SWC75
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Week 10
This one’s easy: We have three opponents left and two of them, (Duke and Louisville), had the bye. The one team in action was Wake Forest. Here is my pre-season summary of the Deacons:
“Dave Clawson was Dino Babers’ predecessor at Bowling Green, which means he had a two year head start in rebuilding Wake Forest over Dino’s efforts at Syracuse. It showed in Dino’s first two years. We lost to them 9-28, playing on the edge of a Hurricane in Winston-Salem in 2016. We thought we had them in the Dome in 2017, looking unstoppable in a 38-24 first half. We were very stoppable in the second half they weren’t: we lost 43-64. But last year they had already peaked and we were on the way up and we beat them on a dry field in W-S 41-24. But they still managed to go 7-6 and win a bowl game.
They’ve had some more personnel losses: Greg Dortch, who caught 89 passes of 8 scores and Alex Bachman who caught 37 for 6 scores; second leading rusher Matt Colburn, who ran for 759 yards; three starting offensive linemen who had 112 starts between them; two defensive linemen with a total of 52 starts and DB Cameron Glenn, who had 98 tackles and second team all-ACC. Linebacker D. J. Taylor, already lost for the season with an injury. But Clawson is defiant: “We’re not winning by accident. We have good players.”
Quarterbacks Sam Hartman and Jamie Newman had 25TDs and 14 interceptions between them and ran for 522 yards and 6 TDs. Newman, at 6-4 235, is a load when he decides to pull it down and go. Cade Carney, (5-11 215) is another load that ran for 1,005 yards at 5.3 yards a pop and scored 8 TDs, (but see the injury report, below). Christian Beal-Smith had runs of 52 and 42 yards as a back-up. Sage Surratt caught 41 balls and Scottie Washington caught 45 two years ago and 20 last year before being hurt. They get three year starter Justin Herron back at OT after he was injured in the opener last year. DE Carlos Basham had 11 TFLs. Linebacker Justin Strnad, (yup, that’s how you spell it), had 105 tackles. Athlon: “Former touted recruits Chase Monroe and Jeff Burley are now third year sophomores who haven’t played because of injuries.” Cornerback Essang Bassey “is one of the ACC’s best”. True freshman Nasir Green “came on strong” at safety last year.
They can match us in the kicking game with place kicker Nick Sciba, who hit 19 of 22 FG and four year punter Dom Maggio, (were his parents Red Sox fans?). But they’ll miss Dortch as a kick returner, although Beal-Smith may make a good replacement.
Per Athlon, Clawson’s 2019 recruiting class includes “three of the five top rated prospects in school history”. Per their list, that would be wide receivers Donavon Greene, Nolan Groulx and defensive end Shamar McCollum. The “opposing coaches on Clawson: “They do a great job of bothering you with that offense. They have a ton of speed and they can’t seem to go fast enough. They’re going to use all four downs on you: they go for it when most coaches wouldn’t. The result is that they make you start pressing more when you’re on offense and then the mistakes start.”
That sounds like what we are trying to do. They are a Liberty with more talent. It used to be said in describing the competitiveness of the NFL that “there are no Wake Forests in the NFL”. No more. Wake Forest isn’t ‘Wake Forest’ any more. A lot will depend on what the stakes are for these two teams when they meet in game 12 and how well the teams have been playing down the stretch.”
Wake is now 7-1 and ranked #22 in the writer’s poll and #20 in the coach’s poll, (ironically just about where we were ranked in the pre-season.) They beat Boston College 27-24, Florida State 22-20 and now North Carolina State, 44-10. Their one loss is to Louisville in a wild 59-62 game in which they out-gained the Cardinals 668-540 and had 40 first downs to 22.
In the NC State game, they had 418 yards to 265 and 27 first downs to 17. They were +3 in turnovers. Jamie Newman was 25 for 38 for 287 yards, 3TDs and no interceptions. He ran for 30 yards and 2 more scores. They didn’t run the ball that well: 123 yards on 46 carries, (2.7). They jumped out to a 21-0 first quarter lead and pushed it to 34-10 at halftime and 44-10 after three. There was no scoring in the fourth quarter.
Basically, wake is having the season we'd hoped to have.
