Wake Forest Preview

(Try Ripping Your Pants Of Now Skinner)

This is one of the biggest games of the season for the Rebels and a big time early test to see what kind of team the Rebels really are. A beat down of Memphis doesn't mean anything. The gar fisherman was undefeated against Memphis State. The first word anyone, including the Fox, uses to describe Wake is always "efficient."

THE PLAYERS

Wake is so efficient thanks to one of the best coaches in America and his system. If the NCAA gave out an award for the coach that does the absolute most with the absoulte least Jim Grobe would win the award nearly every year. (In otherwords he's the anti Phillip Fulmer.) Grobe's players spend years running his schemes so that his teams are always made up of nothing but 4th and 5th year players. Its how he makes up for his lack of big name recruiting. He also does an amazing job of finding great under heralded players.

The foremost example of such is Pre Season All American Cornerback Alfonso Smith. Nutt said he was the best cornerback the Rebels will see this season. He was tied for the most interceptions in the country last year with 8 and returned three of those for touchdowns. He's expected to be at least a second round pick and if he was taller than 5'9" he'd go in the first. Starting Linebacker Aaron Curry is also a Pre Season ALL ACC player and predicted by some to be a first round draft pick next April. Those two combine to lead a very stingy if not flashy defense that is very effective. They return 9 starters from last years team on defense. Wake generally does very well in the turnover battle. Baylor have five turnovers alone last week.

The other reason Wake does so well in the turnover margin is starting quarterback Riley Skinner. Skinner played in only his third game against the Rebels two years ago and completed 4 of 5 passes. His completion percentage went down from there but not by much. Last year he lead the country with a 72% completion percentage and completed 75% against Baylor last week. He rarely throws a pick and is already Wake Forest's winningest starting quarterback in school history. Again showing how efficient this team is. He is the key to the offense and they go as he goes.

THE HEEL

The Demon Deacons do not have a lot of weaknesses or any major one and this will be one of the biggest test for the Rebels all season. Quarterback Riley Skinner is amazingly efficient as noted above but does have some judgment issues. As noted by the fact he loves to email nude pictures of himself. I would not suggest doing a google image search for "Riley Skinner" unless you want to see some dong. So maybe if we put a bunch of guy seeking guy personals in his locker before the game he'll play a little distracted.

Other than that their next biggest weakness is the running game. They have a solid line that gives Skinner a lot of time to pass but they don't churn up a lot of yardage rushing. Starting running back Josh Adams was named Pre-Season All ACC but could only mange a 2.6 yards per carry average against Baylor with double digit carries. The second string back didn't do any better only managing a 2.4 yard per carry average out of his double digit carries.

The key to the game is going to be whether the Rebels running game continues to play as well as they did against Memphis. Wake's offense likes to churn the ball down field and take time off the clock. If the Rebels running game pounds their defense they can take control of the tempo and force Wake to play more of a one dimensional hurry up offense to counter the lack of offensive plays. The defensive line also needs to contain the running game so that the Rebels can focus on getting a pass rush and keeping backs in coverage to disrupt Skinner's rhythm. If the Rebels can beat them in the trenches and avoid turnovers than they can pull off the upset.