Wake Forest NCAA 12 Dynasty: Competitive Football Would be Nice!

[waytofailself]

Matchup Preview | September 15, 2012
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Wake Forest Demon Deacons (2-0, 0-0 Away)		Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (2-0, 2-0 Home)
Offensive Stats Comparison 43.5 Points Per Game 28.5 721 Total Offensive Yards 884 342 Rushing Yards 597 379 Passing Yards 287 Defensive Stats Comparison 541 Total Yards Allowed 608 272 Rushing Yards Allowed 234 269 Passing Yards Allowed 374 +7 Turnover Differential 0 Game Notes Wake Forest travels to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech in a battle of the unbeatens. This will be a game of style vs style, with Wake's spread offense facing off against the Georgia Tech option attack. Wake already dismantled Army's option earlier this year, but GT has more talent along the front line and can also make plays through the air. HB Nathan West has been terrorizing defenses all season and averages 178.5 yards per game on the ground. Expect Wake's suspect run defense to be exposed, and expect Coach Shapiro to rely more on HB Patrick Mitchell with a true freshman at QB starting his first game in hostile territory. Although Wake Forest has performed better against higher quality opponents this season, there is little doubt that Georgia Tech has what it takes to win on its home field. Expect the 12th man to be the difference as the Yellow Jackets remain unbeaten by a 28-17 margin.

This week's look at the coach's poll is interesting not so much to see who has moved at the top -- largely because there has been little movement despite some big losses by TCU and Mississippi State. Instead, the bigger question is who has dropped out of the poll entirely. It was not a good week for the state of Florida (unless you're a Gators fan).

NCAA Football Rankings - Coaches Poll - Updated: Sep 15, 2012
RK	LW	TEAM (VOTES)	W	L	POINTS
1	1	Ohio State (38)	1	0	1502
2	2	Alabama (21)	2	0	1442
3	3	Stanford (1)	2	0	1424
4	4	Oklahoma (1)	2	0	1371
5	7	Auburn	2	0	1289
6	5	South Carolina	3	0	1270
7	6	Oregon	2	0	1214
8	8	Texas A&M	2	0	1105
9	10	Boise State	3	0	998
10	11	USC	2	0	962
11	14	Wisconsin	2	0	810
12	15	Penn State	2	0	761
13	9	Mississippi State	1	1	708
14	18	Pittsburgh	2	0	622
15	20	Arkansas	1	0	513
16	12	Oklahoma State	1	1	500
17	23	Texas	2	0	491
18	16	TCU	0	1	462
19	22	Utah	2	0	426
20	25	LSU	2	0	300
21	NR	Florida	2	0	260
22	13	Nebraska	1	1	258
23	NR	Northwestern	2	0	250
24	NR	Illinois	1	0	220
25	17	Michigan State	1	2	206

Others Receiving Votes:
Virginia Tech (182), NC State (106), UCF (69), Nevada (52), Michigan (34), Florida State (1)

Dropped Out
Miami (#19), Florida State (#21), UCF (#24)

Where to start. Miami got rocked on the road by a mediocre Wake Forest Squad. Florida State got blanked by Big East middling South Florida. In fact, the only respectable loss was UCF dropping a lopsided game to Pitt -- well, as respectable as a blowout loss can be.

It's still early in the season and many teams can still go to sleep at night with dreams of a national title dancing in their heads. But all it takes is one loss to turn those dreams to dust.

[waytofailself]

Week 4
vs
Ahead of Schedule


Brian Parrish beats the zone to help Wake Forest to a big halftime lead.

Coach Shapiro said at the beginning of the season that he thought his team could improve from last year's 7-6 record if it was able to cut down on mistakes. But no one seemed to count on Wake Forest's defense to improve by leaps and bounds this season after losing two of its top defenders. It's one thing to shut down Army, and another to take a Miami squad by surprise in terrible weather. But to hold Georgia Tech to under 100 yards of total offense at home? Nearly unbelievable, but the final stat line does not lie.