This one’s easy: We have three opponents left and two of them, (Duke and Louisville), had the bye. The one team in action was Wake Forest. Here is my pre-season summary of the Deacons:
“Dave Clawson was Dino Babers’ predecessor at Bowling Green, which means he had a two year head start in rebuilding Wake Forest over Dino’s efforts at Syracuse. It showed in Dino’s first two years. We lost to them 9-28, playing on the edge of a Hurricane in Winston-Salem in 2016. We thought we had them in the Dome in 2017, looking unstoppable in a 38-24 first half. We were very stoppable in the second half they weren’t: we lost 43-64. But last year they had already peaked and we were on the way up and we beat them on a dry field in W-S 41-24. But they still managed to go 7-6 and win a bowl game.
They’ve had some more personnel losses: Greg Dortch, who caught 89 passes of 8 scores and Alex Bachman who caught 37 for 6 scores; second leading rusher Matt Colburn, who ran for 759 yards; three starting offensive linemen who had 112 starts between them; two defensive linemen with a total of 52 starts and DB Cameron Glenn, who had 98 tackles and second team all-ACC. Linebacker D. J. Taylor, already lost for the season with an injury. But Clawson is defiant: “We’re not winning by accident. We have good players.”
Quarterbacks Sam Hartman and Jamie Newman had 25TDs and 14 interceptions between them and ran for 522 yards and 6 TDs. Newman, at 6-4 235, is a load when he decides to pull it down and go. Cade Carney, (5-11 215) is another load that ran for 1,005 yards at 5.3 yards a pop and scored 8 TDs, (but see the injury report, below). Christian Beal-Smith had runs of 52 and 42 yards as a back-up. Sage Surratt caught 41 balls and Scottie Washington caught 45 two years ago and 20 last year before being hurt. They get three year starter Justin Herron back at OT after he was injured in the opener last year. DE Carlos Basham had 11 TFLs. Linebacker Justin Strnad, (yup, that’s how you spell it), had 105 tackles. Athlon: “Former touted recruits Chase Monroe and Jeff Burley are now third year sophomores who haven’t played because of injuries.” Cornerback Essang Bassey “is one of the ACC’s best”. True freshman Nasir Green “came on strong” at safety last year.
They can match us in the kicking game with place kicker Nick Sciba, who hit 19 of 22 FG and four year punter Dom Maggio, (were his parents Red Sox fans?). But they’ll miss Dortch as a kick returner, although Beal-Smith may make a good replacement.
Per Athlon, Clawson’s 2019 recruiting class includes “three of the five top rated prospects in school history”. Per their list, that would be wide receivers Donavon Greene, Nolan Groulx and defensive end Shamar McCollum. The “opposing coaches on Clawson: “They do a great job of bothering you with that offense. They have a ton of speed and they can’t seem to go fast enough. They’re going to use all four downs on you: they go for it when most coaches wouldn’t. The result is that they make you start pressing more when you’re on offense and then the mistakes start.”
That sounds like what we are trying to do. They are a Liberty with more talent. It used to be said in describing the competitiveness of the NFL that “there are no Wake Forests in the NFL”. No more. Wake Forest isn’t ‘Wake Forest’ any more. A lot will depend on what the stakes are for these two teams when they meet in game 12 and how well the teams have been playing down the stretch.”
Wake is now 7-1 and ranked #22 in the writer’s poll and #20 in the coach’s poll, (ironically just about where we were ranked in the pre-season.) They beat Boston College 27-24, Florida State 22-20 and now North Carolina State, 44-10. Their one loss is to Louisville in a wild 59-62 game in which they out-gained the Cardinals 668-540 and had 40 first downs to 22.
In the NC State game, they had 418 yards to 265 and 27 first downs to 17. They were +3 in turnovers. Jamie Newman was 25 for 38 for 287 yards, 3TDs and no interceptions. He ran for 30 yards and 2 more scores. They didn’t run the ball that well: 123 yards on 46 carries, (2.7). They jumped out to a 21-0 first quarter lead and pushed it to 34-10 at halftime and 44-10 after three. There was no scoring in the fourth quarter.
Basically, wake is having the season we'd hoped to have.
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