Wake Forest Demon Deacons: Heading to Annapolis vs Temple
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are heading to the Military Bowl after a 6-6 campaign.
The Wake Forest Demon Deacons may have been in the wilderness for two years but they have finally returned to the bowls. The team has accepted a bid to the Military Bowl in Annapolis, MD where they will play the Temple Owls from nearby Philadelphia. The Deacs went 6-6 on the season to get to this spot.
The Wake model under Jim Grobe was to match an experienced defense with an offensive that used misdirection to put points on the board. Grobe’s departure from the school coincided with the fall of the offense but the defense was still kicking. That defense has continued to perform in the years following the hire of Dave Clawson.
It was the offense that needed a turnaround and it was really rough in years 1 and 2. Clawson snuck quarterback recruit John Wolford away from East Carolina and threw him into the fray with no running back to speak of and a work in-progress offensive line. Two years later Wolford now has some targets to use other than Cam Serigne. The issue remains whether the offense can prevent giveaways.
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So the team finally got some offense and the result was six wins. The team still has some questions to answer and the losses to Army and Boston College stick out to show the season could have been even better for Clawson’s contract.
As it is, Wake will face Temple in the final game. The Owls won the American Athletic Conference in an unexpected fashion. They had a lot of momentum heading into the season but were unable to replicate the heights of last year. Fortunately the AAC East Division also decided to take a step back and the Owls were the beneficiary. They faced Navy, not Houston in the championship in another surprising turn.
Like Wake, Temple lost to Army. Yet this a more complete Temple team than Wake can offer at this point. They will have to depend on the defense to suppress the score and pull together a key score or two in order to win this one.