2024 vs 2018

[orangepassion]

This season reminded in 2018 in some ways and in some ways, it felt very different.

• Jackson Meeks was our Steve Ish. Strong receiver who turned 50-50 balls in 80-20.
• Trebor Pena was our Erv Phillips-Very elusive and very good hands, but he is stronger than Erv was
• Though an extremely different style of QB, McCord was our Senior QB who led in every way like McCord

Very different in other ways:

• Our offense on this team was better, the Defense of 2018 was better.
• We beat much better teams this year-At UNLV was an excellent win. Going cross country and dominating Cal was underrated. Obviously, beating Miami was the capper. The 2018 team was very good, but beat a few teams with backup QB's and our best win was NC State at home.

Due to my last point and the fact that Fran is a much better recruiter and harder worker than Dino, I am optimistic about the future and think it can be maintained. The key is the next QB.

 

[NKR1978]

I think it’d be a fun game. I think this staff would be able to find a way to win a close game, but that defense was much better at forcing turnovers. 18 interceptions and 13 fumble recoveries vs 9 and 5 this year.

If Kyle played his best, we could still expect an interception. Also giving Eric time to throw and our occasionally porous run defense would make him very dangerous.

It would be fun to watch.

 

[crales44]

Not to be too pedantic, but both Erv and Ish weren't on our 2018 team. It was Custis and Riley in those roles.

 

[310Pigpen]

Both years had 2 fourth down plays to cost Syracuse the game and each had 1 blowout loss. I’ve felt since the BC loss that this season was similar to 2018

 

[HRE Otto IV]

This season was better IMO. In 2018 we had better Ls. But this year we had a lot better Ws. NC State was our best W that year, which IMO is similar to our GA Tech win. On top of that we have Miami and UNLV this year. Our 2nd best W in 2018 was a 7-5 (4-4) BC team, which is similar IMO to beating VA Tech this year. We also had a lot of very bad teams in 2018 (Wagner, WMU, UConn, UNC, Louisville).

 

[SmilinBob]

This season was better IMO. In 2018 we had better Ls. But this year we had a lot better Ws. NC State was our best W that year, which IMO is similar to our GA Tech win. On top of that we have Miami and UNLV this year. Our 2nd best W in 2018 was a 7-5 (4-4) BC team, which is similar IMO to beating VA Tech this year. We also had a lot of very bad teams in 2018 (Wagner, WMU, UConn, UNC, Louisville).

Plus, add FSU to the bad.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

Plus, add FSU to the bad.

They were bad but they were not lay ups like the five teams I listed. Our 2nd and 3rd best Ws were against mediocre at best BC and Wake. That FSU team was our 4th best W. IMO FSU would have been our 7th best W when compared to this year's schedule.

 

[skeeter223]

Not to be too pedantic, but both Erv and Ish weren't on our 2018 team. It was Custis and Riley in those roles.

Pedantic. Well done!!

 

[sufandu]

This season reminded in 2018 in some ways and in some ways, it felt very different.

• Jackson Meeks was our Steve Ish. Strong receiver who turned 50-50 balls in 80-20.
• Trebor Pena was our Erv Phillips-Very elusive and very good hands, but he is stronger than Erv was
• Though an extremely different style of QB, McCord was our Senior QB who led in every way like McCord

Very different in other ways:

• Our offense on this team was better, the Defense of 2018 was better.
• We beat much better teams this year-At UNLV was an excellent win. Going cross country and dominating Cal was underrated. Obviously, beating Miami was the capper. The 2018 team was very good, but beat a few teams with backup QB's and our best win was NC State at home.

Due to my last point and the fact that Fran is a much better recruiter and harder worker than Dino, I am optimistic about the future and think it can be maintained. The key is the next QB.

Nice comparison/contrast. One nitpick. Ish wasn't on the 2018 team. It was Custis that year.

 

[OrangeTarheel]

They were bad but they were not lay ups like the five teams I listed. Our 2nd and 3rd best Ws were against mediocre at best BC and Wake. That FSU team was our 4th best W. IMO FSU would have been our 7th best W when compared to this year's schedule.

