• 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!

Why are Wake fans so angry?

Ron Wellman already has ended big time sports at Wake. It doesn't matter what conference we play in if we aren't even competitive.
 
The team gave up on the staff last year. Grobe then said that the solution was a change in offensive philosophy. We needed to run more. He installs a blocking scheme that won't work with the players we have. We waste the entire spring and in spring game show that it doesn't work. But we are told is that we were hiding it from BC. OK, I gave Grobe the benefit of the doubt. He then comes out with this new offense at Chestnut Hill and it is an ummittigated disaster. All that work and nothing for it. We get our asses kicked for 58 minutes vs ULM and all of a sudden, AirGrobe returns. We were losing to Army with 19 minutes left in the game, when Grobe realizes that we should run straight at the smaller Army front. We should not have gotten off the bus at Clemson. All this time he says "I'm not blaming the players,but..." not looking at himself and his staff. Grobe misled us about this program. We could see this coming a mile away. This is why we are bent out of shape. We should be 5-1, on our way to a bowl game, and bringing in some 4* recruits. Now we are fighting for our lives and hoping to keep our 3*s.
 
Vidovich was more of a promotion after Chyzowych died (Sept. 1994)? Very similar to the way Dino got the head coaching gig. I think Wellman got more than Lucky with Jay....that very easily could have been a Dino situation.
 
DEACS76 said:
The team gave up on the staff last year. Grobe then said that the solution was a change in offensive philosophy. We needed to run more. He installs a blocking scheme that won't work with the players we have. We waste the entire spring and in spring game show that it doesn't work. But we are told is that we were hiding it from BC. OK, I gave Grobe the benefit of the doubt. He then comes out with this new offense at Chestnut Hill and it is an ummittigated disaster. All that work and nothing for it. We get our asses kicked for 58 minutes vs ULM and all of a sudden, AirGrobe returns. We were losing to Army with 19 minutes left in the game, when Grobe realizes that we should run straight at the smaller Army front. We should not have gotten off the bus at Clemson. All this time he says "I'm not blaming the players,but..." not looking at himself and his staff. Grobe misled us about this program. We could see this coming a mile away. This is why we are bent out of shape. We should be 5-1, on our way to a bowl game, and bringing in some 4* recruits. Now we are fighting for our lives and hoping to keep our 3*s.
Click to expand...

This is so correct. Post of the year! All Grobe can say about the win over State - is that the "players were fired up". WTF? Even if Wake backs into a bowl game, the above statement of bad coaching and awful player evaluation would get a lot of coaches fired. Multiply that times however many times Grobe has changed the offense mid-season, and it shows that the coaching at Wake has been below par for quite some time. Its clear Grobe wont fix the coaching, and Wellman is fine with that. All of this = ANGER.
 
I don't think it really comes from [Redacted], it all comes from Wellman.

It all started when Wellman chose Dino after Prosser passed, and gave him that long contract. Expectations the day Prosser died were enormous. Dino was not liked right away by many, and could never live up to those expectations even when winning. Who can forget that clueless look picture that came out faster than "Buzzout"? Fans were angry/dissappointed that we were "stuck" with Dino, and then that Dino ruined our great recruits. Wellman was blamed for that erosion of bball.

So then Wellman made an even worse move by hiring someone without a winning tradition, and that angered people because it was a missed opportunity to get back to the days of Prosser. There was no way [Redacted] could overcome that unless he won right away, but then epic fail ensued and Wellman's move just pissed everyone off even more. Then came the excuses and deception, and it's pretty obvious we were lied to (and probably so was Bz).

Now people see a similar thing happening with Grobe. We see excuses for poor performance and coaching, and by poor performance I don't mean losing, I mean losing after giving up. Losing like that in football is like regularly losing to >200 RPI teams in bball. It's just not the Wake Way.....and yet Wellman defends things that oppose the Wake Way by lying and making excuses. THAT is why people are angry.
 
For basketball, we're angry because...
(1) as fans, we expect our AD to at least acknowledge that our program, our school, our fanbase, and our players deserve better than back to back to back terrible, awful losing seasons
(2) we expect our teams to be competitive in the vast majority of the games we play - we haven't been
(3) we hate the culture bullshit and thinks it's revisionist history

For football, we're angry because...
(1) we play in a Power 6 conference and hate the "aww, shucks" excuse making that the coaching staff has developed a penchant for using
(2) there is too much nepotism within the program - if the numbers and product on the field overwhelmingly favor a change at a particular coaching position (LOBO), then one ought to be made
 
Last edited:
I may misremember but I don't recall there being much backlash at the time that Dino was retained about him being the head coach. I think most people were critical of Dino after a year and a half or so and people wanted Wellman to fire him. I don't recall anybody being anti-Wellman, at least beyond making one or two passing comments, until a solid year into the [Redacted] regime.
 
HCF3 said:
This is so correct. Post of the year! All Grobe can say about the win over State - is that the "players were fired up". WTF? Even if Wake backs into a bowl game, the above statement of bad coaching and awful player evaluation would get a lot of coaches fired. Multiply that times however many times Grobe has changed the offense mid-season, and it shows that the coaching at Wake has been below par for quite some time. Its clear Grobe wont fix the coaching, and Wellman is fine with that. All of this = ANGER.
Click to expand...

What makes this year painfull is that we have 2 all time great Deacons. Camp and Nikita. They were the only ones publicly pissed at the end of last year, not the seniors. We have quality players on both side of the ball, and their efforts were wasted the first five games. They and we deserve better from Grobe.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
I may misremember but I don't recall there being much backlash at the time that Dino was retained about him being the head coach. I think most people were critical of Dino after a year and a half or so and people wanted Wellman to fire him. I don't recall anybody being anti-Wellman, at least beyond making one or two passing comments, until a solid year into the [Redacted] regime.
Click to expand...

