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This page will be your destination for all notes on Florida State opponent Wake Forest. FSU travels to Wake Forest on October 3 after a bye week.
Florida State is 26-6-1 all-time against Wake Forest, the school with the smallest Power 5 conference enrollment. Since joining the ACC, FSU is 19-4 against the Deacons, though Wake has amazingly won 4 of the last 9, though FSU has the last three and the three-game losing streak from 2006-2008 seems like a distant memory.
In 2014, FSU blasted Wake 43-3, but it wasn't pretty as Wake Forest's formidable defense kept FSU's offense in check for much of the game. But as expected, Wake's offense – which was one of the worst in the country and one of the worst observers in the press box had seen from an ACC team in years – could muster nothing and kept putting the defense in bad situations. FSU also continued to suffer injury after injury, which didn't help the rhythm.
"FSU drove the field again on its next drive, but another bad shotgun snap from replacement center Ryan Hoefeld sailed over the head of Jameis Winston, killing the drive, and FSU settled for the field goal to go up 33-3."
At this point, FSU had outgained Wake Forest 316-56, and pulled most of its defensive starters, who allowed only 56 yards to Wake Forest
Jameis Winston remained in the ballgame for one final series, throwing a TD to freshman Travis Rudolph. On the day, Winston's first team offense had 66 plays for 392 yards."
Bill Connelly
SB Nation's Bill Connelly brings his always excellent Wake Forest preview. Please read the entire thing, the following is just snippets.
Image may be NSFW.
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Offense:
And if we assume incompetent freshmen might turn into semi-competent juniors and seniors, then with a veteran quarterback and improved line, there might be enough athletes to make something of the offense by 2016 or, more likely, 2017. 2015, however, will be about figuring out who can do damage in 2017.
Defense:
The front seven returns all but one primary contributor, and the run defense should expect to improve, which is encouraging. But that one player (end Zachary Allen) was Wake's best pass rusher, and when combined with significant turnover in the secondary, the pass defense will almost certainly regress.
If Wake can figure out the end position, this front seven will be one of the ACC's best. Losing Zachary Allen hurts the pass defense; sophomore Wendell Dunn proved excellent against the run but had only 0.5 sacks. If Wake has to blitz more, that could expose the secondary to big plays.
Basically: This team is at least another year away.