The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of North Carolina College Football
By Austen Lopp
The Bad:
Wake Forest
Wake Forest barely scraped a bowl game out of last season after going 7-6, but a below-average 3-5 ACC record shows that this team has serious issues. Head Coach Dave Clawson has his work cut out for this year, with key losses and a gauntlet of an away schedule in the ACC.
The offense is going to be an issue for the Demon Deacons. They still have an ongoing quarterback battle between Jamie Newman and Sam Hartman. According to Dan Schalk at MFST, Newman is more than likely to win the spot but there are big odds that both get significant playing time. The offensive line is also a huge question mark because they do not currently have all of the positions set. The O-line was bad last year, and they will be replacing three starters, not a good combo for a new quarterback.
Schalk also reminded me how bad the Demon Deacons defense was in his breakdown of Wake Forest football next season:
"Plain and simple, the defense was bad last year–they allowed 33 points and 459 yards per game, but there is a bright side. They are returning a lot of players–seven of the top 12 tacklers from 2018."
The return of defensive stars Carlos Basham upfront and leading tackler Justin Strnad are positives for the Demon Deacons but having to replace three starting safeties could put them in for a long season and a bumpy ride.
Projected 2019 Record:
5-7
ECU
East Carolina is in an interesting position to make some sort of a comeback this year after a trio of back-to-back-to-back 3-9 seasons. Looking at their schedule it seems that the world could be the Pirates oyster, with seven of their twelve opponents not going to a bowl game last year. However, ECU has struggled in ‘sure-shot’ wins in the past.
The Pirates have lost back-to-back home openers to FCS teams and with their first game in Raleigh against N.C. State, they HAVE to be able to come home the next week and take care of Gardner-Webb, no excuses.
Their defense will take a step in the right direction this year, with the signing of Bob Trott. Trott was responsible for creating the dangerous defense at JMU that won an FCS National Championship under his tenure in 2016.
A quarterback battle will more than likely see the more experienced Holton Ahlers at quarterback for the Pirates. Ahlers is an massive human at 6’3” and 236 pounds. He led the team in rushing last year (you can decide if that is a good or bad thing) but struggled with accuracy completing only 48.3% of his passes, according to sports-reference.com. An experienced O-line will be there to hopefully keep the pressure low on Ahlers but if his accuracy doesn’t improve, ECU’s offense will remain stagnant.
Perhaps Pete Fiatuk from College Football News said it best,
"It’s not going to be a rags-to-riches story like UCF was a few seasons ago, but the Pirates will make a positive move forward."