#3o R.P.I. Virginia Tech @ #51 R.P.I. Wake Forest:

Today’s word of the day is… mul·li·gan

/ˈməliɡən/
noun, (informal) North American

Origin: early 20th century: apparently from the surname Mulligan.

1. a stew made from odds and ends of food.
2. (in informal golf) an extra stroke allowed after a poor shot, not counted on the scorecard.
3. 10.24, 10.31, or 11.07. Somewhere before we catch up to #11 nationally ranked Miami; me fears we may just need to mulligan one of these.

Wake Forest Head Coach: David Paul Clawson: age=53, (38–42 at Wake; 128–121 overall); has a rep’ for building, lifting, resurrecting. Db coach early on, tho’ now seems more
parts Rb/Qb whisper by trade.
$2,189,063.oo

Baller and .edu David is a 1989 graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts. Where Clawson earned a degree in political economy. A native of Youngstown, N.Y., Clawson was a defensive back for Williams and went on to serve as a graduate assistant coach at Albany.

After this Coach, Clawson really went itinerate or Larry Brown vagabond in the lower echelon college ranks. With tourstops at: Brown, Villanova, Leigh, and eventually at Tennessee. Then he broke in as a head-honcho at: Fordham, Richmond, Bowling Green, and now at Atlantic side Wake. Coach Claw’ has never posted an overall tenured L’ing mark tallying north of .5oo ball by the time he left the given school. i.e. he improved every single program that he served as the head-master thereof. Not everyone can say this either folks. Coach Dee.Cee. had won three-straight bowl games @Wake, although he was o-for-life in the post-season prior to that. And frankly avoiding getting lesser talent(s) exposed on longer post-season prep’ times is regular season Coaching the capitalized Verb.

As the first likable r-shirt commander himself since the final ‘shots fired’ of 1776, or coach Clawson the human quadratic basically only needs four years to win anywhere. Check it out: Fordham: 0-11 in year one, 10-3 in year four. Richmond: 3-8 in year one, 11-3 in year four. Bowling Green: 2-10 in year two, 10-3 in year five. Wake Forest: 3-9 in year one, 8-5 in year four. Or to put this another way… In 2017, coach Claw’s fourth season at Wake, his Deacons not only won eight games; they also finished 31st in the end-of-year S&P+ rankings. And they hadn’t ranked in the top-35 of that since 1948! This is building the verb people. It is also, rewarding; as coach Claw’ was rewarded with a new 2026 contract for a guy who has never ever lived in the same building for more than five straight seasons no matter his personal venue in the game of life.

Coach Davy is also quite possibly the only coach with conference title rings in the following categories: 1 Patriot (2002), 1 A-10 (2005), 1 C.A.A. (2007), 1 M.A.C. (2013), and 1 M.A.C. East Division (2013) crown.

While only being Conference Coach if the Year four times and only being a lowercase classification National Coach of the Year; twice. I know that’s not the So.East. or murders row— nevertheless… is coach Claw’ the first coach in the history of history to do all of this? Coach Claw’ has also spawned one former underboss into a big whistle in his own right: namely: Russ Huesman: Chattanooga (2009–2016) then Richmond (2017–present).

Daddy Clawson and his wife, Catherine, are the parents of two children,
Courtney and Eric.

WFU 2018 record: 8 up 5 down and 4-4 in the A.c.c.