Maybe it would have been a different game if star Yellow Jacket running back Nathan West had not been knocked out of the game with a concussion in the first quarter. But considering he was able to must one yard on six carries, maybe no one could stop the Wake Forest defense. When the Yellow Jackets tried to run the option, there were no open spaces. When they went to the air, the ball hawking defense was there to grab passes.

Sean Gray continues to struggle, missing a Field Goal from 22 yards out.

And although Wake Forest started with some struggles, including another embarrassing field goal miss and an untimely interception, when their offense began to click it didn't stop. Patrick Mitchell was a constant presence on the ground running out of the spread, but it was Curtis Jenkins who showed poise when facing the tough crowd. His target of choice was Senior slot receiver Jamal Brown. Any time the Jackets would bring pressure, Brown was there to grab the ball and move the chains. And Georgia Tech brought the pressure, often leaving whole spaces of the field open.

Although Jenkins took plenty of hits, he was not rattled. Instead, he took it in stride and began to find holes in the zone. By the second half, it was clear that Jenkins was playing far above his class -- reading defenses before the snap and throwing with confidence to receivers who would be open instead of ones who were already open. Probably the most telling was his final TD pass to backup Tight End Mark Purcell. Despite taking a huge hit on the corner blitz, Jenkins placed the ball perfectly -- although he'll be feeling the hit for sure tomorrow.

Curtis Jenkins goes long en route to a 300 yard passing day.

Overall it was a complete team effort for the Demon Deacons, and Georgia Tech had no answers. They were dominated on both sides of the ball. They were dominated at the line of scrimmage. Shapiro had his squad fired up and ready to play. Not to say that the Yellow Jackets slept on them, but no one is going to underestimate the Deacons in the future.

Wake Forest (2-0) at Georgia Tech (2-0)
Sep 15, 2012 1 2 3 4 F Wake Forest 7 14 0 10 31 Georgia Tech 0 0 7 0 7 Top Performers Wake Forest C. Jenkins, 19-34, 310 Yds, 9 Car, 69 Yds, 3 Tot TD B. Graham, 4 Tak, 1 Solo, 3 INT Georgia Tech R. McCoy, 14 Tak, 10 Solo, INT, 2 Def, FFum J. Meadows, 10 Car, 63 Yds, TD	Team Stats Comparison WAKE GT First Downs 21 7 3rd Down Efficiency 3-11 3-11 4th Down Efficiency 4-4 0-2 Total Yards 460 98 Passing Yards 310 33 Rushing Yards 150 65 Penalties-Penalty Yards 1-10 4-26 Turnovers 3 3 Time of Possession 20:28 12:02
Scoring Summary FIRST QUARTER SCORING WAKE GT 4:53 (WAKE) C. Jenkins, 12 Yd Run 7 0 SECOND QUARTER SCORING WAKE GT 3:07 (WAKE) J. Little, 1 Yd Run 14 0 0:57 (WAKE) B. Parrish, 38 Yd Pass from C. Jenkins 21 0 THIRD QUARTER SCORING WAKE GT 3:21 (GT) J. Meadows, 7 Yd Run 21 7 FOURTH QUARTER SCORING WAKE GT 4:09 (WAKE) M. Purcell, 20 Yd Pass from C. Jenkins 28 7 1:52 (WAKE) S. Gray, 31 Yd FG 31 7
Wake Forest PASSING C/ATT YDS TD INT C. Jenkins 19-34 310 2 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD P. Mitchell 19 76 4.0 0 C. Jenkins 9 69 7.6 1 J. LIttle 2 5 2.5 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD J. Brown 8 135 16.8 0 J. Hale 3 57 19.0 0 M. Purcell 3 33 11.0 1 M. Peters 2 19 9.5 0 T. Huggins 2 28 14.0 0 B. Parrish 1 38 38.0 1 Georgia Tech PASSING C/ATT YDS TD INT T. Galloway 4-18 33 0 2 D. Gunn 0-1 0 0 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD J. Meadows 10 63 6.3 1 T. Galloway 8 6 0.7 0 N. West 6 1 0.1 0 B. Norman 1 -5 -5.0 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD N. West 2 13 6.5 0 A. Tucker 1 7 7.0 0 B. Norman 1 13 13.0 0

Coach's Take: Our Seniors set the tone on defense, and the rest of our guys fell in line and kept the pressure going. This was a test for our squad. A hostile environment. A top tier team that nearly won the ACC last year. And we passed it. No, we were not perfect. But we did everything we needed to do and win. You can't ask for much more than what our defense gave us.

