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Wake-Vanderbilt GAME THREAD - 9/9/2023, 11am Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium - lightening delay

Deacsfan27 said:
Yeah I definitely don't think our OL is bad. Elon packed the box all night against us and was steadfastly not going to allow us to run the football.

Now, will other teams use that blueprint and make Mitch beat them? There's a good chance, but I'm not willing to chalk the line up to "bad" over one game where we probably weren't even running the majority of our stuff. Definitely missed assignments that need to be cleaned up.

Is it problematic that we can't run the ball against Elon even with base plays? I'm not really sure, however, I don't think anybody believes we are going to have an elite running game, it just needs to be serviceable to open things up.
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I think that became the blueprint against us beginning last year. Teams are going to take away the R in the RPO. In doing so, by selling out with numbers in the box, it puts more pressure on the close to the line QB in the RPO. I'm hoping Mitch pulling and running some will help with that. Also (based on one game), it seems he's more comfortable throwing in the middle distance and letting receivers try to make plays where Sam was more, "You come hard at me? Fuck it, I'm going deep!"

I think we'll see fewer explosive plays this year, but maybe more sustained/consistent drives. Especially as Mitch gets more comfortable and is able to make reads/decisions more quickly.

I really like our interior line. We are solid at C/G. The tackles are a little bit of a question, especially WRT depth. Some folks need to step up there.

I also think where we miss Greene the most is not as a pass catcher, but as a blocker. He's a beast of a dude that could block well.
 
Yeah I think the primary defensive strategy against us has just become pressure, pressure, pressure. Why float your LB's while our QB can hold them in place with the slow mesh when you could just send them on blitzes instead?

The games where Sam really struggled (Pitt, Clemson, Louisville, State to some degree) were all games where he got hit early and often.

Time will tell if that will get to Mitch. I am sure our staff spent time in the off-season figuring out ways to counteract that, however, every strategy is going to start with "block your man up front".
 
I know it's only Elon, but it also seemed like we ran the RPO much less frequently than in the past. I think we ran it 36ish% of the time last year, and I think we were closer to 25% on Thursday.
 
i think griffis could do a better job of stepping up in the pocket on straight dropback plays and also had some opportunities for run plays between the tackles.

i feel like his natural instinct is to keep the play alive and roll out to the right when pressured. clawson alluded to this being tough to train in camp when you aren’t allowed to get hit.
 
Something I kind of noted with the caveat that it's only one game is that it looked like a few passes Mitch needed to just get it up a little higher, faster. Felt like there were a lot of passes that may potentially be batted down when we go up against taller and more athletic fronts. Obviously getting rid of the ball faster will come with time and it's something he's going to have to do, but even when he has time and the right read making sure he gets it up and over the defensive front
 
IamThunderbolt said:
I think that became the blueprint against us beginning last year. Teams are going to take away the R in the RPO. In doing so, by selling out with numbers in the box, it puts more pressure on the close to the line QB in the RPO. I'm hoping Mitch pulling and running some will help with that. Also (based on one game), it seems he's more comfortable throwing in the middle distance and letting receivers try to make plays where Sam was more, "You come hard at me? Fuck it, I'm going deep!"

I think we'll see fewer explosive plays this year, but maybe more sustained/consistent drives. Especially as Mitch gets more comfortable and is able to make reads/decisions more quickly.

I really like our interior line. We are solid at C/G. The tackles are a little bit of a question, especially WRT depth. Some folks need to step up there.

I also think where we miss Greene the most is not as a pass catcher, but as a blocker. He's a beast of a dude that could block well.
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Clawson said in a postgame presser that it was not so much as poor OL play, rather some bad blocking by the receiver group.
 
morrison2951 said:
Clawson said in a postgame presser that it was not so much as poor OL play, rather some bad blocking by the receiver group.
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Yes and no. The WRs, RBs, and TEs missed some assignments and some blocks that made our line look worse than it is (although they all block as a unit, so not sure how helpful parsing out positions is when talking about how well be blocked). But one of our younger tackles had a pretty rough game.
 
deacon14 said:
Vandy's secondary is awful, I sincerely hope they load the box and dare Mitch to beat them on Saturday, because I have a ton of confidence that he would.