 Wake Forest Defense: (starters back=9)

• 4-2-5 (Nickel set).
• 57th in Total D.
• 62nd vs. the run.
• 47th vs. the throw.
• 28th in pass efficiency D, however.
• 41st in zone D.
• 8 outta 10 in dLine Havoc. Carlos Basham Jr. (who likes to strike Greco-Roman statue ‘esque poses) leads Wake in Qbs sacked with four and he was not the alpha front-4 listee in the preseason two seasons ago. As he was known as a Dwight White type of run-fighter and has amassed a whopping 33.5 run-stuffs in the last 1.5 seasons to show for it. Overall, Wake deploys good size dLine, “where’s the beef”=the ground round middle. Very Foster looking lumpy mashed potatoes kinda 1-gap Dt’s and Basham is a mere towering 6′5″, 277 lb. De. Five solid interior linemen are led by Dt/Ng Sulaiman Kamara, and, on the outside, De JaCorey Johns flashed potential in part-time action as a r-freshman last year. If Wake has an A-side defensive layer? Bashman Jr. by his ownself has the senior say-so on that. Pretty physically stocky pretty experienced upperclassman dLine here. And bowling-ball like Miles Fox is hoped to be a real Dt plugger. (O.d.u., Achilles, St.Servatius help!) Tho’ he seems to have come on a bit of late.
• 5 outta 10 in Linebacking Havoc. The Deacons return two solid linebackers in Ryan Smenda Jr. and Ja’Cquez Williams, although depth is a big ole question mark here. Ja’Cquez Williams has the makings of a potential Alpha at one of the ILb-twins spots thanks to his quicks and mobility sideline-to-sideline. Not a lot mo’ to say… as the Dec 2nd-layer was kind like how you want your Oline to be,  (or: invisible) at times. And that may not be the best thing to be?
• 6 outta 10 in Secondary Havoc. Zion Keith, Traveon Redd, Ja’Sir Taylor, and Nick Andersen all conspire to make a lotta plays and a lotta stops here. And that’s typically not an epic sign when 80% of your top-tacklers are your Secondary itself. As that’s a tertiary Y.A.C. (yards after contact) fail more often than not. It is an even mo’ conspicuous sign when you braille that this year’s biggest challenge will be to replace two 2019 Cb1’s who started a whopping 82 career games combined. Yikes! Safety is more coverage primed; might even be one standout S here at the end of 2020. As Ja’Sir Taylor is literally the only experience Cb Wake has left— and you will see a lotta secondary faces for it on Saturday here. As this is not a small secondary; it is however a hind-4 that is at least a season (maybe two) short on experience. It is also a pretty dinged-up hind-4 with a couple of dents to boot.

  

• D overall: (film-study): this is a solid tacking defense, they ain’t great overall tho’ their Tac’s (player-speak for: tackles) are indeed good enough. There kinda seems to be a bend-though-don’t-break vibe to Wake’s stop-squad this season. They are sorta okay at that, tho’ methinks this will jump up and bite them at some point this year. The Wake D will cheat/toggle into a more balanced looking forty-three hybrid at times and stack/cover their Lb’s to try to keep ’em clean. With a lotta Cover-1 and just a little Tampa-2 behind that; with a semi-variable Man hardness on the edges. Wake will run-blitz and loop, cross or twist the night away. Also saw Wake having a slow time getting lined-up vs. uva’s tempo max’. As they are not entirely pre-snap set and flex’ around laterally and vertically pre-play. Hopefully Corny saw this too. As their nominal 4-2 has a lotta pre-snap defensive “calls” and toggles to it. Wake can be sucked a bit inside at times as well.

• ∑ (summary): returning D production=67% (or a reasonable 53rd most). Basham fo’ shizzle is your conflict defender here! Wake was 2nd last year in the A.c.c. in Qb’s-sacked and in TFL and they do wanna schematically plum git after yah. Ditto a downright attractive 12 big defensive points tallied on 2020 already! Wake will strip the ball on tape; Gauntlet Drill beware. That all being said, and attempted aggression aside, Wake Forest hasn’t been good in halt-unit terms since 2016. Tho’, the Deacons improved slightly last year with a better pass rush and by creating more turnovers. Injuries wiped out key players in 2019 and as you will read below in the takeaway (pardon the pun) section, this is a real live bugbear for the Dec’s. It may have created a little bit of stopping experience— however, averaged and sub-averaged quality ballers, even when well-experienced ballers just are just C— to D+++ caliber ballers at the end of the day, at the start, and in the middle. As 9 2019 players returned— that’s the good news. The news-news is that the two that left were studs. And besides Bashman they did not leave as much behind as they took.