What's Next: Wake Forest (3-0) takes its unbeaten record to College Park to take on Maryland. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech (2-1) hits the road for its second conference game to take on UNC.

*Ed Note: After this game, tweaked some of SECElite's sliders to attempt to make the games more competitive.

[mm boost]

freakin awesome start to the season beating down Army, the canes, and GT. You guys are on a roll, and this new Jenkins QB looks to be really coming on as the season moves forward. Awesome job so far.

[moose141]

Crazy how well you've started this season out! Offense is just blasting people, and the defense has been nothing short of stellar. Hopefully this keeps up throughout conference play and you may have another crazy ACC Championship on your hands.

[SouthCar8]

Quote: Originally Posted by waytofailself

Pre-Season Outlook Ohio State is primed and ready to defend their title. Although they might not be the most talented squad in the country, they are well coached and have a lot of experience remaining on both sides of the ball. NCAA Football Rankings - AP Top 25 - Updated: Aug 1, 2012 RK TEAM (VOTES) OVR OFF DEF 1 Ohio State A B+ A 2 Stanford B+ B+ B+ 3 Alabama A A A 4 Oklahoma A+ A+ A+ 5 South Carolina A A A- 6 Oregon A+ A+ B+ 7 Auburn A+ A+ A 8 Texas A&M B+ B B+ 9 Miami A- B+ B+ 10 Mississippi State A A- B+ 11 Michigan State B+ B+ B+ 12 Boise State B+ A B- 13 USC A- A- B+ 14 Oklahoma State B+ A- B 15 Wisconsin A A B+ 16 Nebraska A A B+ 17 Notre Dame B+ B+ B- 18 Pittsburgh B+ B+ B- 19 Penn State A A+ B+ 20 NC State B+ B+ B+ 21 TCU A A+ B+ 22 Florida State A A- A 23 Arkansas A A+ B 24 Utah A- A B 25 LSU A+ A+ A There is not too much controversey in the polls at this point, but it remains to be seen how squads like Stanford, Texas A&M, and Florida State will handle losing their star quarterbacks. Meanwhile, look for teams like Penn State and LSU to possibly move up in the rankings in the future. Both squads have a lot of talented seniors who will be laying it all on the line this season. Heisman Trophy Preseason Poll Heisman Watch - Updated: Jul 31, 2012 NAME POS SCHOOL Denard Robinson QB Michigan Rex Burkehead HB Nebraska DeVonte Holloman HB South Carolina Roy Finch HB Oklahoma Eddie Lacy HB Alabama The field starts off with only a single QB -- that's a bit surprising considering the number of QBs that led the field last year. But these things happen in cycles. Still, there are a lot of names in play, and it is a long season. Robinson, while poised to have a great season, is hardly a consensus frontrunner. Wake Forest is ranked #57 to start the season. Pre-Season Projection Miami (92 OVR) NC State (89 OVR) Florida State (95 OVR) Virginia Tech (92 OVR) Georgia Tech (89 OVR) UNC (91 OVR) Clemson (92 OVR) Wake Forest (81 OVR) Boston College (92 OVR) Maryland (89 OVR) Virginia (84 OVR) Duke (86 OVR) Honestly a little surprised to see Boston College ranked so low, but their late season slide really marred their early season success. Right now it looks like it's Miami or NC State's division to lose, although Florida State and Virginia Tech are in the mix like they are every year.

