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It's time to see what Wake Forest is all about in another installment of The More You Know...
You know, it feels pretty **** good to be ranked 6th in country. It doesn't matter how we got there. College football is about winning all of your games and hoping for as much luck as possible along the way. So anyone that's upset about Missouri or Baylor jumping us in the AP poll just started following college football last week. Neither of them are going undefeated, they mean nothing to us if you're banking on Miami having National Title chances. If we win all of our games, we're good. It's as simple as that. Alabama and Oregon are the only teams who aren't on our schedule that anyone needs to pay attention too. They are the only teams ranked ahead of us that we can't jump, so if they don't lose a game we won't move past either one. That's the benefit of being ranked in the top 5 in the preseason as opposed to starting out unranked like us.
After this past weekend the field of undefeated teams basically got cut in half, and the season is only halfway completed. It also wont be the last time a top 10 team loses a game that it shouldn't...so just enjoy the ride. Besides, no one even thought we'd be where we are right now to begin with. **** I didn't either, and I wrote this back in the spring when the schedule came out. Anyone who says they genuinely thought we'd be 6-0 to start the year is a liar. There's no reason to be worried about anything right now except for Wake Forest, so lets take a look them.
1. Where they are in the standings/rankings:
I had no idea these guys even had a winning record. The main reason why they do is because they've held all but 3 of their opponents 13 points or less. They lost all 3 of the games in which they couldn't do that. The best team they've played is Clemson, and the Tigers mauled them 56-7. They still have games against us, FSU, and a road trip to Vanderbilt on the last week of the season so they might not even finish above .500. They're coming off of a 34-10 victory over Maryland. Here's what Maryland fans are saying about Wake Forest:
From: Testudo Times
Maryland sucks. Can't wait for them to leave.
2. What happened the last time Miami played Wake Forest?
From the Associated Press:
STFU, Randy.
I was at this game and besides being embarrassed that we were in a death struggle with Wake Forest, there's only 2 things that stick out in my mind about it. The 1st was how awful the weather was. It was cold and rainy all day long. There was a family of 4 sitting next to me that brought ponchos and stayed seated the entire game. I looked to my friend and remarked, "why the **** aren't they standing up?" Turns out they were pros at this. They knew that if you stay seated...your seat doesn't get wet, and your *** stays dry. Veteran move by them. My dumb *** stood up for every 3rd down and big play throughout the game and I **** near caught hypothermia of the butt.
The other thing was the ******* Wake Forest fan who made some sign out of cardboard that read, "Miami sucks...no, really!" He was seated across the aisle from me and the rest of the Canes fans in the visitor's section. Every time the Demon Deacons scored or picked off one of Jacory's passes he stood up and trolled us by waving his sign at us. The only good thing about winning the game was how quickly that dude ran out of the stadium so he didn't have to deal with any of us.
3. Who to be scared of:
Tanner Price
Senior QB Tanner Price has been a starter since he was a freshman in 2010. He entered this season already in the top 5 all time in school history in wins, completions, attempts, yards, and touchdowns. If that doesn't impress you just remember that he followed Riley Skinner, who put up video game like numbers in his career at Wake Forest. So there's high standard that he's having to follow up on. He's completed 130 of his 216 passes (60.2%) for 1,476 yards. That's led to him getting 10 TD's with just 3 interceptions. He also leads the team in rushing with 273 yards on 75 carries (2.2 ypc) and 3 touchdowns. He also caught a TD from receiver Michael Campanaro against Maryland on Saturday...watch it here:
[video=youtube;BajqA4ANo_I]www.youtube.com/watch?v=BajqA4ANo_I[/video]
Here he is as a Sophomore when he lobbed a perfectly placed fade over Xavier Rhodes' head for a 22 yard touchdown.
[video=youtube;T41VjqtWxiE]www.youtube.com/watch?v=T41VjqtWxiE[/video]
I vomited in my mouth a little just now because I realized Wake Forest has beaten FSU more recently than Miami.
4. Player that will score against us:
Michael Campanaro
Senior wide out Michael Campanaro is a "heady" player with good fundamentals. You might also say he's a Wes Welker type...OK I'm out of white wide receiver jokes. But seriously everything we hope Braxton Berrios will do for us when he gets here, Campanaro does that and more for the Demon Deacons. He's not just some average slot receiver, he's by far their number 1 option in the passing game. He leads the team in receptions (55), yards (704), and touchdowns (5). The next closest player has just 13 receptions. He's also their primary punt returner. On Saturday he became the school's all time leader in receptions. Here's the play it happened on:
[video=youtube;hPQpT9mQfgU]www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPQpT9mQfgU[/video]
If you bothered to watch that, you heard the announcer say he also moved into 3rd place all time in receptions in ACC history. Here's a highlight video of him throughout his career:
[video=youtube;T_hOkXOPXKc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_hOkXOPXKc[/video]
If you bothered to watch that one too, you noticed how often they had him lob touchdown passes on fake reverses. I think Wake Forest has run that play every game we've played them since we joined the ACC. Just something to keep an eye out for.
