Diving into Duke and Wake Forest football!

uh sir let's start briefly with with last night in uh in Winston Salem uh really not a lot of expectations at all on Wake Forest going into the season what were your thoughts on what we saw I think we saw a game that you can caveat the heck out of it I mean that's what you're going to get every time a power Conference team plays an FCS team but you know the offense ran pretty efficient with Hank BM at quarterback for the most part I mean Michael Kern got the start and they had a touchdown Drive in his three possessions on the field and then Hank BM comes in the first drive doesn't go anywhere and then there are five straight scoring drives and four of those were touchdowns so Dave Clawson was non-committal to to naming a starting quarterback for next weekend against Virginia which is obviously a more important game moving forward but that's kind of to be expected I think I think if nothing else we learned last night that Hank Bach should and in all likelihood will be wake's starting quarterback moving forward all right so sometimes stats can confuse us and I think this stat confuses me Connor O'Neal deacons Illustrated is joining us here on the Adam Gold show we'll flip to Devil's Illustrated when we talk about tonight's game um so wake only had possession of the football for 23 and a half minutes they compiled 550 yards of total offense so is should we be huh their defense couldn't get off the field because Steve Logan taught us a long time ago that time of possession is a defensive stat not an offensive stat did wake just score so quickly that they were just on the field more naturally or are there defensive issues I think it's it it sways more toward the former it it sways more toward wake's offense when it clicks is Up Tempo and wants to run quickly right and uh I think the first two touchdown drives they had were both around a minute and a half I mean if you're scoring touchdowns you shouldn't be all that concerned about right how long you have the football for and if if you've got a running back that can break a 48 yard play and AER who can get you 50 yards on a single play that's a good problem to have in football I do think there's a little concern about the defense I mean there was one at one point uh A&C had three straight third down conversions and you know you're you're always you're it's such a lose lose scenario when you play these FCS games because if you blow the team out 70 to nothing everybody says well that's what you're supposed to do so you get no credit and if you lose or it's a close game then every the the sky is falling and you're not as good as you thought thought you were for the last three or four months I I think wake's defense will be better uh I think W's defense was also not tested in the area that I think is going to be there Achilles heel in the in the Deep passing game that's really not what entt does so that's still a little untested um more so than anything to go back to your original question I I mean I don't think I don't think wake has cared too much about time of possession in the last what okay six or seven six or seven years really yeah I mean again it's one of those things where it it might not matter at all and I will point out that in the best of the Larry Fedora era at UNC when they were I mean I mean just posting huge offensive numbers on the scoreboard it seemed every week you know their time of possession wasn't great as it turned out their defense was terrible too so it was it was it was sort of one didn't help the other uh you know they would have a touchdown drive you know seven plays 80 yards in a minute 57 uh and so your defense has to get right back on the field and they weren't good anyway so it just wasn't helping them out I was just curious um yeah there were too many things going on I I I I can't handle two screens let alone three screens so I was living vicariously through Conor O'Neal uh deacons Illustrated oh wait now you're Conor O'Neal Devils Illustrated uh what are your thoughts going into tonight's game against Elon with uh Malik Murphy a quarterback you still have Jordan Moore and Joz Mo all all the Moors uh in the offensive side but uh there's a lot to replace for the Blue Devils especially on that on both sides of the ball but let's start with offense yeah I mean you're it's it's tough to gauge when you play an FCS team because they don't have the depth uh they typically are a little smaller in some spots up front but you're really going to want to watch Duke's offensive and defensive lines because that's where they had to do the most replacing I mean they had a spring game where they had five offensive linemen suited up uh and had to play half the spring game with the defensive line taking two steps forward and then kneeling because there were no offensive linemen to block them um and and defensive line wise you're you're talking about replacing your top three defensive tackles two of them who are on NFL rosters and a third who's at Virginia Tech this year and then replacing your top defensive end in RJ Obin who's at Notre Dame so you're going to want to look at line play tonight as as boring as that