Defensive letter-grade:

Wake Forest Offense: (returning starters=)

• 22nd in Total O.
• 41st in ground O.
• 21st in aerial O.
• 22nd in Passing Efficiency O.
• 41st in completion-percentage O.
• 23rd in zone O.

  

• O overall: Rb: Kenneth Walker III is a good ‘back who will wildcat moonlight. Tho’ a suspect pass-protect guy. In rushing… he is a strong, burrowing rusher at a hardened looking 5′9″, 2o6 second-year lbs. Ken’ was a likable team captain at Arlington High and he was the No. 104-rated player in Tennessee in 2018. Eye repeat: in Tenn., not in the Nation, in the Volunteer state itself. So, this kid is surely doing more (already) than most recruiting services predicted as they predicted not much north of a serviceable collegiate career; if they even predicted that. Kenneth the III did tally close to 100 high school catches and nearly 20 prep majors (catching TD’s). And this Rb only lead his high school in tackles over on D his final season. So, this is a multi-faceted kid and he’s not a sissy multi-faceted kid, either. He is also a baller who has a knack for the big-play or Home Run hitting at Rb; and he seems to hit even better for power as the game wears on. As the night grows longer Mister Walker grows stronger. That’s a surefire sign of conditioning and of heart alike folks. Or basically of a St.Charles Place man’s k.Herbert give/take. Rb2, and on-again-off-again (suspensions) Christian Beal-Smith has a history of turned ankles (St.Philip bless) and his weekly production fluctuates a bit or ventures on being: “unknown”. Tho’ I do know C.B-S and his Chuck Muncie looking glasses and his massive Predator ‘dreds have been on the come since mid-September and had put up some helpful/sharp numbers of late as a said to be: “explosion type” ‘back. Not half-bad work from the mere 109th ranked playar in the state of Tennessee two years ago. Who only put up ~5K all-purpose yardage (carries+catches+kicks) in his final two seasons and can very much return a Kick. Oline: Only 20% of the starters are back; and that’s seldom -if ever- a good sign upfront. Wake has enjoyed a staggering near 100 returning oLine starts rolling average for three straight years. This year, the returning O-linemen had 28 career starts. The Deacons hope to get a big boost from grad transfer Terrance Davis, who had 31 starts for Maryland. Davis, a former four-star recruit, has battled injuries but has been dominant when healthy. Well, at least they did; tho’ poor Mr. Davis has been ruled out with a season-ending (undisclosed) injury; (whispers: say: ‘leg’, God Bless!). G-c-G is more mature than the bookends are, and the internal blocking wedge gets the very modest nod accordingly here. Centering itself was iffy on shotgun looks a couple of dust-bunny times. They did however kinda remind of richrod. Just not as physically in their dedication to winning the alpha-gap block at all costs. Doubles, chips/shills, whatever. (this is a smaller more Jenny Craig’ed oLine via combination-blocking and footwork/movement design; what with NO oLineman north of 3o4 lbs.!) C turned Ot Zach Tom leaves no doubt here. Tough overall Ot looks pretty inviting upon film; which is why Zach ain’t Centering much of anything this year; “hike!” Qb1: is, okay enough. As don’t forget that demoted Qb1 now gone Qb2 (Sam Hartman) now comeback to being Qb1, starts for close to half of D-1 right now. Love the 80’s totally rad Camaro type of middle-parting Kung-Fu movie looking tube sock ‘fro here. As Hartman looks like might actually Rubix your, cube. That all to say… although Eye is not sure if Hartman is a good Qb? Eye am sure he is a Qb who manages the game and tries to be a misQ-free Qb. Sam is a 6′1″, 212 lb. listed r-Soph. Qb1 who honestly looks smaller than that to me upon breaking tape. Hartman was rated the No. 12 pro-style passer in the class of 2018 by 247Sports. He went out and gottcha 9,481 passing-yards and 98 throw-game TD’s in his prep career. Not half bad scholastic work— if you can get it? Interesting however that Sam only really had Elon on his next-level radar-scope a couple of years back. Sam I Am is a championship bling owner, thanks to his Davidson Day state championship ring. He has a bro’ who is a fair-to-middling basketball star at Haverford College, and Sam is a Dean’s List member. A lot to like here, even if he is a little short on a lot to love. As methinks his physical metrics undercut his offer list just a scosche. Sam is an accuracy or crispy mid-range type thrower. College level efficacious more so than the next level ambitious. That said, the other Sam thing Eye augured out was… Sam is a bit streaky. The Byron Scott of Qb shooting if you will. (he was streak as well down below on the scholastic level to boot). As Sam is a 30-point better Qb rating Qb1 @home, and he is a mind-boggling nearly 70-point better Qb1 in quarter no.1! Or in other words… Sam’s start is indeed Sam’s finish. This kid gets it going early and look out later on. As a true freshman in 2018, Hartman was fourth in the A.c.c. in total offense before breaking his leg in the ninth game (St.Culberth bless). He’ll have to be more accurate and protect the rock better, and the Deacons will have to rethink their approach— as Hartman is not the running threat that gonzo Qb1 Newman was. (finally, Sam I Am is really not a rusher, he is however nearly a negative centennial (–1oo) yards in the hole for his college career on the ground). Snap! Be aware that Wake has given not less than 3-Qb’s decent P.T. (playing-time) this campaign. Wr: Virtually nobody is back here. 1 of their Top-6 returned and he was no.6. Still yet, J.Roberson (a sleeper good player) and VHT (very highly touted) all-world recruit Donavon Greene are your alpha-beta here. And they can move. Tho’ the Top-7 pass-catchers for Wake this year you ask? 100%, 7 outta 7 of ’em are Wideouts. What with only 1 Rb reception overall and only a couple of Te’s with 2 catches apiece? You had better know who to: ‘key’ here. Still yet, the 3rd-4th string All-American opt-out (viral/N.f.l. “respect my draft non-dodger decision”) stud-Wr Sage Surratt not playing this year; is a really big hurt here. As this Sage is a legit Wideout folks. Easily one of the A.c.c.W.r., best! Formerly, Wake had liked to work the middle with the Te, yet new starter Brandon Chapman has been a better blocker than pass-catcher. Wr’s do enjoy good size, just not good experience. Decent good-hands-people; just a decent catch cadre.