5. Person that will **** you off:
Merrill Noel
Senior corner back Merrill Noel is another one of those 3 star south Florida kids that went out of state. At one time he was part of FSU's 2010 recruiting class, but de-committed a month later to join his Pahokee teammate Zachary Allen. It's not like we missed out on him or anything, but given that he's from the Muck area, he's going to be really pumped to play against Miami. If he makes a halfway decent play, count on the announcers to be all, "hey guyzm, they chase rabbits down there, guyzm". He's currently tied for the team lead in interceptions with 3. Here he is in 2011 when they upset FSU 35-30.
[video=youtube;qT6sm4y8c_Q]www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT6sm4y8c_Q[/video]
Muck kids are always annoying when they play for the other team.
6. Some guy:
Josh Harris
Senior Josh Harris is a shifty, bowling ball of a running back. At 5'11 and 210 lbs. he's got a nice combo of speed and power. He only has 218 yards on 65 carries (3.4 per carry) and 3 TD's, but that's the most out all of their running backs. Here he is as a freshman when he was an honorable mention for freshman all-american:
[video=youtube;7a_Nk8UBiGs]www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a_Nk8UBiGs[/video]
7. Some other guy:
Nikita Whitlock
Senior Nikita Whitlock is a short and squatty nose guard from Wylie, TX that was barely recruited out of high school. His only other offer was from SMU. Standing at just 5'11 and 250 lbs., he is one of the best interior defensive lineman in all of the ACC. As a freshman in 2010 he made several different freshman all american teams. Then in 2011 and 2012, he was named 2nd team All ACC in back to back years. He currently leads his team with 7 sacks through 7 games. Expect him to be up in our backfield disrupting our stretch running plays.
8. Official internet meme for this game:
Ermahgerd
[video=youtube;pele5vptVgc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc[/video]
You know, it feels pretty **** good to be ranked 6th in country. It doesn't matter how we got there. College football is about winning all of your games and hoping for as much luck as possible along the way. So anyone that's upset about Missouri or Baylor jumping us in the AP poll just started following college football last week. Neither of them are going undefeated, they mean nothing to us if you're banking on Miami having National Title chances. If we win all of our games, we're good. It's as simple as that. Alabama and Oregon are the only teams who aren't on our schedule that anyone needs to pay attention too. They are the only teams ranked ahead of us that we can't jump, so if they don't lose a game we won't move past either one. That's the benefit of being ranked in the top 5 in the preseason as opposed to starting out unranked like us.
After this past weekend the field of undefeated teams basically got cut in half, and the season is only halfway completed. It also wont be the last time a top 10 team loses a game that it shouldn't...so just enjoy the ride. Besides, no one even thought we'd be where we are right now to begin with. **** I didn't either, and I wrote this back in the spring when the schedule came out. Anyone who says they genuinely thought we'd be 6-0 to start the year is a liar. There's no reason to be worried about anything right now except for Wake Forest, so lets take a look them.
1. Where they are in the standings/rankings:
I had no idea these guys even had a winning record. The main reason why they do is because they've held all but 3 of their opponents 13 points or less. They lost all 3 of the games in which they couldn't do that. The best team they've played is Clemson, and the Tigers mauled them 56-7. They still have games against us, FSU, and a road trip to Vanderbilt on the last week of the season so they might not even finish above .500. They're coming off of a 34-10 victory over Maryland. Here's what Maryland fans are saying about Wake Forest:
From: Testudo Times
Pete Volk said:
Maryland sucks. Can't wait for them to leave.
2. What happened the last time Miami played Wake Forest?
From the Associated Press:
STFU, Randy.
I was at this game and besides being embarrassed that we were in a death struggle with Wake Forest, there's only 2 things that stick out in my mind about it. The 1st was how awful the weather was. It was cold and rainy all day long. There was a family of 4 sitting next to me that brought ponchos and stayed seated the entire game. I looked to my friend and remarked, "why the **** aren't they standing up?" Turns out they were pros at this. They knew that if you stay seated...your seat doesn't get wet, and your *** stays dry. Veteran move by them. My dumb *** stood up for every 3rd down and big play throughout the game and I **** near caught hypothermia of the butt.
