50 snaps. Kamara’s playing time against Cuse was the most that he had all year.

Against Cuse, Justin Strnad played the highest number of snaps that he’s played this season (90). He outsnapped Grant Dawson for the first time. The staff may have felt like they needed Strnad’s mobility on the field more in that game.

During the offseason I wrote that Sawvel wanted to eventually replace the rover with a nickel corner, but because of personnel that wouldn’t happen this season. We may have seen the start of that against Cuse. Coby Davis played 61 snaps (including special teams) and it’s clear that some of that PT came at the expense of the Rovers (Kemp and Williams). While Sawvel may continue to use Davis in this role, I wouldn’t expect any dramatic changes for the Rovers. However, Clawson confirmed on the radio show that Davis was inserted in a “nickel role” and that he was pleased with how Davis performed. Leading up to the Cuse game, Davis had seen some action on third downs.

Ja’Sir Taylor and Amari Henderson split the snaps against Syracuse evenly. On the radio show, Clawson blamed a lot of the Syracuse big plays on mental mistakes made by inexperienced DBs. At first he didn’t name names, but later on he acknowledged that Ja’Sir was the guy on some of those plays. It’s possible that Clawson/Sawvel felt they were forced to put Henderson back in the game (and then found that Amari was too limited by the foot injury). Clawson praised Taylor’s performance after Henderson was forced back out because of the injury.

A few other notes…

Clawson said that they made some scheme changes at halftime that helped shore up the defense against Cuse. The insertion of Coby Davis at nickel CB may have been part of that.

There’s been a lot of focus on the impact of the Bates injury on the defense, but I’d like to see the DL step up as well. From watching the games, it doesn’t seem like they are having as much impact. Statistically, they have gone from 29 tackles for loss in the first five games to just 11.5 in the last five games.

Last season the team catch rate was 54% (regular season). Now it’s up to 64%. Obviously that’s a reflection on both Wolford and the WRs. No one has improved this stat more than Scotty Washington, who has improved his catch rate from 26% (on 19 targets) to 59% (on 54 targets). Cam Serigne has increased his catch rate from 61% to 80%. On the flip side, Cortez Lewis has caught only 36% of his pass targets this season.
 
Good to hear from you 94. I think you are right aboht Strnad. He made a great play on his pic. Helped clinch the game too
 
Beer: In fridge
Pork Shoulder: On smoker
Hype Level: Much higher than necessary
 
Not a great turnout for an all day tailgate. Get it together Deacon fans.
 
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