Wake Forest

Was it raining at Waterloo? Well I can confirm that it sure was not dry at Willieloo in Winston-Salem Saturday night. The game that had to be won was not. Now the Head Coach has less room for error than sharing a back seat in a convertible with Lizzo and a sack of Big Macs.  In my mind, he has to win the next four and make the Lizard game a game, or the wildly exciting Taggart experiment will be over. If I was our current braintrust, and I use that term as loosely as Mae West on a bender, I would name Kendall our interim today, and give him a five game trial before I blow up the whole staff. But alas, I have less influence than our President serving as the keynote at a Golden Gate Pride Parade.

For those in Tally or any other locale without the sure to be Emmy winning ACC Network, let me color in the dots from the vivacious BB and T Stadium. If the Wake home staff was honest, there was truly about 8,000 people in the stands for this tilt. The place only holds 31k and there is absolutely no way it was a third full. The parking lot literally across the street from the stadium was only half full at kickoff. They stuck us visitors up high in the corner, which was nice because other than the students, it was the only place to be within shouting distance from human contact. We had 30 rows of empty seats below us. It started raining in earnest just before the half, and although our leader admitted postgame that the team had never practiced this season in wet conditions (what!!??), it never really poured...just sprinkled with attitude for two hours. The Deacon fans obviously had better Saturday night offers, and maybe we should have gone with them.

The saddest part about watching this slow motion train wreck was that it was the most obvious disparity in talent we have witnessed this season. Yes, we have better players than anyone but Clemson on our schedule, but it has not been even remotely apparent until this week. Does coaching matter...nah? The offensive line had their best night. Yes, all 8 of them, since again our boys left the field like they were late for honey fried chicken dinner (more on that later). Except for a few communication gaffes (2 on the RB in pass protection), they dominated the smallish Wake line. Cam may be fumble-prone, but he had the entire season on his back all game, and played like it. What an effort from a great kid. More acutely, the defensive line did the same to their overmatched opponents. Wake only had any offensive success on sideline go routes over SS III. Television could not possibly do justice to the line whipping, and yet...Vegas' Nostradamus job or picking Wake by 2 nails it again.

Our defensive coordinator, a term we now know is a loose approximation of reality, is indeed solely in charge of our defensive backs. Well 2 minutes into the game, both starting safeties were watching on TV, which left us only five HS All Americans to fill the four spots. One of em, Asante Samuel, played like one. The rest look, well, uncoached. Wake is a team that has routinely had 600 yards and 40 points a game this season. It was quickly apparent they could not run at all and somehow, with badly mistimed blitzes, poor technique and general coaching malfeasance, were able to throw for 300 yards from a tiny QB we would never recruit to wideouts we would never recruit. Yeesh.

The offense was the opposite of opportunistic. Wake was so scared of our wideouts, they were 15 yards off the ball, and we still got past them deep when we wanted to. James was ummm, terrible again. You gotta love the kid for all his intangibles. But there were two plays where the Deacs simply did not cover our guys...at all...and he never saw them. He left 28 points in his pocket by missing deep balls, and whoever convinced him he was a runner should be sued for coaching malpractice. The piece de resistance was in the fourth with a wide open field and needing 8 yards, he chose to dive for 7. His other running opportunities were equally awful including a rare open keep on fourth down where he was clear for 20 yards and tripped to fall just short of the two needed. The sad truth is that he is just as inaccurate, unathletic and unable to read defenses as he was two years ago. If he is truly the best we have, and Willie is clearly making this call to go down with the SS Blackman, then our future is scary.  Having said all of this, we had the ball and momentum with three minutes left and a first down on the 35 yard line, and for all the praise I have heaped on Kendall, that last series was like a vegan trying to snack in the Johnsonville factory. Two smash runs and a no chance wide throw to the TE when Wake was handing us 7 yards on every wideout toss. Why? It was shades of Bowden in umm every Miami game. Relying on Ricky to deliver in a rainstorm from 50 when you have blown your timeouts (again more later), was not the way to Oz Dorothy.

So, it was a night when we saw Coach get angry for the first and second time all season. Both times, he was yelling vociferously at his own coaches - not the refs or motivating a player. How can I be so critical when he seems to be doing nothing - right or wrong. Well, he chose the strength and conditioning staff. Judging by the fact we may have more starting players done for the season than playing - for the second year in a row - is his problem. He is charge of timeouts and we have not exactly nailed that down to a science yet since almost every game we still waste multiple timeouts with basic alignment and timing issues. See Wickepedia/ FSU / Practice. Yes, the refs were absolutely abysmal again (I don't recall Wake getting a single offensive penalty - and I counted at least 5 uncalled false starts alone - forget the holding - we gave up that fight in the 90's), but every Taggart team in his coaching life leads the country in penalties. It is not a coincidence. Then we get to hear the face of the program at press conferences stumble over any actual football X and O question while ridiculously mentioning hydration, fitness, and now rain as thought starters if not excuses. But, he can recruit. But even that skillset is meaningless if you don't win, and he has five games to prove he can do just that. Eat that all beef patty Lizzo, Willie needs some more room...