Yes, I’ve drank the Kool-Aid and I’ve got plenty to spare.

Here is my breakdown. We have some matchup advantages that have caused Wake Forest trouble recently. The key to beating Wake Forest is to limit their running game. The Deacs run a really fast paced offense and it’s feast or famine based on the running and short passing game. They have not been good at converting third and long (sound familiar). They had two QB’s play last season and are battling though fall camp for the starting spot, so they have two serviceable QBs. Last season Greg Dortch, who left for the NFL as a redshirt sophomore, was their slot receiver and responsible for over a third of their receptions and receiving yards. I see their running attack vs our defensive front as a excellent matchup for our front seven (6?). With all the returning experience and productivity I think they will be able to keep the Deac’s rushing attack in check.

Deac fans worried with what the coaches described as a small and quick defensive line. If the fans concern about youth and lack of size is true, it should allow our young offensive line to get away with some of the sloppy play that usually happens with new faces up front. Even if Wake is able to get good production from the Interior linemen they still have lacked a pass rush. Love should be able to take advantage of the extra time he will have, even behind a young line. Wake does have excellent corners and linebackers and are switching to a 4-2-5 look. That should allow them to put the best 11 players in the field. However, Wake hasn’t had impressive defenses in recent years and the Aggie offense should be able to score enough points.

I can’t wait to watch this favorable matchup against a P5 school to begin the season. I see USU leaving Winston-Salem 1-0 behind a defense that is built to stop the run. Go Aggies!

I’m not worried about Wake’s running game. It’s their passing attack that keeps me up at night. We need #10 to have a big game for us.


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So I'm going to come in and be the downer here. But I just don't see us winning this game and will be betting big against it.

We have 54 new players this year. I believe our O-line will end up alright but the first game with all of them as inexperienced as they are going up against a p5 team? That combined with the lack of experience at WR and a new defense and I just don't see us going on the road and winning this game.

Not to mention when was the last time we actually won a road game against a P5 school? Wake Forest is a decent team. I'm afraid this will be another close loss.

Roy McAvoy wrote: ↑

July 18th, 2019, 11:12 pm

Not to mention when was the last time we actually won a road game against a P5 school?

Didn't we do that last year in Provo? Oh...wait, you meant a real P5 school, not one who thinks they are!

Roy McAvoy wrote: ↑

July 18th, 2019, 11:12 pm

So I'm going to come in and be the downer here. But I just don't see us winning this game and will be betting big against it.

We have 54 new players this year. I believe our O-line will end up alright but the first game with all of them as inexperienced as they are going up against a p5 team? That combined with the lack of experience at WR and a new defense and I just don't see us going on the road and winning this game.

Not to mention when was the last time we actually won a road game against a P5 school? Wake Forest is a decent team. I'm afraid this will be another close loss.

I believe their dline is very inexperienced as well. It is about as favorable of matchup for oline as we can hope for to start off.

BYU is p5? Many consider them less than that

I'm not going out on a limb on an opener with all the changes but this seems like a great opportunity for the Aggies to steal a win:

1. WF struggled against the Pass last year and their fast pace offense will give Love plenty of opportunities to get in his own rhythm.
2. USU's front 7 is going to very good out of the gates and Gary Andersen will have a ton of time to scheme to disguise a secondary that's going to take some time to come together.
3. The O-line is young but if you watch Love last year he was getting the ball out of his hands in 2-3 seconds most of the time before a lineman can even get in his face. Even in his bad game against Wyoming when Wyoming was getting a great front 4 rush the struggles seemed more related to the physical man style they played on the Aggies receivers, jamming them to keep them out of their timing routes with plenty of safety and LB help. WF has not shown that kind of a secondary and I think Love can get in a rhythm. When he does it will open things up for Bright with the RPO stuff even if the line isn't perfect.

My opinion is that teams like Wyoming that can force Love into pressure at just under the 3 second mark with a standard 3-4 man rush and play our receivers physically with safety and LB help will be the most difficult matchups for Love all year long because it will force him into contested throws or waiting and throwing under pressure into potential double teams which he struggled with at times throwing the ball away or sailing his throws. Especially unless the Aggies have a guy who can step up like Tarver or Green and out body people. So yeah, if the O-line does struggle certain teams with the right personnell will take advantage. (SDSU sure could do this and LSU will always kill a bad line). Just looking at the last year anyway WF doesn't appear to have the kind of secondary to do that and their D-line is unproven.


With two fast offenses like USU and WF, turnovers, sacks, and defensive plays on third downs with a chance to get an offense off the field and out of rhythm will decide the game for one team or another. It should be a really fun game.

Of course we rolled Tennessee a few years back too..lol. I think its a game decided by a less than a TD and the Aggies kicker ain't bad so if I were picking straight up I guess I would defy the Vegas +1 odds and take the Aggies.

This game is winnable, I look for it to be very close all the way.


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I think we win this one.

Losing to Wake would be a disasterous start to the season..

Imakeitrain wrote:Losing to Wake would be a disasterous start to the season..

Of course it wouldn't be. But it'd be worse than winning.


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QuackAttackAggie wrote: ↑

July 20th, 2019, 11:20 pm

Imakeitrain wrote:Losing to Wake would be a disasterous start to the season..

Of course it wouldn't be. But it'd be worse than winning.


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It would be a disastrous start. (Not to be confused w/disastetous season)

Losing to Wake would mean that we have
a lot to work on if we hope to build from
Last year.

The good G5 teams that we think we compare with all win these types of games.

Wake is a must win.