  

• ∑ (summary): returning O production=33% (or a lowly 125th most!) This is a young O, in particular at Qb where 2018-2019 study Qb1 (Newman) took his u.grad Wake.Forestry.edu degree to UGA.edu. Hartman has some 2018 experience; granted, and he looks pretty 2020 misQ free— so far. Tho’ I’ma wondering if he is just game-manager extraordinaire or an efficiency machine? More so than a put you, Perkins, on his back @uva and go’on and whoop you his ownself Qb1. That said, Wake seems a mite more aggressive on their throw-point locations. Northerly aggressive I mean. Which is interesting, for a team that lacks epic pass-protection and lacks epic Wr’s overall. Methinks they have decided that the south of so-so rusher named Hartman is not a good look. Ergo, they are trying to max out his best B— (passer) look as much as they can and ride or die with downfield that. (film-study): …as a Flanker my ownself… I gotta say I found the middle sit-down patterning (Hooks in particular) very F5-keystroke, or refreshing indeed. Don’t see many sit-down works left in 2020 terms. Tho’ what Wake was really doing is… attacking the yardage (needed) pole/marker. As they seldom if ever leak a Rb or hot H-back out short of the yards to go marker. This is what skews their PFF throw points northwardly. Wake does a lotta pretty decent in-line 45° downhill zone-pushing; or, a lotta turn-n-shield more individual works at the LOS (line-of-scrimmage). Although a beat your damn ass oLine this just ain’t. (watch this in short-yardage). The Rb’s vision surprised/impressed me, per #26 (Jennifer Beals favorite Dec’) in particular. As Beal-Smith is nearly a plucky/shifty guy when 100% fresh. Wake uses a lotta X’ing or delayed crossing from XY on the edges. Hartman is not half-bad at just extending the pocket laterally and will throw deep(er) when the pocket breaks down. Surprised me how well he did at this as a not quite a pure athlete himself. And oh yes, then there is their slow-riding hesitation-based northwardly toward the Line of Scrimmage (LOS) mesh-point. Very odd-looking, Eye say twice: ‘very odd-looking’ tho’ it does give the Qb a longer or more accurate sense of literacy on give/take on the single-‘back old-school Belly-Play R.P.O. With nearly a passing so-called Vee-cup as this thingy would be vulnerable to off-side Dt crashing/collapsing A-gap penetration. Be a real nice to see our limited Dt’s bull their way forward right into Hartman’s lap.

