BSD Roundtable: What Does Wake Forest Football Need to Accomplish to Consider the 2018 Season a Success?

We at Blogger So Dear love to get our opinions out, so that sets up well for roundtables. We are going to try to do at least one of these a week moving forward. It facilitates good discussion among the staff and also in the comment section.

The question this week is:

What are two to three things that the 2018 Wake Forest football team needs to accomplish to consider the season a success?

Elijah

Scoring a “signature upset” would be a good goal for this program. While the Deacs exacted their revenge on Louisville for the playbook-gate events the prior season, Louisville wasn’t truly a contender. A competitive win against Florida State or Clemson is a goal I’d like to see for the Demon Deacs as they progress into a fixture in the top half of the ACC standings.

Not skipping a beat with the Hinton suspension. The QBs and rest of the team will be tested with Hinton out on suspension. The offensive line has been pointed to as the strength of the team... physically dominating teams out the gate with strong OL play could mitigate the loss of Hinton.

Cam

1: Beat one of ND, Clemson, Florida State (along with winning all of our winnable games). Wake got on the board last year with wins against Lamar Jackson, as well as a thrilling one against NC St., and that’s great, but the next step? Beating big dogs. If Wake wants to show that there’s some bite, then they need to take down one of these teams.

2: Go back to a Tier-1 bowl game. This can’t be a season where the team is going in reverse. Yes the win in the military bowl was fantastic, but Wake needs to keep the national exposure and playing in Tier-1 bowls is the best way to do that. You’ll play against the best conferences in the nation consistently if you get there.

3. Get ranked. Wake had chances to be ranked last year, but a loss to FSU started a 1-4 trend. There was still a lot of “should’ve, could’ve” last year —- they should’ve beaten FSU, they had the advantage against GT and let it slip away, the choke against Duke. If one or two of those things don’t happen who’s the say the Deacs aren’t a top 25 team

This team has the offense and the defense to be a top 25 team in the nation. Now prove it

Adam

My first and most important goal every football season is to simply make it to a bowl game. If we end the regular season with as many or more wins than losses, I will be pleased with the outcome of the season. Perhaps its time for me to raise my expectations and set some higher goals since the Deacs appear to be on the up and up... and also since in 2 years 84 out of the 130 teams will get to go to a bowl. Not exactly an exclusive club anymore.

I would obviously love to beat Duke and Louisville and finish in the top half of the Atlantic. I would also love to see a healthy Greg Dortch explode in the national spotlight and finally get the attention that he deserves. But honestly, as long as we’re playing in December/January, then we have had a successful season in my eyes.

Ed

Goal #1: No fewer than 8 wins and a third straight bowl appearance. This continues to show that WF football can be competitive in the ACC and is building a really strong program that can compete with just about anybody.

Goal #2: Having at least one player with 1,000 yards rushing on the year. This would show the presence of a strong, established back who is healthy most of the season, and would really help to open up the offense.

Riley

1. Win 8 regular season games

2. Get to a Florida bowl game (this is somewhat dependent on the rest of the ACC too)

3. Defeat Florida State, Clemson, Notre Dame. Take that next step and knock off a powerhouse.

4. Win the “State Championship”. This is an add-on because both in-state games are on the road and one is at N.C. State on a Thursday night, but hey, this would be nice.