True, very many Wake fans believed that crowning Dino HC with a standard contract was the right thing to do (not me, btw). It would've been hypocritical for them to fault Wellman for doing what they themselves wanted even after it became evident that Dino was lacking. I think the hiring of another poor MBB coach after handing the keys to Dino then called Wellman's entire capacity to hire into question, including the original Dino decision.
 
I don't think you did a good enough job capturing the anger at Wellman is because of the lack of accountability and reaction to the fan base he displays. Yes [Redacted] is a loser and was the first stone cast but it has been the sequential denial of it all. Like someone said big time sports at Wake is done. A follow up to this could be the lack of accountability because of our comfy position in a BCS conference. We get a shit ton of money from TV and the conference. So despite the fact that the fans are the target audience and the customer they have become secondary since they aren't needed. We continue to make money and can just get absolutely shit on by all the other members, basically doesn't matter got paid.
 
I think you all are aware of this, but any fan base in this position would be just as angry
 
DEACS76 said:
What makes this year painfull is that we have 2 all time great Deacons. Camp and Nikita. They were the only ones publicly pissed at the end of last year, not the seniors. We have quality players on both side of the ball, and their efforts were wasted the first five games. They and we deserve better from Grobe.
Click to expand...

Excellent post. I agree with every syllable.
 
ThinkingWithMyDeac said:
I don't think you did a good enough job capturing the anger at Wellman is because of the lack of accountability and reaction to the fan base he displays. Yes [Redacted] is a loser and was the first stone cast but it has been the sequential denial of it all. Like someone said big time sports at Wake is done. A follow up to this could be the lack of accountability because of our comfy position in a BCS conference. We get a shit ton of money from TV and the conference. So despite the fact that the fans are the target audience and the customer they have become secondary since they aren't needed. We continue to make money and can just get absolutely shit on by all the other members, basically doesn't matter got paid.
Click to expand...

Well I think if the anger is actually over the lack of accountability and reaction to the fan base, then a complete mea culpa in addition to a [Redacted] firing would at least placate a large majority of the fan base right? Or do you think that we're way too far beyond that at this point?

I really think most fans, even on here, would be pretty content if Wellman would just fire [Redacted] and say "gee I messed up guys I'm sorry." I don't think he will ever do this, but if he did (hypothetically) I think it would soothe over a lot of open wounds on here.
 
I agree 100% with the article. This is all about Jeff [Redacted]. If the basketball team wins 20 games a year, no one is calling for Grobe's removal or the firing of Wellman.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
I may misremember but I don't recall there being much backlash at the time that Dino was retained about him being the head coach. I think most people were critical of Dino after a year and a half or so and people wanted Wellman to fire him. I don't recall anybody being anti-Wellman, at least beyond making one or two passing comments, until a solid year into the [Redacted] regime.
Click to expand...
Dino was not really liked from the beginning but we had little choice. I think it disappointed people (who didn't like him) and angered at lot of people that we had finally got above LOWF but tragedy pushed us back down. 1.5 years after Prosser died, people were then ready to dump on Dino...and did. A majority of people weren't anti-Wellman at that time because of all the positive things he had accomplished, but that's when people began to really question his moves. Then came the extension. That ticked a lot of people off. It was excused as needed for recruiting but it upset people and ratcheted up expectations for Dino...pretty much setting him up for problems.

I have been anti-Wellman since Dino got canned. I thought it was wrong from a principles point of view. Then it was obvious Wellman lied with the hire and that ticked me off even more. Then the culture thing which was a dig by Wellman at Prosser. It's just taken the majority another 3 years to realize what he did THEN. Without wins, there was no cover.
 
Wakeforest22890 said:
Well I think if the anger is actually over the lack of accountability and reaction to the fan base, then a complete mea culpa in addition to a [Redacted] firing would at least placate a large majority of the fan base right? Or do you think that we're way too far beyond that at this point?

I really think most fans, even on here, would be pretty content if Wellman would just fire [Redacted] and say "gee I messed up guys I'm sorry." I don't think he will ever do this, but if he did (hypothetically) I think it would soothe over a lot of open wounds on here.
Click to expand...

Yeah, a coming clean interview with Stan Cotten would probably be enough for me... probably...
 
I do agree with Numbers' thesis that the anger aimed at Wellman originally stems from Jeff [Redacted]'s performance over the past three seasons and Ron Wellman's subsequent "Couldn't be happier" etc., where he doesn't even acknowledge that he understands Wake Forest fans badly want a competitive basketball team to cheer on. I do believe that the point about FCS/NCAA Tournament is relevant and shows just how passionate Wake fans are about the sport of basketball. Yes, the poll is not exactly scientific, but it is still a relevant part of the discussion and the original premise.

ETA: I agree that if [Redacted] were fired after last season (or even is fired after this season) and Wellman brought in an excellent basketball coach, a lot of Wake fans would just be thrilled with the new hire and be commending Wellman for "doing the right thing."
 
Last edited:
The poll offered *nothing* from a football standpoint. The it was negative or nothing. It was inartful and would've been different had both positions received a favorable option.
 
Lohengrin said:
The poll offered *nothing* from a football standpoint. The it was negative or nothing. It was inartful and would've been different had both positions received a favorable option.
Click to expand...

Why would it be different? My answer to that question is in no way related to my answer about whether or not I would trade basketball success for football success. Would people who originally voted for basketball success and FCS football vote differently if a fourth option said "I would win five games a year forever in basketball to consistently make a bowl?" Of course not. That makes no sense.
 
BECAUSE WE DON'T KNOW WHAT 22890 MEANS AND ITS DRIVING US NUTS LIKE DESMOND AND NOT PENNYS BOAT
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top