• 59% run:pass 41% mix. Joseph Addison’s (circa: 1712 A.D.) epic blast of: “He who hesitates is lost” is your secret sauce offender here.
  Wake has fumbled; once on O. That’s pretty solid-ball-handling to cross-pollinate my sporting-allegory all the more.
  Mesh point surety/I.D.=whacko! However, this oLine is just flat out allowing too much incoming penetration. Seeing a number of backfield stops of whomever (Rb/Qb) alike upon breaking tape. With only one week worth of shopping days until 10.31, I’ma not seeing a Qb that seems multi-faceted enough to scare the bejesus outta me like I sorta did from Wake and Newman 2019 before. Ditto the kinda good tho’ not real big Wake Rb’s. Who are nice just not as nice as in punishing years past terms. That all rightfully said, this Wake O is prolly about as coached-up as it can be. Wake is doing a lot-lot with a few good pieces and a few average+++ pieces as well. And they do it pretty well all over the field sans Qb1 rushing of course. This makes them hard to locate and even harder to key. And if I had to say Hartman does one thing above all others, he really play-action sells the “R” ‘n RPO’s and then keeps for downfield throws like a champ’. He has a knack for this downloaded and already installed.

Offensive letter-grade:

Deacon Special Teams: (1 K returns)

Wake Forest is 53rd in Net Punting; and not coincidentally so is Wake Forest Punter: Ivan Mora. 6′, 173 lb. r-Fresh. Mister Mora is an interesting kid, a Russian Christian name with Moor and Spanish family roots? Be yeh blue or red, the RW&B is indeed the ultimate Heinz 57 variety sauce in (♠’s) spades. And kicking variety -unsurprisingly- is his flavor as well. Check it… Ivan was merely Team captain at Dalton High School (a Specialist nearly unheard of, rarity). He was only ranked as the No. 3 kicker and the No. 1 punter by Kohl’s Kicking in all the land! And he was just the top-rated punter in a camp with 600 other punters, which earned him the prestigious Sam Foltz Award. That’s all. This kid sucks; cut him now! Other than that? He was only all-state (Peach State, A.K.A., Ga.) in soccer and he only courts a 50-yard ranging leg on FGA’s. Tho’ he is more parts collegiate Punter now and a 2020 Ray Guy Award nominee already. Ivan has a (short) career-long of 59-yards punting in college thus far. He is said to have more leg in the bag than that. As this kid has the look-n-feel of an all-conference legger, more parts ‘when’, less parts, “if”.

• Wake is a very sporty 12th in Punt Returns | a pure rocket-fuel 2nd in KO returns!
• Wake is 41st in punt coverage | 42nd and in suicide-squad.
• Wake has blocked 0 kicks and allowed 1 kick to be blocked.
• Wake has blocked o punts and allowed o punts to be blocked.

