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Hurricane football 2009 season preview: Game 8 at Wake Forest
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With the 2009 college football season approaching, it's time to preview the Miami Hurricanes' season game-by-game. Each week, I'll be analyzing one opponent as we lead up towards the beginning of fall practice for the University of Miami football team.
This week I'll be looking at Miami's game on October 31st in Winston-Salem, North Carolina against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons. The Demon Deacons have been known for some time as one of the most well-coached teams in America. Jim Grobe always seems to get the most out of his talent each year. With that said, Wake Forest is a team that Miami has had a great deal of success against since joining the ACC, as they have gone undefated against the Demon Deacons in ACC play.
Last Meeting: On October 25th, 2008, the Hurricanes defeated Wake Forest 16-10 in Miami. This game was memorable for the peculiar offensive play-calling employed by Wake Forest. Initially, the game-plan was a sound one as the Demon Deacons took the opening kickoff 66 yards on 10 consecutive rushing plays to take a 7-0 lead. The Demon Deacons would not attempt a pass on either of their next 2 drives either, despite the presence of a trusted, veteran QB in Riley Skinner (Pictured, Source: www.images.sportsnetwork.com) After a drive without a pass that resulted in a punt, Wake Forest again scored a field goal to on a long drive to take a 10-3 lead where they only ran the ball, despite being a fairly prolific passing team on the year. Soon however, the Miami defense would catch on to the playcalling and began to snuff out the Demon Deacons rushing attack. The second half was all Miami as the defense held firm while the offense began to produce after only scoring 3 points in the first half. Matt Bosher kicked two field goals and QB Robert Marve ran for a 1-yard touchdown after setting himself with a long 43-yard run at the drive to give Miami a 16-10 lead. Despite being down in the contest late, Wake Forest still for the most part stubbornly refused to open up the offense and still primarily stuck to the running game, which by then was ineffective. Skinner finished the day having completed just 3-of-8 passes for 57 yards. (one completion was a short pass to D.J. Boldin who then ran after the catch for a 45-yard gain) Miami was able to run out the clock and escape with a win that propelled them to a 5-3 record. Wake Forest fell to 4-3 with the loss.
Wake Forest Offense: This unit returns 9 starters in 2009 and should be the strength of the team. The Demon Deacons struggled at times on offense last year finishing at 101st totally in total offense, but that stat is somewhat deceiving as they can be dangerous with a variety of unorthodox offensive plays. Senior Riley Skinner returns at QB for Wake Forest after throwing last season for 2347 yards and 13 touchdowns. He's yet another quarterback the 'Canes will face that can beat you with his feet and his arm. Both running backs that ran well early against Miami last year return as both junior Josh Adams and sophomore Brandon Pendergrass, who led the team in rushing last year with 528 yards, return in 2009. The wide receving unit is a question mark for Wake Forest. Gone are starting wide receivers D.J. Boldin and Chip Brinkman. The go-to receiver now is likely 6-1 sophomore Marshall Williams who caught 26 passes for 390 yards and 2 touchdowns last year. Starting opposite of him should be 5-9 sophomore Devon Brown. Also competing for playing time will be redshirt freshmen Terence Davis and Chris Givens, who are listed at 6-1, and 6-0 respectively, along with 6-3 junior Jordan Williams. Junior tight end Ben Wooster returns, and he gives Skinner a reliable target in the middle of the field while his new wide receivers are broken in. The offensive line has the potential to be perhaps the team's biggest strength as they return four starters from last year's group. They are senior left guard Barrett McMillin, junior center Russell Nenon, senior guard Jeff Griffin, and senior tackle Jeff Birdsong. Mammoth 6-4, 362-pound senior Chris DeGeare will play at offensive tacle on the opposite side of Birdsong. The prediction that they'll be one of the strengths of the team has more to do with the expectation that they'll jell due to experience and less with past peformance, as they ranked a woeful 90th in sacks allowed in the country last year. Overally, this is an offensive group that isn't necessarily the flashiest offense ever, but they've been very effective in the ACC for the last several years. Superior athleticism seems to have shut the offense down over the last few years however as games against Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Miami have shown. Still, given how disciplined this unit is, they're likely to get some offensive traction against the Hurricane defense, assuming the same questionable play-calling doesn't return from last year's game. This isn't the type of offense that is built to win a shootout however, so if Jacory Harris and the offense score enough to force this unit to open up the offense, it's not likely that Wake Forest can keep up.