All your dynasty threads are amazing spent the past 2 hours reading through your basketball one and then this WF one!!! They are great reads!! Just one thing I need you to correct. The HB from South Carolina my college is not Devonte Holloman he plays DB its Marcus Lattimore haha

[waytofailself]

Quote: Originally Posted by Knickerbocker91

Way to put a stamp on campus for Jenkins. Congrats on the win

Thanks, he's truly made our team an offensive threat. And for whatever reason, he seems to have better composure in the pocket and won't fumble nearly every time he's sacked like a certain QB from last year.

Quote: Originally Posted by mm boost

freakin awesome start to the season beating down Army, the canes, and GT. You guys are on a roll, and this new Jenkins QB looks to be really coming on as the season moves forward. Awesome job so far.

Thanks. I'm a bit surprised by the results -- but hopefully slider adjustments will get it back in line. I'm having to work for my points -- maybe Jenkins is just that good for reasons I can't quite fathom.

Quote: Originally Posted by moose141

Crazy how well you've started this season out! Offense is just blasting people, and the defense has been nothing short of stellar. Hopefully this keeps up throughout conference play and you may have another crazy ACC Championship on your hands.

What's the saying? "Not so fast my friend!" Nah, ACC championship would be great. Right now the goal is still to get 8 wins during the regular season -- that was kind of my unspoken goal going into the year. But maybe I set my sights too low. My defense has been a huge surprise. Maybe 3 Senior Starters at LB makes a bigger difference than I thought.

Quote: Originally Posted by SouthCar8

All your dynasty threads are amazing spent the past 2 hours reading through your basketball one and then this WF one!!! They are great reads!! Just one thing I need you to correct. The HB from South Carolina my college is not Devonte Holloman he plays DB its Marcus Lattimore haha

Fixed it. The brain fart must have just come from doing that late at night. And glad you liked the Bball dynsty as well. I'm not done with it at all. I've actually played halfway through the season -- I just need to write up games (I have notes jotted down of what happened, so it'll still be fresh).

Thanks for the compliments all of you. Glad you're enjoying it -- and hopefully things can stay interesting. I don't want this to turn into a "Watch WFU go Techmo Super Bowl on X" Dynasty.

[waytofailself]

Matchup Preview | September 22, 2012
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Wake Forest Demon Deacons (3-0, 1-0 Away)		Maryland Terrapins (2-1, 1-1 Home)
Offensive Stats Comparison 39.3 Points Per Game 37.0 1181 Total Offensive Yards 1384 689 Passing Yards 985 492 Rushing Yards 399 Defensive Stats Comparison 639 Total Yards Allowed 1064 302 Passing Yards Allowed 676 337 Rushing Yards Allowed 388 +7 Turnover Differential -3 Game Notes Wake Forest is not sneaking up on anyone anymore. After receiving 98 points in the Coach's poll, the Demon Deacons are officially on the national radar after a hot start that includes knocking off the Miami Hurricanes and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Maryland is also a strong squad who enters the game only having dropped a matchup against a very worthy West Virginia team that went down to the wire. Maryland is one of the strongest passing teams in the nation. Led by QB Matthew Copeland, the Terps will go to the air early and often. Of course, Copeland is the old hand at QB, as many people are starting to take notice of Wake's true freshman QB Curtis Jenkins. He leads the team both in rushing and passing. In the end the difference in this game will be Wake's suffocating, ball hawking defense. Maryland has not faced the likes of DE Damon Taylor, who earned NCAA defensive player of the week honors two weeks ago against Miami with 3 forced fumbles, and FS Brian Graham, who picked off Georgia Tech QBs three times last week. It could be close, but Wake should pull out the win 38-27.

[waytofailself]

Week 5
vs
Defense Brings Deacons All The Way Back

Matthew Copeland entered today's game having thrown 10 touchdowns and only one interception. After today's game, the entire Terrapin offense needs to go back to the drawing board -- or at least to ball control boot camp. Wake Forest scored 21 unanswered points in the 2nd Quarter to take a lead they would never relinquish. And after a 2nd half where neither offense could get on track, the Demon Deacons leave College Park, MD undefeated thanks to a 21-10 victory.