But we're going to see a loaded box a lot this year unless we find creative ways to deal with it, particularly from teams that are comfortable with leaving their corners isolated.
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The good news is it is a lot easier to scheme wideouts open against a good secondary than it is to scheme up an effective rushing attack behind poor OL play and/or against a loaded box. Also Vandy's secondary is pretty bad. The bad news is that while Vandy HC Clark Lea comes off as kind of a meathead he actually compensates pretty well for talent deficiencies on their defense through good coaching and defensive schemes. Vandy's players are about two steps slower than most P5 opponents so he'd like to have defense two steps ahead of offense by identifying advantageous personnel matchups across all three levels. Lots of movement and subbing. So far he hasn't really had to show too much of his deck of cards.

Don't think it'll be problem for Wake thanks to Clawson and Ruggerio but they'll probably give one or two teams a serious scare this year. I'm hoping that Auburn is not one of those teams but just based on recent history we'll prob have a huge win only to either drop the game to Vandy or allow them to take us down to the wire lmao.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
Throw the ball if the defense puts 8 guys in the box. We were just running through plays it seemed regardless of defensive look against Elon.
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Only problem is that works until it doesn't. If that is game plan out the gate and Mitch throws a pick first drive of the game you've just gotta hope he doesn't spiral.
 
AuburnPanic40 said:
Only problem is that works until it doesn't. If that is game plan out the gate and Mitch throws a pick first drive of the game you've just gotta hope he doesn't spiral.
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Seemed that Sam had that "spiral" pick issue- see lewisville and pitt ACC CG.
 
The run game blocking was not good, including at the WR positions, and that heavily contributed to the lack of holes for the RB's. What bothered me more was that Elon also pressured Mitch and had 4 sacks (yes Mitch held the ball too long at times but they also got some quick pressure from the outside) and Vandy has a decent DL from a pass rushing standpoint
 
sportsnut1 said:
The run game blocking was not good, including at the WR positions, and that heavily contributed to the lack of holes for the RB's. What bothered me more was that Elon also pressured Mitch and had 4 sacks (yes Mitch held the ball too long at times but they also got some quick pressure from the outside) and Vandy has a decent DL from a pass rushing standpoint
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I mean, the blocking wasn't great, but you also can't block 8 people with 7 people. I wonder how much leeway Mitch has at this point to audible out of the play (if not RPO). I expect we'll call (and stay in) fewer run plays against a stacked box as the season goes on. Also, I liked the new package with 2 upbacks - it limits options, but also we seemed to run for 3-4+ yards out of it consistently (don't think we used it more than 3-4 times, but should help down the road with our inside the 5 woes without resorting to wildcat).
 
Lea said they left their CBs on an island too much last year. I think they are going to play a deep shell, and dare us to run the ball.
 
bernbp5 said:
Lea said they left their CBs on an island too much last year. I think they are going to play a deep shell, and dare us to run the ball.
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If they actually try to run 5 in the box the entire game, Wake will run for 200 yards on 40 carries.
 
We were in Nashville for the game last year, which was an 11 am kick.

Got to the lot at 7:15. Did breakfast tacos on the Blackstone.

Bloody Mary’s and Mimosas.

This year I’m making my soccer coaching debut despite my son not being there. And the. Figuring out what to do as far as being a Spectrum customer.
 
CamLemons said:
If they actually try to run 5 in the box the entire game, Wake will run for 200 yards on 40 carries.
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Yeah I don't think Wake has any kind of world beating offense (although very good) but our scheme is unique enough that if you're just playing to take away the pass first you're going to be in world of pain unless you've got an elite and athletic front. Preaching to the choir obviously on the Wake boards, but our offense would love to have you not stack the box with the read type offense we run.
 
Two additional things to note about Vandy's secondary:

1) CB Tyson Russell got absolutely torched and was out of position on almost every play in the first half against Hawaii. So much so that it doesn't seem like he even got the start against Alabama A&M. He's listed as an "or" as the starter on the depth chart. He's athletic and seems to have talent overall but if he's matched up on Banks that's just nighty noodle. Hell if he's matched up with any of our wideouts one on one I think he's toast most of the time.

2) I saw that starting SS De'Rickey Wright - who made a filthy pick against Hawaii in the end zone week 0 - is questionable. He seemed to be the anti-Russell and was everywhere on the field. If he can't go or isn't 100% that's also bad news for Vandy. Lea said earlier this week he "expects him to play" but that could just be coach speak. No idea.
 
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