Their critical weakness against us was that one offensive lineman who was so slow their QB regularly got a good view of the Dome from his back.

One thing I would take from that 2018 year in any year is how healthy we stayed. In the last decade we have been decimated by injuries by the middle of October … and under Dino it looked like maybe it was getting even worse. But in 2018 we kept our starting lineups mostly intact - at least as I recall

 

[Eric15]

Let's just hope, like in 2018, that our senior QB plays in the bowl game, and we get an amazing turnout of Orange fans like we did at the Camping World Bowl to give this team the send-off they deserve. 10 wins and a potential Top 15ish finish.

 

[Yeti]

I think it’d be a fun game. I think this staff would be able to find a way to win a close game, but that defense was much better at forcing turnovers. 18 interceptions and 13 fumble recoveries vs 9 and 5 this year.

If Kyle played his best, we could still expect an interception. Also giving Eric time to throw and our occasionally porous run defense would make him very dangerous.

It would be fun to watch.

I'm pretty sure Eric would go for 200 and 200 like he did against WMU lmao. I still think this team wins but that could just be recency bias.

 

[NKR1978]

This season was better IMO. In 2018 we had better Ls. But this year we had a lot better Ws. NC State was our best W that year, which IMO is similar to our GA Tech win. On top of that we have Miami and UNLV this year. Our 2nd best W in 2018 was a 7-5 (4-4) BC team, which is similar IMO to beating VA Tech this year. We also had a lot of very bad teams in 2018 (Wagner, WMU, UConn, UNC, Louisville).

This year's schedule was way more difficult. But 2018 put the bad teams away and stepped on their throats. We didn't really do that this year even with Holy Cross.

 

[HRE Otto IV]

This year's schedule was way more difficult. But 2018 put the bad teams away and stepped on their throats. We didn't really do that this year even with Holy Cross.

UNC says hello. Heck even WMU pulled back into the game.

This year's UConn team is probably better than the 5 cupcakes from 2018. And they were the 2nd easiest team we played this year. Stanford was bad but they were still way better than WMU, Wagner, 18 UConn, UNC, Louisville. Heck they are almost as good as 18 Wake.

2018 NC State, Clemson, Notre Dame were all good teams. The other 9 games were between awful and mediocre.

2024 we have only one good team but we have seven decent teams.

 

[SWC75]

How about our 2025 team vs. our 2019 team?

 

[JuiceMeUp]

If you put the teams vs each other id still have to go 2018. Just would not be able to bet against Dungey especially given how soft our D looked at times this year. Think McCord would shred the Tampa 2 though as well. Would pay a lot of $ to see that game lol.

 

[sufandu]

UNC says hello. Heck even WMU pulled back into the game.

This year's UConn team is probably better than the 5 cupcakes from 2018. And they were the 2nd easiest team we played this year. Stanford was bad but they were still way better than WMU, Wagner, 18 UConn, UNC, Louisville. Heck they are almost as good as 18 Wake.

2018 NC State, Clemson, Notre Dame were all good teams. The other 9 games were between awful and mediocre.

2024 we have only one good team but we have seven decent teams.

Yeah, but WMU pulled back into the game once we took Dungey out and took our foot off the gas. If Dungey plays halfway into the 4th, that game isn't close. We had had a few games this year where it would've been nice if we could've had starters chilling in the 4th. What I really like about this years team is that we clearly grew throughout the year. I think players got bettwr and coaches figured some things out.

 

[NKR1978]

UNC says hello. Heck even WMU pulled back into the game.

This year's UConn team is probably better than the 5 cupcakes from 2018. And they were the 2nd easiest team we played this year. Stanford was bad but they were still way better than WMU, Wagner, 18 UConn, UNC, Louisville. Heck they are almost as good as 18 Wake.

2018 NC State, Clemson, Notre Dame were all good teams. The other 9 games were between awful and mediocre.

2024 we have only one good team but we have seven decent teams.

I think that BC team was better than UConn this year and we really gave them a beatdown. UConn I never felt we were in danger, but it would have been nice to win 42-21.