Last time we saw him… least we forgets… Nick Sciba was/is a quality place-Kicker. Actually, he was a perfected quality Place-Kicker the last time we saw him, as Nick had yet to 2019 miss (15 for 15 FGA’s and 36 outta 36 on P.A.T.’s) and he is (now) only a paltry 5o for 57 on his collegiate FG-kicking life. Plus, he has never ever missed a P.A.T. Not one. None! Yes, I’d have to say that counts… as Mister Sciba is an automatic-weaponized version of the FG-Kicking position itself. A reasonable caliber one to boot what with his 5′9″, 188 lb., plucky looking or sawed-off Jr. year approach to kicking (aim block-points low here coach Shibest). The queer thing is… Nick only has one make >45-yards thus far. (A 49-yarder two seasons ago). So, Nick may not quite be an Iowa Class 16″ main-gun after all, although his optics and targeting software inside of 40-yards is Bismarck epic indeed. And Wake will go to Nick on any medium FGA and take the 3-pointer and KO next, for it to boot. The no.7 Kicking prospect in America (per: 247Sports) and he has something inked about his “dad” on his left inside biceps. Kool kid, and a cool-Modine K who obeys his range to the 100th percentile degree. (BONUS: Pts. are awarded for being a: Kick-it-to Cancer and the fight to help stop pediatric cancer sponsor, and his G.P.A. is a mere 3.8o; may St.Elmo’ bless Nick). Plus, Nick seems to be 2019 heating right back up in 2020 in the last couple of weeks. As this kid may not be All-A.c.c., he might just be N.F.L. And oh yes…  kicker Nick Sciba, ONLY set an NC2A record with 34 straight made field goals until earlier this campaign. That’s all. CUT him immediately!!! As he only has 1 mo’ tackle than you and I do combined in 2020.

(K, Jack Crane has gotten a few leg-swings in 2020 as well. And he too has let to A.c.c. miss!)

Special Teams letter-grade: In coaching sewing-circles, Coach Clawson has a shiny rep’ in all less Special-Teams coverage and return units alike. Because Coach Claw’ won’t risk what precious few stars he has on blindside hitting here. A “Gölem” approach to ST’s born of necessity if you will. Leg-game is epic at K, easily good enuff at P and everything else is mixed; at best/at most. B+ just for Nickknack himself.

Unit Rankings:

1. VT O.
2. Wake O (semi-close).
3. (tie): VT D/Wake D (both are porous and scoreboard available at the moment).

X-factor(s):

• motive: …don’t really see any helter-skelter type motive in favor of either side here. Almost has a catnap kinda feel to it in fact. EDGE=push.
• weather: well, if it does precip’, that can only favor VeeTee. Via helping reduce Wake dimensions and via our superior oLine alike. EDGE=VT.
• health/off-field: Wake is missing a couple of key/hurtful pieces, tho’ VeeTee has ~400-500% mo’ guys dinged/dented, out; or on sick leave here. EDGE=Wake.
• penalties: Wake -to their credit- is better than average at (not) doing yellow-laundry; as coach Claw team typically has a good grip on discipline and they are heavy-handed indeed. And yet VeeTee is even better than that. EDGE=VT.
• intangibles: Wake is 2nd best in all-important Turnover Margin (+2 tpg); this is no bad look. 67th however in TOP (time of possession) is a bad look. EDGE=VT (mostly on TOP).
• fatigue: Wake is +8 on R&R in the last fortnight and sleeps in their backyard here. EDGE=Wake for sure!

 

Illation, conclusion(s) and OPT digits:

Number of Deacs who could peach @Tech=8 maybe 9

the takeaway:

The takeaway is… that on the back of four straight bowls, resumê growing Coach Dave Clawson has forged a reputation as one of the top program builders in the country.