The game started out as a showcase for Maryland's ground game. David Scott gashed through Wake's interior run defense early and often. With the weather getting very nasty, the ground game had to be reliable and Scott pulled through. But after scoring their first field goal both Scott and star QB Copeland got in trouble with both fumbles and throwing picks.

Wake Forest was being handed points to put on the board -- and they could do nothing with the opportunities. In fact, the Deacons were having trouble hanging on to the ball themselves and found themselves in a 10-0 hole after FB John Little fumbled the ball while going for a short 3rd down conversion. Maryland returned the fumble for a TD and looked in control.

Huggins reaches for the sky for a huge gain during the 2nd Quarter.

But the momentum shifted in the second quarter when Scott attempted to reach for the first down marker and had the ball knocked out of his hand. Nickle Back Aaron Hall grabbed the loose ball and ran it all the way back for a score that broke open the levee. The Wake defense would continue to force turnovers for the rest of the game -- including another outstanding game by James Cross that featured 11 solo tackles and 2 forced fumbles. How was he buried on the bench all these years?

In the end, the Deacons were able to do just enough to win. They limited Maryland's offensive opportunities, while at the same time taking advantage of great field position to punch in two more scoring drives in the 2nd quarter. As ugly as the second half was, Wake Forest will take putting the clamps on the Terrapins and winning their second straight game on the road.

Wake Forest (3-0) at Maryland (2-1)
Sep 22, 2012 1 2 3 4 F Wake Forest 0 21 0 0 21 Maryland 10 0 0 0 10 Top Performers Wake Forest J. Cross, 11 Tckl, 11 Solo, TFL, 2 FF K. Anderson, 4 Tckl, 2 TFL, Sck, 2 INT Maryland P. Harris, 5 Tkls, TFL, Sck, INT, 3 Def C. Lee, 5 Tckls, TFL, 3 Def	Team Stats Comparison WAKE MD First Downs 13 17 3rd Down Efficiency 4-11 6-12 4th Down Efficiency 0-1 0-0 Total Yards 317 317 Passing Yards 222 156 Rushing Yards 95 161 Penalties-Penalty Yards 6-55 0-0 Turnovers 2 7 Time of Possession 16:05 15:55
Scoring Summary FIRST QUARTER SCORING WAKE MD 5:35 (MD) D. Christian, 42 Yd FG 3 0 4:33 (MD) J. Scott, 35 Yd Fumble Return 10 0 SECOND QUARTER SCORING WAKE MD 6:44 (WAKE) A. Hall, 83 Yd Fumble Return 10 7 5:16 (WAKE) J. Little, 1 Yd Run 10 14 1:22 (WAKE) C. Jenkins, 10 Yd Run 10 21
Wake Forest PASSING C/ATT YDS TD INT C. Jenkins 14-32 222 0 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD P. Mitchell 15 70 4.6 0 C. Jenkins 8 24 3.0 1 J. Little 1 1 1.0 1 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD J. Brown 7 90 12.8 0 M. Peters 2 23 11.5 0 B. Parrish 2 25 12.5 0 P. Mitchell 1 28 28.0 0 T. Huggins 1 52 52.0 0 J. Hale 1 4 4.0 0 Maryland PASSING C/ATT YDS TD INT M. Copeland 14-25 156 0 4 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD D. Scott 28 144 5.1 0 T. Olsen 2 19 9.5 0 C. Smith 1 5 5.0 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD C. Smith 4 48 12.0 0 J. Bowie 4 64 16.0 0 D. Scott 2 17 8.5 0 M. O'COnnor 2 9 4.5 0 D. Robinson 2 18 9.0 0

Coach's Take: Once again our defense steps up and bails us out. We were looking down the barrel of the gun until Hall picked up the ball and took it the distance. I swear, I've never seen him run that fast in practice. We're fortunate that we were able to force so many turnovers -- that seems to make us or break us this season...and so far we've been making it real good.

What's Next: Wake Forest (4-0) returns home to play a struggling Florida State squad. Maryland (2-2) remains at home and faces Clemson.