Getting blown out by Clemson doesn't constitute a slide. Nothing about Wake's last two games suggest they are a team that is struggling right now (although the loss of Surratt was a big hit, going forward). If you don't see how "Wake got blown out by Clemson and are now on the slide" is a ridiculous sentiment I don't know what else to tell you.
Please show me where I said Wake Forest was on a slide.
What I said was they were not exactly on a roll. If you think losing back-to-back games by scores of 36-17 and 52-3 contradicts that, then you're welcome to that opinion.
Just don't ask me to defend something I never said.
Jim, has there been any news on Casey Holman today? I have been looking for news (tweets, etc) but haven’t seen anything new. Thanks.
Honestly felt this way since the Wake Forest game last year. That was the worst game I have ever seen a Cutcliffe team play. They totally quit on him. Watching the Syracuse game I had similar feelings. Not sure how much more fight this team has in them at this point.
The coaching staff doesnt trust the offense and you might even say the coaches are scared to call anything positive. Not sure where that comes from, they watch practice all week and all I see are games.
Its pretty clear this team isn't playing to win right now which makes it even worse to see players like Holman and Bracey lying face down on the field. There is no passion, no fight in anyone.
Well see what happens in the off-season.
I too think that the WF game last season was a harbinger, an inflection point of sorts, a canary in the coal mine. That kind of televised embarrassment doesn't go away...poor play, getting beat by 52 by another private school in your state, nobody in the stands...that's what we call "recruit repellent" big time. And that kind of embarrassment can only happen to a program with deeper issues. The rout of Temple made me feel like maybe the WF game was just an outlier, a one off. Clearly we've had several more like that this season, none worse than the Cuse game.
If this seems like one of the worst stretches during Cut's tenure, that's because it is. If we define a blowout loss as a loss by at least 4 touchdowns, the number of blowout losses per season since Cut arrived is as follows:
2008 - 0
2009 - 2: #22 Kansas and #7 Georgia Tech
2010 - 2: #1 Alabama and #23 Virginia Tech
2011 - 2: #6 Stanford and unranked Miami
2012 - 3: #25 Stanford, #11 Florida State and #10 Clemson
2013 - 1: #1 Florida State
2014 - 0
2015 - 1: #21 North Carolina
2016 - 1: unranked Pittsburgh
2017 - 0
2018 - 2: #2 Clemson and unranked Wake Forest
2019 - 4: #2 Alabama, unranked Virginia, #15 Notre Dame and unranked Syracuse
This is the first season with at least 4 blowout losses, and the first with at least 2 blowout losses to unranked teams. This is a bad trend, and there does not seem to be enough urgency to fix it. As Jim Sumner explained last week, Cut may have been limiting Quentin Harris to quick passes and few runs against Notre Dame in order to reduce the risk of injuring him, because we have no effective backup QB. But that strategy made no sense in a must-win game against Syracuse. We cannot beat anyone (with or without QH) with the current offensive strategy, as opposing defenses can focus almost exclusively on stopping the run and jumping our short pass routes. We need to open up the offense, even if some of the more exotic plays don't work, so that opposing defenses have to play a little looser. Also, this team does not seem to be as disciplined as past teams, as there are, among other things, too many false starts in critical situations in recent games. So I, too, am sensing a lack of passion in the coaches and/or players - except for Chris Rumph, who seemed truly on fire during one key defensive series in the second half against Syracuse.
Banana
well stated. It will indeed be interesting to see how Cutcliffe responds to this state of affairs.
Teams have learned (apropos to your statement about the coaches being scared to call anything positive) we absolutely can't, or won't, throw the ball downfield. As such we're a very easy team to defend.
And how are we going to recruit a good qb when we are so timid about opening the offense up?
Looks pretty good. Good arm, but needs to put on some weight.