sounds and as uh as mundane as that might be to evaluate when you're playing a FCS Team all due respect to the alma mater here in the fighting Christians uh Phoenix's I'm sorry you forgot you forgot they changed I I've been calling them the fighting phoenixes so I I kind of slipped up there we'll call it Freudian I guess I'm telling you man the Elon Mafia is everywhere we they've they've got a good journalism school where all led by West Durham at this point absolutely um and then you know it it is it is the flashiness of introducing a new quarterback who comes from Texas who was a really high-rated recruit um He is 65 230 pounds and has a hoer of a right arm um because we're in this state and because you know you have people who are fans of the Carolina Panthers they're going to want to compare him to Cam Newton I'm going to tell you right now he's not Cam Newton he does not run right but he he the last quarterback was more like Cam Newton yeah yeah exactly um but he can throw the hell out of the ball and I think Jordan Moore might be the best receiver in the ACC so it's it's going to be pretty electric through the air for this team um I've got questions about their defense but aside from the defensive line they should have some good depth and good experience so it's it's an interesting team I think they're going to have to score a lot of points to win a lot of games this year and you know they they kind of have some pieces on offense to do it it's just whether their offensive line can hold up yeah it it is all going to be about uh the trenches for the Blue Devils like I mean that's that's cliche because that goes to I mean that speaks to every team I mean NC State's not going to max out their season if their offensive line isn't good uh North Carolina's offensive line was okay not great yesterday it's got to be so much better uh if they want to especially now without a quarterback at this point I mean they have a quarterback but I don't think they have much of a passing game which is which means you don't really have a quarterback you have another running back um it's going to be hard for them unless their offensive line is great it's going to be hard for them to take get the most out of Amari and Hampton uh but yeah I mean we we we talk so much in football about everything else and then it's like the season starts and we remember oh yeah the two most fundamental things in this game will always be whether you can move people on blocks and whether you can tackle people to the ground it really is that simple and I mean I mean not that you thought we were going to talk about this but if you watched Florida state Georgia Tech what was obvious to me watching the game was Georgia Tech either is better or just played better on the offensive uh and defensive line lines they were those their Georgia Tech's offensive line won the battle with fsu's defensive front and vice versa they they won the battle on the defensive side of the ball too and it didn't I mean it's amazing that that game came down to a a field goal uh if you think about it but maybe that speaks to Florida State's Talent level uh but you know if Duke's going to be successful they got to be good on both sides of the ball yeah there were a lot of Shades in that opener last weekend to last year's opener in dur Duke was just supposed to be the the academic school and developmental program that had a tough schedule and was just supposed to be happy with seven wins and take their butt licking on in a in front of a national audience and somebody forgot to tell them and they just pushed around Clemson for four quarters and wound up with a with a earth shattering you know shot her round the ACCC and to open the season Conor O'Neal before I let you go so Duke has a difficult schedule again I think they play if if we thought going into the season that we had seven teams at the top of the uh of the league who are going to fight you know in because of the the lack of overlap in schedules you know fight to get to maybe seven and one uh Duke I think has five of them on the schedule that doesn't include Georgia Tech and North Carolina they have a very difficult League schedule if you had to say what would be a good year for for Manny Diaz in year one I think a good year is six and six and you get to whatever Bowl you can get to and you kind of sustain the momentum was that was created over the last two years I think you you lose a bit of it uh when you when you have a losing season when you spend all of December and the only thing you're talking about is everything else in college football that happens in December nowadays but I think you've just got to sustain momentum I I don't think it's a program that has any illusions of going 11 and one or 10 and two um it's it's just about sustainability and building something that is going to be translatable and you know laying some foundations for next season and Beyond yeah I I agree I think if they can get to a bowl game it's a huge success uh the non-conference schedule is sort of set up for that as well Connor O'Neal Devils Illustrated at Conor O'Neal di uh thank you much my friend I'll talk to you soon thanks Adam appreciate it