Woe is Wake

I've often used Wake Forest's 2006 ACC Championship as a model for what BC can do. But the Wake straw man is a bit undone by their losing season in 2009 and their struggles this year. Was their run of a few years ago a fluke? Has Grobe lost his touch? Or is this a rebuilding year/transition year? To get you up to speed on the Deacons, I thought I would look at the reasons behind their struggles and how it relates to BC.

Terrible on one side of the ball. Wake: Defense. BC: Offense. You know all those categories and ratings of our offense? Wake is in a similar boat on defense. They are at the bottom of the ACC in points per game and yards allowed. They are also at the bottom of turnovers created. They are 117 in total defense. During their best times Wake was never dominant on defense but they had plenty of skill and a solid enough scheme. The difference between BC's offensive decline and Wake's defensive decline is that BC's is more easy to explain. We have a new OC and have had freshman QBs. Wake...is more confounding. While there is a talent decline, they still had plenty of experienced starters. I would point the finger at their DC Brad Lambert but he has been with Grobe a long time. He was also DC during 2008 (Wake's best defensive year of the Grobe era).

Young QBs After Riley Skinner moved on Wake was left without a game tested QB. Wake has played four different QBs this year, none of whom have been that effective. Tanner Price and Skylar Jones have received the most reps. Neither have been in Skinner's league. It also doesn't help that Grobe is transitioning the offense back to a more option/misdirection scheme and away from the passing/spread focus he used with Mauck and Skinner.

Front Loaded Schedule Wake's strength of schedule is 36th nationally. Six of their eight opponents have winning records. Their non conference schedule included Stanford and Navy. While they've been blown out a few times, they also lost close games to Georgia Tech and Navy. Unlike BC though, their schedule doesn't ease up. They still have to play NC State and Clemson.

Those are the similarities. The biggest difference to me is the head coach. Grobe has accomplished more at Wake than any of the ten coaches who preceded him in Winston-Salem. That good will won't last forever, but it has earned him enough breathing room to ride out a disastrous season. Spaz's obviously doesn't have that track record as head coach. Does that make one situation better than the other? Not this year. I actually think we will finish strong. Wake looks like they will bottom out. We will find out more Saturday.