My Take: Not as bullish as most
Wake Forest is targeting a ‘great’ season, but Deacons have to answer some of the same questions
Here I come, ready to rain on the parade.
Before you get worked up, let me explain: I think this Wake Forest team *can* be the best team in Dave Clawson’s eight-year tenure as coach.
It just seems like this is more likely to be another six- or seven-win season, maybe eight, for the Deacons, rather than reaching nine wins for the third time in program history.
I keep coming back to one quote from the last fall camp practice, and it’s the last part of the quote that really resonates.
“I still think our depth is better than it’s ever been. And I think that will really help us at Wake Forest,” Clawson said a couple of weeks ago. “But there’s also the realization that everyone else you’re playing feels the same way.”
Wake Forest’s returning production and experience is a luxury the Deacons haven’t had in a while. But the majority of teams across the country are saying that because of the extra season of eligibility granted after last season.
And some of the teams that did lose significant pieces are the ones that reload, not rebuild. You know the ones. The Deacons play one every year.
So if just about every team in the country gets to boast depth, is it really an advantage?
(that’s rhetorical)
This is a Wake Forest team that has to answer the same questions it’s seemingly had to answer for the last three seasons.
- Can the defense play at a consistently reliably level?
- Is the depth, particularly on defense, enough to sustain inevitable injuries?
- Can the offense, when needed, change its tempo and chew clock?
- Will the Deacons make it to November, the toughest part of the schedule (by far), healthy enough to challenge top-tier ACC teams?
That second question is the one that’s going to at least kind of be answered in the first two games.
But it’s going to take some games to answer the rest of those. And time.
And until the time comes for those questions to actually be answered, I’d hold off on believing that things are going to be different this season. Because the answers to those questions in past seasons haven’t exactly been positive.
In the interim, we’re going to ease into the season.
All due respect here, Old Dominion and Norfolk State aren’t going to offer the stiffest challenges. The calendar read 2019 the last time ODU played a football game, and it was 2018 the last time ODU beat an FBS team.
Coincidentally, Norfolk State was the Monarchs’ lone win in 2019.
We’re going to find out about the mettle of this Wake Forest team in Weeks 3 and 4 — home against a Florida State team that will, maybe, be improved in Mike Norvell’s second season, and on the road at Virginia, the most-comparable Coastal Division team to Wake Forest under Clawson.
If the Deacons come out of September at 4-0, then let’s talk about rankings and a possible 9- or 10-win season. Even then, though, we’ll just talk because …
This isn’t an easy schedule for Wake Forest. The first two games should be blowouts. But find any other “easy” wins. Games that Wake Forest would be able to put forth something like a C-effort and still win. I’ll give you Syracuse, even though it’s in the Carrier Dome — weird things happen there — and I’ll give you Duke.
Clemson has toyed with Wake Forest in recent meetings, so that goes in the opposite category.
That leaves seven games as somewhere between likely to win and likely to lose. And when the bulk of them are in the second half of the season, and this is a program searching for a strong finish to a season for the first time, and questions persist about the defense’s consistency and the offense’s variance …
This is where I’d put in the picture of the Bobby Portis’ eyes popping out of his head.
“I think college football fans are in for a treat this year,” Clawson said. “I think at some point they’ll look back and say, ‘That was the best college football season ever,’ in terms of the level of play.”
The question becomes whether Wake Forest will rise with the level of play — or above it.
Editor’s note: Please stick with me, subscribers, as I work with Rivals to get information on how to migrate you to Deacons Illustrated. I’m hopeful to have information on that next week.
Great article and I wish the Winston Salem Journal had a sports section !!
This is a good conservative take on a season that could be special - for much of the ACC. In past Wake has won an admirable number of games when the collective talent in the conference improves our lot to the point two conference teams are being considered for the CFP. My hope is that super seniors and cap space are a thing of the future as much as a one hit wonder. If NCAA loosens the reigns College Football could avoid the fate of basketball and baseball, where players fare better in the draft than hanging around. And that would make for better overall competition with these ample talent pools coming from AAU and High School phenoms.