The other thing was the ******* Wake Forest fan who made some sign out of cardboard that read, "Miami sucks...no, really!" He was seated across the aisle from me and the rest of the Canes fans in the visitor's section. Every time the Demon Deacons scored or picked off one of Jacory's passes he stood up and trolled us by waving his sign at us. The only good thing about winning the game was how quickly that dude ran out of the stadium so he didn't have to deal with any of us.
3. Who to be scared of:
Tanner Price
Senior QB Tanner Price has been a starter since he was a freshman in 2010. He entered this season already in the top 5 all time in school history in wins, completions, attempts, yards, and touchdowns. If that doesn't impress you just remember that he followed Riley Skinner, who put up video game like numbers in his career at Wake Forest. So there's high standard that he's having to follow up on. He's completed 130 of his 216 passes (60.2%) for 1,476 yards. That's led to him getting 10 TD's with just 3 interceptions. He also leads the team in rushing with 273 yards on 75 carries (2.2 ypc) and 3 touchdowns. He also caught a TD from receiver Michael Campanaro against Maryland on Saturday...watch it here:
[video=youtube;BajqA4ANo_I]www.youtube.com/watch?v=BajqA4ANo_I[/video]
Here he is as a Sophomore when he lobbed a perfectly placed fade over Xavier Rhodes' head for a 22 yard touchdown.
[video=youtube;T41VjqtWxiE]www.youtube.com/watch?v=T41VjqtWxiE[/video]
I vomited in my mouth a little just now because I realized Wake Forest has beaten FSU more recently than Miami.
4. Player that will score against us:
Michael Campanaro
Senior wide out Michael Campanaro is a "heady" player with good fundamentals. You might also say he's a Wes Welker type...OK I'm out of white wide receiver jokes. But seriously everything we hope Braxton Berrios will do for us when he gets here, Campanaro does that and more for the Demon Deacons. He's not just some average slot receiver, he's by far their number 1 option in the passing game. He leads the team in receptions (55), yards (704), and touchdowns (5). The next closest player has just 13 receptions. He's also their primary punt returner. On Saturday he became the school's all time leader in receptions. Here's the play it happened on:
[video=youtube;hPQpT9mQfgU]www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPQpT9mQfgU[/video]
If you bothered to watch that, you heard the announcer say he also moved into 3rd place all time in receptions in ACC history. Here's a highlight video of him throughout his career:
[video=youtube;T_hOkXOPXKc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_hOkXOPXKc[/video]
If you bothered to watch that one too, you noticed how often they had him lob touchdown passes on fake reverses. I think Wake Forest has run that play every game we've played them since we joined the ACC. Just something to keep an eye out for.
5. Person that will **** you off:
Merrill Noel
Senior corner back Merrill Noel is another one of those 3 star south Florida kids that went out of state. At one time he was part of FSU's 2010 recruiting class, but de-committed a month later to join his Pahokee teammate Zachary Allen. It's not like we missed out on him or anything, but given that he's from the Muck area, he's going to be really pumped to play against Miami. If he makes a halfway decent play, count on the announcers to be all, "hey guyzm, they chase rabbits down there, guyzm". He's currently tied for the team lead in interceptions with 3. Here he is in 2011 when they upset FSU 35-30.
[video=youtube;qT6sm4y8c_Q]www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT6sm4y8c_Q[/video]
Muck kids are always annoying when they play for the other team.
6. Some guy:
Josh Harris
Senior Josh Harris is a shifty, bowling ball of a running back. At 5'11 and 210 lbs. he's got a nice combo of speed and power. He only has 218 yards on 65 carries (3.4 per carry) and 3 TD's, but that's the most out all of their running backs. Here he is as a freshman when he was an honorable mention for freshman all-american:
[video=youtube;7a_Nk8UBiGs]www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a_Nk8UBiGs[/video]
7. Some other guy:
Nikita Whitlock
Senior Nikita Whitlock is a short and squatty nose guard from Wylie, TX that was barely recruited out of high school. His only other offer was from SMU. Standing at just 5'11 and 250 lbs., he is one of the best interior defensive lineman in all of the ACC. As a freshman in 2010 he made several different freshman all american teams. Then in 2011 and 2012, he was named 2nd team All ACC in back to back years. He currently leads his team with 7 sacks through 7 games. Expect him to be up in our backfield disrupting our stretch running plays.
8. Official internet meme for this game:
Ermahgerd
[video=youtube;pele5vptVgc]www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc[/video]
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