Sometimes the Wake Forest Demon Deacons don’t make the cut for the college football 77 in 77. There’s a whole lot of ACC in the 70s and 60s ranked teams; and a ton of basketball schools. Wake Forest is usually down here in the dregs with Duke, Kentucky, Boston College, Indiana, Virgina, every season. It’s b-ball schools and ACC; or both.
And Wake Forest Coach Jim Grobe has done well against the other ACC schools in the state. He’s 15-5 versus Duke, North Carolina and NC State since 2010. Expectations for football are pretty low at Wake Forest; their stadium seats only 31,000.
Wake Forest last season: 5-7 with a win over a nobody in the Enron Nothing Bowl. Not bad! Offense was a “No Wake Zone” as the Deacons finished 117th in total O, 114th in scoring, 113th in rushing. However, at least they were balanced. Wake Forest was also 100th in passing defense, 91 in scoring defense, and 88th in total defense. The under .500 finish was rather disappointing given that WF started out so hot at 3-1.
Wake Forest reasons to get EXCITED! ALL CAPS! QB Tanner Price is back. And he’s good. So there’s that. But he hasn’t looked very good lately, because spring ball was a mess. He also struggled last year due to the ineffectiveness of his O Line and receivers. The Demon Deacons do have 14 seniors coming back who should contribute. And their whole starting defensive line returns. Even though their DL wasn’t actually good. Hey, at least they’re back.
Wake Forest reasons to get worried :( What exactly does this team do exceedingly well? Stop the run? Not that well. Wake Forest hasn’t been to a bowl since the streak of 2006-08. There’s no reason to believe the blocking will be any better this year; and with that the run game should suck to high heaven again. Don’t expect a lot of holes for their pedestrian tailback tandem to run through.
Key games: September 6th vs Boston College is the real season opener, as beating Presbyterian doesn’t actually count. You and I could beat Presbyterian by ourselves. Sept 14th vs Louisiana-Monroe is important, as it could go either way potentially. So you’re looking at a very doable 3-0 out of the gates, which would do wonders for setting the tone on the season.
Wake Forest bottom line: With their soft schedule, at least 5-7 looks doable. 4-8 if they mess up. A bowl bid might actually happen if they can knock out B.C. and Syracuse. However, they’ll still be a pretty bad team. I would say 5th or 6th in the ACC Atlantic. However, that streak of no conference championships since 1970 fell in ’06, a magical season in which Wake Forest became the smallest school to ever play in a BCS game. After that THRILLING and EXCITING 9-6 win over Georgia Tech in the ACC Title game. This should buy Grobe more time. Even if they fail to make a bowl yet again this year.
Key & Peele East/West College Bowl Roster: QB Maddox Starney, TB Sherman Ragland III, OLB Duke Ejiofor
For the 2013 College Football rankings 1-77
#76 Kansas Jayhawks
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