SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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- I got to Manley South and found I had more than half the parking lot to choose a space to park in. I had never seen it so empty. I got to the Dome and found I count the number of people in each section. I did two, directly across from me: 336 had 126 people in it and 130, below it had 355. There are 66 sections and the capacity is just under 50,000, so n a capacity crowd either would have had about 750 people in it. The game began and I noted that Clayton Welch was to be our starting quarterback. Abdul Adams was said to be injured. Jawhar Jordan was being held out to protect his redshirt status. Other players such as Antwan Cordy, finally ending his long-running career, didn’t suit up. I had the feeling that what I was going to experience was something similar to the last day at the ballpark in a year when the Syracuse Chiefs, (now the Mets), weren’t going anywhere and the players just play to get the game over as quickly as possible. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This team absolutely wanted to win this game and played it to the hilt throughout the game and into the overtime. The small number of fans, as is possible in a Dome, made a large amount of noise. It was an exciting place to be and those that were there saw one of the great games ever played in the Dome. It was a determined answer to that conversation I heard on local radio last week about how nobody would care about this game and its result was meaningless. It was just, as JB likes to say “talk show talk”.
- Our defense has been very strange this year. They swallowed Liberty, Holy Cross and Duke whole. The hung in there most of the game against Clemson, who got a couple of late scores against the reserves to blow part a relatively competitive game. They were effective against NC State and Pittsburgh. There were leaky against Western Michigan and Florida State and got humiliated by Maryland, Boston College and Louisville, who have a combined record of 16 wins and 20 losses. Today they were very good, even though they wound up giving up a lot of yards because Wake put the ball in the air 56 times. They gave up only two field goals in the first half, produced 5 turnovers and, of course won the game at the end. 10 of the 22 guys on their two deep are seniors and they went out on a high note. Replacing those 10 guys will be the biggest challenge going into next year.
- The offense will only lose 3 guys from the two deep. One will be Moe Neal, who ran for 98 yards on 20 carries and had about 4 plays where he was an ankle tackle away from taking it the distance. He did score on a 13 yard run but the play that will be remembered will be a 19 yard pass reception from Welch on 3rd and 18 in which Neal caught a swing pass, cut across the field, then turned around and cut back to the original sideline, barely making the first down at a time when the momentum of the game was against us. Unfortunately Howard ended the drive with a fumble.
- Another was Clayton Welch, sometimes showed why he is a back-up with a couple of bad interceptions that came right after we’d given him the ball on interceptions. But he also made some very good throws, not the sort of shot-puts we saw against Pitt. He wound up with 21 for 36 for 234 yards, and 2 TDs, a pretty darn good performance for a guy hasn’t played a lot. The third senior was the massive (6-6 352) but somewhat disappointing guard Evan Adams. Everybody else in the much improved offensive line will be back, as will Tommy DeVito, who surely learned a lot this years, Abdul Adams, Jarveon Howard and Jawhar Jordan and all the receivers. I think we’ll be a lot better on offense next year.
- We’ve seen the last of our great punter and kickoff man Sterling Hofrichter, who really showed off his wares today, overcoming that knee to the head he took last week. None of his 7 kickoffs or 5 punts were returned. His punts averaged 45.4 yards and his kick-offs consistently hit the middle of the letters in the end zone. Sterling replaced another great punter, Riley Dixon. Can we find another like that?
- Triston Jackson had 10 catches for 111 yards and a score. He wound up with 66 catches for 1,023 yards and 11 TDs. Dino called it a “quiet great year” but said that he hopes next year will be a loud one for him. He respects Tris’s talent enough not to be satisfied with him. I think he also expects our offense to be loud next season.
- Taj Harris showed the dashing aggressiveness we’ve been waiting for all season, scoring on a pass where he spun like a dervish to get past several defenders, (although the refs took it away from him, saying he was stepped out on the two, which was B. S.). He wound up with a season high 7 catches for 70 yards. He should be loud next season, too.
- Aside from the fumble, I was impressed with Howard’s determined running style. He keeps his feet moving. With that and some help from his teammates there were several runs where he “moved the pile” for first downs.
- Trill Williams’ big play to end it was the perfect play to end a disappointing season, giving up hope that big things are in this program’s future. We finally beat a good team. There’s all the different between being 4-8 and 5-7. Winning always matters.
5-7 and that’s all folks
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
- Our defense has been very strange this year. They swallowed Liberty, Holy Cross and Duke whole. The hung in there most of the game against Clemson, who got a couple of late scores against the reserves to blow part a relatively competitive game. They were effective against NC State and Pittsburgh. There were leaky against Western Michigan and Florida State and got humiliated by Maryland, Boston College and Louisville, who have a combined record of 16 wins and 20 losses. Today they were very good, even though they wound up giving up a lot of yards because Wake put the ball in the air 56 times. They gave up only two field goals in the first half, produced 5 turnovers and, of course won the game at the end. 10 of the 22 guys on their two deep are seniors and they went out on a high note. Replacing those 10 guys will be the biggest challenge going into next year.
- The offense will only lose 3 guys from the two deep. One will be Moe Neal, who ran for 98 yards on 20 carries and had about 4 plays where he was an ankle tackle away from taking it the distance. He did score on a 13 yard run but the play that will be remembered will be a 19 yard pass reception from Welch on 3rd and 18 in which Neal caught a swing pass, cut across the field, then turned around and cut back to the original sideline, barely making the first down at a time when the momentum of the game was against us. Unfortunately Howard ended the drive with a fumble.
- Another was Clayton Welch, sometimes showed why he is a back-up with a couple of bad interceptions that came right after we’d given him the ball on interceptions. But he also made some very good throws, not the sort of shot-puts we saw against Pitt. He wound up with 21 for 36 for 234 yards, and 2 TDs, a pretty darn good performance for a guy hasn’t played a lot. The third senior was the massive (6-6 352) but somewhat disappointing guard Evan Adams. Everybody else in the much improved offensive line will be back, as will Tommy DeVito, who surely learned a lot this years, Abdul Adams, Jarveon Howard and Jawhar Jordan and all the receivers. I think we’ll be a lot better on offense next year.
- We’ve seen the last of our great punter and kickoff man Sterling Hofrichter, who really showed off his wares today, overcoming that knee to the head he took last week. None of his 7 kickoffs or 5 punts were returned. His punts averaged 45.4 yards and his kick-offs consistently hit the middle of the letters in the end zone. Sterling replaced another great punter, Riley Dixon. Can we find another like that?
- Triston Jackson had 10 catches for 111 yards and a score. He wound up with 66 catches for 1,023 yards and 11 TDs. Dino called it a “quiet great year” but said that he hopes next year will be a loud one for him. He respects Tris’s talent enough not to be satisfied with him. I think he also expects our offense to be loud next season.
- Taj Harris showed the dashing aggressiveness we’ve been waiting for all season, scoring on a pass where he spun like a dervish to get past several defenders, (although the refs took it away from him, saying he was stepped out on the two, which was B. S.). He wound up with a season high 7 catches for 70 yards. He should be loud next season, too.
- Aside from the fumble, I was impressed with Howard’s determined running style. He keeps his feet moving. With that and some help from his teammates there were several runs where he “moved the pile” for first downs.
- Trill Williams’ big play to end it was the perfect play to end a disappointing season, giving up hope that big things are in this program’s future. We finally beat a good team. There’s all the different between being 4-8 and 5-7. Winning always matters.
5-7 and that’s all folks
LET’S GO ORANGE!!!
