| #42 Wake Forest Demon Deacons |
| #7 in ACC |
For every benched starter who immediately looks to the transfer portal, I don’t blame you, but I do enjoy seeing a Sam Hartman. Sam Hartman earned the starting quarterback job as a freshman in 2018, before losing his job to Jamie Newman, due to a season ending injury. Newman took the Deacon offense to the next level last year, perfectly adapted to Wake Forest’s frenetic pace with his arm (4th in the ACC in yards per attempt) and legs (2nd among quarterbacks in rushing yards, while leading the team in rushing touchdowns). He got Wake Forest off to a 5-0 start, and they spent three weeks ranked, their first time in the AP Poll in 11 years. It ended with losses in 4 of 5 games, but the promise of greater thing to come. Except Newman elected instead to transfer to Georgia, allowing Hartman to retake the job. Hartman did get some action last year, including one start, but played in only four games, to preserve his redshirt. The running game might be a problem, with the graduation of three All-ACC linemen, although the graduation of starting running back Cade Carney, who was a shell of his junior form, when he had a 1,000 yard campaign. He saw his ypc drop by a staggering 1.4, but the coaching staff continued to force feed him the ball, rather than true freshman Kenneth Walker III, who was the far more effective ball carrier, but saw a 158 to 98 carry deficit. Walker finished 18th in the ACC with 579 yards, but his 5.9 ypc were second among those backs, behind only Travis Etienne. He was the only player to finish in the top 25 of the ACC in rushing with under 100 carries. They’ll have little choice but to let him break out this year. Few teams have a pair of 1,000 yard receivers, so Deacon fans can’t be too upset that they have only one. And of the two, Sage Surratt was the more important. It’s no coincidence that Wake’s season ending slide coincided with Surratt’s injury. Wake went 7-1 in games where he was healthy, while Newman’s three worst games came without him. Defensively, the pass defense has to be a major concern. The Demon Deacons allowed the third most yards per attempt in the ACC, the third highest opponent completion percentage, and the third most passing touchdowns, allowing a largely inept Michigan State offense to pass for 320 yards in their bowl loss. The only thing that partially salvaged them was 14 interceptions forced, second most in the conference. The problem is that that pair of four year starting cornerbacks, graduated. So for the first time since 2015, Wake Forest will have to figure out something different in penciling in that lineup card. Safety Nasir Green, who suffered an ugly knee injury against Syracuse, will help some, if he’s ready to go. He was missing spring ball either way, and it’s unclear if he will be ready to go in the fall. If he’s still out, the secondary looks downright awful. The pass rush improved from one of the worst in the FBS in 2018, to at least decent last year. They will be heavily relied upon in 2020.
| KEY PLAYERS |
| WR | Sage Surratt, Junior |
| C | Zach Tom, Senior |
| K | Nick Sciba, Junior |
| . |
| DE | Carlos Basham Jr., Senior |
| LB | Ryan Smenda Jr., Senior |
| S | Nasir Greer, Junior |
| #41 Florida State Seminoles |
| #6 in ACC |
Coming off of their worst three year stretch since 1974-1976, being the entirety of the Darrell Mudra era, and the first year of Bobby Bowden, Florida State needed a reboot. It’s not totally fair to Willie Taggart, Jimbo Fisher was basically mailing it in over the last couple years in terms of recruiting, and roster building, so the talent was nowhere near where it needed to be. But I’m not sure it was a hole he could have dug out of, it had grown so toxic. Things are going to look very different in Tallahassee in 2021, with an entirely new staff, 21 players either coming or going via the transfer portal, and a 25 man recruiting class that ranked #22 nationally. The one thing Taggart deserves credit for is that he inherited a completely broken offense, and it was trending in a positive way. The growth we saw from James Blackman was huge, and while he still struggles with consistency, I don’t think there is a quarterback in the ACC I would take before him, other than Trevor Lawrence and Sam Howell. I know his 4 interception performance in the Sun Bowl loss to Arizona State is fresh in people’s minds, but that matched the 4 interceptions he threw total, in 7 ACC games. The other spot Mike Norvell hopes to benefit from Taggart’s work is the offensive line, which has been the major problem for the Noles offense for the past three years, ranking dead last in line yards in 2018, and improving all the way to #115 last year, while ranking in the bottom 20 of the FBS in sack rate in all three years. The Seminoles played three true freshmen last year, and if that group can get up to merely competent, it will go a long way. The work Cam Akers did to reach 1,100 yards and 5.0 ypc, behind this line was truly remarkable. The Seminoles averaged just 3.8 ypc as a team, and aside from Akers were at just 2.8. Khalon Laborn got the next most work, with 63 carries, but the coaching staff is hoping the appeal of Texas A&M transfer Jashaun Corbin is approved. He would almost certainly slide into that top spot. The two year tenure of Harlan Barnett, a Mark Dantonio disciple, did not go particularly well, including giving up the most points in school history in 2018. But things aren’t as bad as the raw numbers would suggest. That “historically bad” 2018 defense, was actually #37 in SP+, undermined by the #97 offense and #96 special teams. So just getting competent offense and special teams play should make this defense look a lot better. The move from a 4-3 to a 3-4 last year made little sense, considering linebacker was the weakest position group on the defense, and you turn your best defensive lineman, a 2 technique tackle, Marvin Wilson, into a positionless tweener. Wilson returned for his senior year, and while he led the team with 5 sacks last year, I expect him to blow past that number this year. The secondary has more talent than the numbers last year would suggest, and I think will be pretty good this year, even with the early departure of Stanford Samuels. Asante Samuels Jr. was the better cornerback of the two, and the highest rated recruit in the Noles’ 2021 class was cornerback Demorie Tate, from Orlando, the #34 recruit nationally.
| KEY PLAYERS |
| QB | James Blackmon, Junior |
| WR | Tamarrion Terry, Junior |
| T | Brady Scott, Junior |
| . |
| DT | Marvin Wilson, Senior |
| CB | Asante Samuel Jr., Senior |
| S | Hamsah Nasirildeen, Senior |