He has his Deacons winning with a consistency never seen in the program’s history. That stability will be 2020 challenged, although, as Clawson departs his starting Qb1, his leading Rb and Wr’s, three starters along the Oline, his stud-Te, his best Lb, and his two starting Corners.

---

And oh, by the way, it is a lack of recruitable quality 2’s and 3’s on the Deacon depth-chart that has been the program’s biggest issue over the last two seasons.

In particular on a reverse Beamer look of giving the O the peachy-keen first choice of ballers. This has left even good-health W.Forest football teams somewhat defensively harvested, or deforested if you will.

***

(i.e. with good health this opener makes no nevermind; with insalubrious health however and Wake may hit the Coach Icky Crane snooze button indeed.)

xxx‘s & ooo‘s

formulae here favor… having a BYE or OPEN week before you face this flex-hesitation-based mesh-point option attack.

Or a bowl game of at least a month+ to rehearse, prepare.
Seriously. EDGE=Wake all the way! (even worse with travel-time constraints for Tech).

permutations:

1. Δ1=65% that VeeTee slowly yet surely out-talents Wake. In particular in run-fits and eventually grinding blocking-fits.
2. Δ2=30% that Wake imbalances a prone to being kinda wobbly looking O&M eggs and j.Ham D. As Wake doesn’t make too many mistakes. You do have to go’on and line-up and beat ’em. (i.e. let’s not gift them an early Christmas or anything like that on turnovers or misQ’s)
3. Δ3=5% of who knows? This is the ‘doink’ off the upright year.

#ChallangeA.c.c.epted… there are 1,440 minutes’ in a day and hopefully favored VeeTee need not win a whole lot more than 40-45 minutes worth of scrumming here.

the optics…

The whole Deacon system and everything Wake Forest does sermonizes upon the offense cranking up consistent production. Even when the points are not quite there, the O has to sit the so-so to suspect Deacon D and still hit third-down conversion after third-down conversion. This is mandatory pragmatically.

Accordingly, the Deacons have improved in each of the last four years, and last season led the A.c.c. by converting over 47% of their penultimate {sic: 3rd} down tries, hitting the mark or better in eight games. Wake was a perfected 6-0 when it was able to do it— because in the last four seasons, Wake Forest is 17-3 when converting 47% of its third-down attempts!

47% folks… Eye surmise is your 7 PM Saturday nite magic-number.

the skinny…

One of the truly bizarre-O things in writing this preview was/is… my pre-season preview magazines. As in… virtually all of the (nominated) positional takeover or replacement 2020 guys have not been 5×5. As hardly any of ’em have panned out. I know this as I wasted 20-30 minutes trying to find out where they depth-chart (or off-campus) be.

As Eye am sure where they ain’t, they ain’t starting and that’s quite a lotta turnover or outright flux for what is a truly fluxed-up year both on-field and off for everyone thus far.

i.e. unless Wake detected a heretofore hidden bobby-dazzler mother-load of emeralds in the tall grass? This is unlikely to be code for a good look.

Lo.FM (Long-field Management©)

• Wake is 35th on 1st-down O | whereas VeeTee is 46th in defense of 1st-down.
• Wake is 51st on 3rd down O | whereas VeeTee is 49th in defense of 3rd-down.
• VeeTee is 33rd on 1st-down O | whereas Wake is 52nd in defense of 1st-down.
• VeeTee is 57th on 3rd down O | whereas Wake is 56th in defense of 3rd-down.
  (BONUS: the VeeTee dLine graded not better than 4th from last in four outta the seven dLine categories Eye track nationally— wow/geez!)

Lo.FM analysis: Well, -and ‘yes’, Eye know- wells are for H2o, granted… tho’ still yet, both teams are about average on 1st-down O and after that? Both teams need subsequent Downage help in terms of remaining on chain⇔gang down-n-distance schedule.
EDGE=push.

(mo’ charted up above… tho’ winning 3rd-down vs. Coach-Claw is a criticality here!!!)

