Monday Morning Hot Takes: Virginia

The Deacs are 4-0! We are officially a third of the way through the 2021 football season, and Wake Forest is looking like a pretty darn good team. In fact, the Deacs are still in sole possession of first place in the conference and are one of the the two remaining unbeaten teams in the ACC (BC). As always, let’s drop a few hot takes from Friday night’s game and the rest of the college football slate. Please keep in mind that these are just the opinions of a fan who doesn’t really know that much about the sport of football and likes to complain.

The path is there. Don’t freak out. With Clemson losing to NC State this weekend, the path for Wake Forest to get to the ACC Championship game is right there. Maybe it’s starting to feel like 2006.

The defense could be better than the offense. This sounds crazy, I know. The Wake Forest offense has looked unstoppable this season, averaging 430 yards and almost 39 points per game—and that’s really without trying in the 4th quarter. But check out what the defense has done through the first four games of the season. The Deacs have only given up 57 points so far! That’s under 15 points a game. Combine that with 11 forced turnovers, 15 sacks, and a 39% conversion rate on third downs, and the defense has a case here. Hopefully this is a debate that we can continue having as the season progresses.

Brennan Armstrong is the best QB in the nation. This guy is insane. He has an absolute cannon for an arm and is tough as nails. He’s being asked to basically be the entire Virginia offense, and he’s doing a pretty good job of it. With 59 passing attempts and 17 rushing attempts, Armstrong combined to account for 76 of UVA’s 86 plays and 440 of their 506 total yards—that is a ridiculous usage rate and probably is not sustainable for the entire season. Several times during the game it looked like Wake had Armstrong dead to rights for a sack, and he would somehow emerge from a pile, escape the pocket, and throw an absolute laser down the field for 30 yards. With the current struggles of the big names like Sam Howell and Spencer Rattler, Armstrong is easily my vote for the top QB in the nation.

Trick plays are fun. This isn’t really a hot take at all. Let’s just do more trick plays.

I kind of like being unranked. Wake Forest is currently 24th in the AP Top 25 poll and deservedly so. That being said, I sort of like being an under the radar team that people tend to overlook. I’m pretty sure this has absolutely no effect on the opponent’s preparation or the outcome of the game at all, but as a completely irrational fan, being ranked to me is just a big ole target right on the back. Plus, it’s always fun when all the “expects” pick against the Deacs and they absolutely steamroll their opponent.

UNC has the best PR in college football. I don’t know who was behind the hype train but this was clearly never a playoff team. One loss at the beginning of the year can be overlooked, but losing to Georgia Tech by 23 as a 14.5 favorite is pretty bad. Yikes. I don’t think Mack is back any longer.

Mike Norvell deserves more time. FSU is 0-4. They lost to an FCS team this year. Obviously none of that is good, but you can’t keep firing guys after 2 years—especially if 1 of them was the covid year—and expect to ever get back to being a good team, unless you replace him with an Urban Meyer or Nick Saban caliber coach.

It already feels like Alabama has won the title. I mean, maybe Georgia can beat them? College football might have more parity this season, but I think that’s just because all the teams that aren’t Alabama just got worse. Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio State—AKA the usual suspects—all seem to be having down years.

There are some of my takes from week 4 of college football. Feel free to drop some of yours in the comments.