Wake Forest

Apparently WF Coach Jim Grobe and I went to the same restaurant on Friday night... While I was spending a lovely Tallahassee Saturday morning burning up a path between our tailgate and the Lot 8 hopper, every time the Deacs QB needed some 3rd Down advice, Grobe was inside the bowels of Doak exploring his own. The only other rational explanation is that our defense has finally solved the conundrum surrounded by a riddle that is the Wake Offense, and is that even possible?

Wake Forest and BYU are certainly not elite teams this season, but offensively both were averaging over 400 yards a game prior to their planes touching down in North Florida. Two disparate offenses and the same unique result - totals not seen in Doak in 6 seasons. The last time back to back clubs facing our D had under 200 yards of offense Monica Lewinsky had not finished her first Oprah book tour. I will point out that this Defense has a distinct advantage over every team we play in that we always have 12 men on the field. Mark Stoops is on the field every single snap, and has to be Vaudvillian dragged off 30 times a game. Solution - make his headset wire shorter, so like a dog on a leash, he would snap back to the sideline when he crosses over. That would be some good in-game comedy, and in the movie of his life I would absolutely get John Ritter to play him.

Remember that this defense is ridiculously young. Exactly 2 seniors start and it is arguable that the backups to Markus White and Kendyl Smith in the Blitzkreig and co-freshman Vince Williams are not more talented. Maybe the worst FSU d-line in 35 years last season has the same folks and is now leading the country in sacks. Not since Fantasia have I seen a dancing hippo as graceful as Jacobbi McDaniel's interception this week. Big boy tipped it up, and while being dragged from behind scampered forward to throw those mitts around the ball before it hit the turf. Granted, I think Mark Stoops may have tipped it as well, but the refs did not see it.
Brandon Jenkins has 4.5 sacks and another half dozen tackles for loss. Athletic tackles give him problems, but dude blows by typical Staypuff Marshmallow Men like my Friday dinner went through me. We heard all off-season how our line was bigger and you are seeing the results in run defense. McNothing is happening in the middle. McCloud, McCallister and McDaniel are blowing up the interior and simply not giving the obvious holes that were omnipresent in '09. Also of note is two straight starting QB's have ended up at Cheer's because they did not know their own name by games end. Nice trend.

Offensively, my biggest concern continues to be the line. Yes, I know that the roller skates that they awarded LT Henry Orelus after last week's game were not an appropriate gift - especially not when he wore them all first half. However, I am also worried that we can not find a steady solution for short yardage plays. And no I am not an advocate of throwing tiny Chris Thompson into the Sleestacks, and hoping that although everyone in the pile weighs 200 more than he does, he can power his way through. Ty Jones and Lonnie Prior are our best options here and we need to have two or three base plays that everyone on that side of the ball has confidence in. Yup, This is coming. Stop me. Dayne Williams has used up his eligibility, but he is sorely missed. It was nice to see Willie Haulstead playing better. Every ball he catches builds confidence, but Taiwan Easterling is so far & away Christian's best option it is laughable. He gets open, breaks tackles and makes plays. I sit behind the Nole bench and twice caught Bert Reed and Rodney Smith with string in their hands playing Cats Cradle when LD was not looking. If we find order forms, Thin Mints and Samoas in their travel bags, changes need to be made. I think you will see Virginia take away the bubbles and the quick slants this week, and force us to throw the ball downfield against their All-ACC corner and safety. On the road they prevented USC from effectively throwing the ball, so we better be able to run effectively and throw screens to backs for big chunks.

Now for the "What you missed on your couch" section of our blog...We are gonna pummel a Horse that has almost been delivered to the glue factory, but just when we thought the scoreboard could not get worse, it did. This week, stats were unavailable in the first half, and down & distance could be seen only to those wearing prescription eyewear. The Band, recognizing that only the Phys Ed majors came to the game this week, pandered to the alumni side with some terrific Big Band ditties. For the third straight season, a game was delayed for Lightning strikes hitting somewhere around St. Marks while the sun-splashed Doak sat idle for an hour. Ron Cherry has absolutely no idea on earth what a holding infraction looks like, and in the second half it was so empty in Doak that we could actually hear the cheerleaders - from across the field. We also witnessed Ty Jones late in the game getting wrung up and barely able to walk to the sideline - an injury that was not disclosed in what is becoming typical of the Jimbo information control era - until this morning.

So, the entire Sickmon clan heads up to the Commonwealth this weekend to spend a historical touring day in DC on Friday and Sunday and oh-by-the-way a football game on Saturday. Let's win this one any way possible...