Wake Forest Defense: This unit was stellar a year ago as they ranked 16th in total defense a year ago. However, this group loses 7 starters, inlcuding LB Aaron Curry, who was the 4th overall draft choice of the Seattle Seahawks in the 2009 NFL Draft, and playmaking CB Alphonso Smith. The front four still remains very formidable. They're led by senior DT Boo Robinson, who is the returning leader for the team in tackles and sacks, and is also surprisingly tied for the lead in interceptions- with 1. Senior John Russell also returns to play with Robinson on the inside of the line. Sophomore Kyle Wilber returns at defensive end, while sophomore Tristan Dorty will man the other defensive end position. The linebackers are all new with junior Matt Woodlief taking over at middle linebacker. Junior Johnathan Jones will play one outside linebacking position while the other spot will be taken by sophomore Hunter Haynes. In the secondary, only 6-0 senior Brandon Ghee returns for the Demom Deacons. 5-11 sophomore Josh Bush will take over at the other cornerback spot. 6-3 junior Alex Frye will play free safety and 6-3 redshirt freshman Cyhl Quarles will play strong safety. Overall, this is a group that the Miami passing attack should have success on and should be aggressive against. Robinson is likely to be a handful for the interior of the UM offensive line, so lining up and running the ball straight at the Demon Deacons may not be the best plan of attack, especially given the advantages Miami appears to have with TE Dedrick Epps and their wide receivers against the Wake Forest linebackers and secondary in this game.
Wake Forest Special Teams: All-world kicker Sam Swank departs Winston-Salem, but all hope is not lost for the Wake Forest kicking game. Sophomore Shane Popham returns to handle both the punting and kicking duties for the club. He averaged 39.2 yards per punt on 54 attempts last fall. He also filled in for an injured Swank at times last season and connected on 7 of 12 field goal attempts and on all 9 of his extra point attempts. Alphonso Smith won't just be missed in the Wake Forest secondary, but also on special teams. Devon Brown returns as one of the kick returners having returned 16 kicks for a 21.9-yard average in 2008. He may also be asked to handle the punt return duties as well, but overall the punt returner position appears wide open along with one of the kick return spots alongside Brown.
Prediction: Miami will enter this game 5-2 on the season and will be ranked between 15th and 20th in the polls coming into this game. Wake Forest will enter this game 6-2 and will be ranked between 20th and 25th in the polls with wins against Baylor, Stanford, Elon, and Maryland and road wins at Navy and Boston College. They'll also have lost two games at home to North Carolina St. and on the road at Clemson. Wake Forest ran all over Miami early on last year, and being that they're at an athletic disadvantage, they'll probably look to do the same again this year (although not to just such an extreme extent in all likelihood) and try to shorten the game. Wake Forest's misdirection will lead to some big gains for the Demon Deacons running game, but the inexperience in the receiving unit and questions with the offensive line's pass protection may cause the passing game to be somewhat muted against the Hurricane defense. Although the Demon Deacons do lose 7 starters on defense, they'll play relatively well at home and won't let the UM offense explode on them. However, there are simply too many questions in the back seven for Wake Forest for them to be able to contain all of the weapons from Miami for an entire 4 quarters. Miami will jump out to an early 10-point lead and it will lead by roughly that margin for most of the game. A late Wake Forest score in the 4th quarter will make things interesting, but Wake Forest has as of late been a good matchup for the Hurricanes, and that doesn't figure to change in this matchup. Miami will improve to 6-2 on the year and improve to 15th or so in the national polls while Wake Forest will slip to 6-3 on the year and will be on the borderline of being included within the national polls. Next week the Hurricanes will return home to face the Virginia Cavaliers.
Miami 24, Wake Forest 16
For More Info: Visit www.sportsnetwork.com, www.nationalchamps.net, www.collegefootballnews.com, and www.espn.com
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