TTT (Time To Throw©)

• Wake is a modest 43rd in Qb’s sacked | whereas VeeTee is 22nd in Qb sacks allowed. (VTBONUS: tho’ only a weak-looking 70th best in passing-downs protection rate!)
• VeeTee is a sharp-looking 7th in Qb’s sacked | whereas Wake is a lowly sieve-like 74th in Qb sacks allowed.
• Wake is a decent 25th in Tackles for a Loss (TFL) inflicted | whereas VeeTee is a little better at 17th fewest in TFL allowed.
• VeeTee is (likewise) 25th in Tackles for a Loss (TFL) inflicted | whereas Wake is a user-friendly 65th in TFL allowed.

TTT analysis: As you can see… VeeTee enjoys some really field-position tilting metrics in their Gobbling favor here. VeeTee and O&M eggs and j.Ham need to go’on and bully the pulpit of these (seemingly) flimsy-looking Deacon’s, indeed!
EDGE=VT.

the call...

125 miles so-by-so-east and we are a nifty 5-1 on the year.

That, or we are on a really homesick lovestruck heartbroke 125 miles nor-by-nor-west quiet as a mouse return trip for our got all kinda preachy troubles.

As one thing I’m seeing is… I ain’t seeing anyone froggy enough to pick the Hokiebird to get upset, @Wake, vs. the downright squirrely Wake Forest mesh-point O.

This Eye consider to be strange in my considered opinion… what I find to be even stranger yet is… that our handy-dandy friend the so-called Forum Guide of Graham Houston fame is picking VeeTee to win by 24-points!

As I’d have to pick that as a truest best-case scenario in this one.

Nevertheless, perhaps a reach pick that is within our best-case Coach Robert Browning grasp when you consider that the Forum Guide rushing margin favors VeeTee by a nearly mindless +296 ypg! (or by 29.6 ppg).

Wake Forest Projected S&P+: 49th.
Projected S&P wins: 7.1 W’s.

PLANDEMIC:

Me?

Well, I’m planning on trying to eval’ and finally game some measure of R.A.T.T. traction just what O&M eggs and j.Ham be cooking-up❓

As the saltier 2nd-half of tacking vs. Boston College would be most oddball hesitation mesh-point based Wake Forest edifying here.

As anything less than efficacious tackling here and do not die of shock if a shootout type contest erupts down in Winston-Salem. A Tobacco Road scoreboard smoke ’em if you got ’em kinda deal whereby he who scores last laughs last.

–oOo–

As methinks several mo’ things will 2020 happen before 2020 is O&M all said-n-done.

• VeeTee will drop at least one game they (seemingly) shoulda won.
• VeeTee will catch at least one good break and steal one game they (seemingly) shoulda L.
• …and VeeTee will end up in at least 3-4 Big-8 type shootout fu’n fighting or made for telly gunfighting typea contests before the season ends.

This one here has the makings of at least one bullet point on the above list…

… let’s just hope it does not have the makings of the first one even if the third one suits  the TV suits just swell.

As VeeTee has erupted for 71 points in six quarters under the direction of Hooker and unless O&M eggs and j.Ham’s driver starts to find the fairway?

The Fu’fense needs to roll more than a few out there in the short-stuff under a Captain’s Choice format, or maybe j.Ham needs to break out the 2020 3-wood?

Because, unless j.Ham gets a good bounce off of a persimmon tree?

This year needs Herbert to stay healthy and keep slicing opposing D’s up like a champ’ and maybe we all do need to hook j.Ham up with a 2020 mulligan indeed?

As there is gonna be a real defensive wake-up call coming through somewhere between now and Miami.

The only Q is… does it come through Saturday night at ~7 pm?

🙏>>>😷>>>🏈

upset Index=37%

#wimps!

Virginia Tech=42, Wake Forest=29

“LETS GO!“

Please support the VT F.C.A.!

“HOKIES!“

bourbonstreet**