October 14, 2006
Let's Go Wake!
Climb aboard everyone, it's time for the Wake Forest bandwagon to get rolling! There's room for everyone, so don't be shy. Come on, it's fun!
I don't care which ACC team you root for, you need to make Wake your second favorite team right now. Hell, if you pull for UNC, UVA or Duke, you can even make the Deacons your number one choice this season. You have my permission! Trust me, it'll be good for your health. It's not like your team deserves your adulation.
If you don't understand why I'm saying this, you need to watch Wake Forest play. This is a team full of second-rate football players, guys the big programs didn't want. When kicker Sam Swank was asked about this after the game, he mentioned that yeah, some other schools wanted them, but they'd have to walk-on. For the record, Swank nailed three (three!) 50-plus yard field goals in the Deacons' road win over NC State today. And he had a 49-yarder doink off the upright (about two-thirds of the way up, mind you - kid's got a leg!).
Coach Jim Grobe has taken this squad full of misfit toys and forged them into a hell of a football team. After today's win over hot NC State, Wake is now 6-1. Their one loss came last week to the ACC's best team, Clemson and that was pretty much only because of one miraculous play in the Tigers' favor. It's perfectly reasonably to say that Wake should be 7-0 at this point.
The thing is, most times when a lesser program makes a Cinderella run, they do it with a combination of trickery and extreme good fortune. Not this team. They line up run the ball right down your damn throat. Sure, they'll throw some misdirection at you, but they'll also smack you in the face. If they had worn Clemson or Penn State uniforms today, no one would have noticed the difference.
And good luck? Please. Wake's only big name player is quarterback Benjamin "don't call me Ben" Mauk and he was lost for the season in the first game. Running back Micah Andrews was leading the ACC in rushing before blowing out his knee in game three. Starting left tackle, possibly the second most critical position on the team, Arby Jones is also gone for the season. Wake is doing this with backups!
Wake's execution is nearly flawless. When Florida State or Miami run a reverse, it works because they get the ball into the hands of a high school state champion sprinter. When the Deacons run a reverse (like they did over and over against the confused Wolfpack today), it works because they run it perfectly. The receivers seal a lane and quarterback Riley Skinner gets out there a sticks somebody. It's hard to watch that and not be impressed. I think even the dejected Wolfpack faithful would agree that the team that beat them today (and they did beat NC State) was worthy of everyone's respect and admiration.
So climb aboard. Join the Deacon nation. ACC fans have to find something good about this year.
1. In looking for a Wake Forest fan blog to put up the usual inane comments about your team winning ("Go Deacs!", "Yeah, Wake Forest!", "What, sale at J.Crew?", the best Google search brings up articles about Women's Rugby. (try it using WAKE FOREST FOOTBALL, you'll see)
2. There is a five way tie for first place in the Atlantic region. Team number six? Florida State.
3. VT is actually looking forward to basketball season for a change.
4. Lacrosse might be the less painful sport to be identified with this year at Duke.
5. The meeting of rival Florida football powers again involves an unrully ACC team in a bench-clearing brawl. For shame, Miami. For shame, FIU!
| tieguy wrote: |
| Wake did have the good luck to have Duke blow a gimmie field goal that would have won the game. But I guess it is Duke- such things are to be expected. |
Yeah, but Duke didn't just miss that kick. Wake blocked it. Sure, they shouldn't have been that close to Duke, but it was their first game with a new QB.
[Raise your hand if you thought that after week 7, the ranked ACC teams would be Clemson, BC, and Wake, and no one else... yeah, I thought so.]
Great win for the Deacs and good luck the rest of the year.
I realize that your article is meant to be positive, but bottom line is Wake Forest has both good coaching and good players (that the coaches recruited) and the tone of the 'walk ons' is factually incorrect.
| WakeBoarder wrote: |
| I know during the interview that Sam Swank mentioned 'walking on at other ACC programs'. I thought you might want to know that although it seemed that Sam was speaking for the team (as that was the questioned posed) I believe he was speaking more for himself. Wake Forest has a good number of players with offers from other ACC and BCS schools. Of the top of my head I can think of Jyles Tucker, Bryan Andrews, Aaron Curry, Alphonse Smith, De'Angelo Bryant, Kevin Harris, Chris DeGeare, Josh Gattis, Jeremy Thompson, Anthony Davis, Johnny Edwards, Riley Swanson, Chip Vaughan, Jeff Griffin, Dominique Midgett, Ted randolph, Mike Rinfrette, John Russell, Josh Adams, Alex Frye, Michael Carter, Matt Woodlief, Hunter Haynes....
I realize that your article is meant to be positive, but bottom line is Wake Forest has both good coaching and good players (that the coaches recruited) and the tone of the 'walk ons' is factually incorrect. |
Actually, I think the tone is factually correct. I didn't mean to imply that no Wake players were offered scholarships at other ACC (or other BCS) programs. Surely some did (although honestly, you and I really don't know for sure, despite what the recruiting services might tell you) although very likely many of those were offered at other positions or were told that they'd have to fight other more highly-recruited players for playing time.
Clearly Wake's coaching staff has an excellent eye for finding talent that can succeed in their system.
| Quote: |
| This is a team full of second-rate football players, guys the big programs didn't want. |
I just saw that my article was linked over at Wake's Scout.com message board and a few folks are taking exception to the "second-rate" part of that quote. Maybe it was a poor choice of words (and maybe I was playing up the underdog angle a bit). What I was talking about - and the second part of the sentence says this - is that Wake's team isn't full of 4 and 5 star recruits. Most of Wake's players are second-tier recruits. Second-tier recruits, not second-rate players. I didn't mean to imply that they aren't damn good college players now.
We cool?
Go Wake!
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