Imakeitrain wrote: ↑

July 20th, 2019, 11:42 pm

QuackAttackAggie wrote: ↑

July 20th, 2019, 11:20 pm

Imakeitrain wrote:Losing to Wake would be a disasterous start to the season..

Of course it wouldn't be. But it'd be worse than winning.


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It would be a disastrous start. (Not to be confused w/disastetous season)

Losing to Wake would mean that we have
a lot to work on if we hope to build from
Last year.

The good G5 teams that we think we compare with all win these types of games.

Wake is a must win.

No it’s not. Wake is a top 50 team that has built a very solid program under Clawson. It is a road game opener with a new O-Line and coaching staff. There is no referendum to be had unless we get absolutely smoked or absolutely thrash them.

I wish I had some of the same confidence with the Wake game that some of you do. I think this will be a really difficult for the Aggies to win. I think we can win, but am not confident in saying that we will. 2 years ago when I went to the Wake game I was confident that we would win and we got completely smoked. Their coach is really good and done a great job creating a good consistent team. We have a whole new coaching staff with a lot of new faces in key positions. I don't think it is a must win, but I do think that it is a must that we make it a good game. Crossing my fingers to see if the Aggies can pull off the upset.

Aggie84025 wrote: ↑

July 21st, 2019, 8:35 am

I wish I had some of the same confidence with the Wake game that some of you do. I think this will be a really difficult for the Aggies to win. I think we can win, but am not confident in saying that we will. 2 years ago when I went to the Wake game I was confident that we would win and we got completely smoked. Their coach is really good and done a great job creating a good consistent team. We have a whole new coaching staff with a lot of new faces in key positions. I don't think it is a must win, but I do think that it is a must that we make it a good game. Crossing my fingers to see if the Aggies can pull off the upset.

Same. We can win, but I'm not expecting to win.

We have a chance to be really good, but I just haven't yet been able to fully shake the gnawing worry I have that Gary's second stint has disaster potential given how things went at Oregon State. I've talked myself into believing it won't be a disaster, but that potential is definitely there. Guess we'll know soon.

Aggie84025 wrote:I wish I had some of the same confidence with the Wake game that some of you do. I think this will be a really difficult for the Aggies to win. I think we can win, but am not confident in saying that we will. 2 years ago when I went to the Wake game I was confident that we would win and we got completely smoked. Their coach is really good and done a great job creating a good consistent team. We have a whole new coaching staff with a lot of new faces in key positions. I don't think it is a must win, but I do think that it is a must that we make it a good game. Crossing my fingers to see if the Aggies can pull off the upset.

I get your reticence to pick the Ags, but this game against Wake is gonna be way different from the 2017 game, win or lose.

Wake is going to have heavily retooled interior lines. They lose their top defensive linemen from last year and from their O line as well. Though it’s anybody’s guess how our new O line will fare against their questionable D line, our D line vs their O line is an extremely favorable matchup for us.

Their QB hasn’t been fully picked yet, and either option for them there is still a step down from John Wolford. Also, their receiving core took a huge hit with Dortch leaving for the NFL. I think our corners are good enough to cover their less explosive receivers.

If our O line plays well and we run the ball effectively, I think we win by 10. If not, it’s gonna be an ugly affair with the winner in question until the closing minutes of the game.


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Under Clawson, Wake has had one season of at .500 in-conference ACC play and hasn’t been above .500. The ACC for the most part except for Clemson was garbage last year.

I’m not saying Wake can’t beat us, they are certainly good enough to beat anyone. They are a D-1 college team and @ home- plus things can always go sideways (Like am injury to Love) ...

I’m saying if they do (without having a breakout year) something went very wrong.

If you want to belong it’s time we start acting like it. That means don’t whine about P5/ east coast bias when you yourselves fall for it. We have a great coach, we have an NFL caliber arm, multiple nfl caliber linebackers- both of whom are on award lists, we have nfl caliber kicker, we finally have a punter again, we have a young- but experienced line- one of whom is considered by people to be our best lineman in school history. We have a solid running back that had nearly 1,000 yards with split duty.

And if you’re worried about Wake Forest then you really must not really have faith in the war chest. We should win, and we should feel confident.

Wake is favored by 3, not much faith by the Vegas odds makers in a P5 Team from the ACC at home. We have the Horses,
I've got confidence in or players and like this Seasons staff better than last Season. I'm saying Ags by 6

I'm really looking forward to seeing this game. I'll be in Lynchburg and I may be able to get there with my brother in law.

I put our chances at 45% at winning on the road two time zones away. To go 2-1 in this series would be epic.

Imakeitrain wrote: ↑

July 21st, 2019, 12:50 pm

Under Clawson, Wake has had one season of at .500 in-conference ACC play and hasn’t been above .500. The ACC for the most part except for Clemson was garbage last year.

I’m not saying Wake can’t beat us, they are certainly good enough to beat anyone. They are a D-1 college team and @ home- plus things can always go sideways (Like am injury to Love) ...

I’m saying if they do (without having a breakout year) something went very wrong.

If you want to belong it’s time we start acting like it. That means don’t whine about P5/ east coast bias when you yourselves fall for it. We have a great coach, we have an NFL caliber arm, multiple nfl caliber linebackers- both of whom are on award lists, we have nfl caliber kicker, we finally have a punter again, we have a young- but experienced line- one of whom is considered by people to be our best lineman in school history. We have a solid running back that had nearly 1,000 yards with split duty.

And if you’re worried about Wake Forest then you really must not really have faith in the war chest. We should win, and we should feel confident.

I think we have too many question marks to be completely confident. Among them
-New HC staff, while known to us, is an unknown commodity with these players. Is GA the same coach he was? Who knows
-Replacing 4/5 OL is challenging for any program regardless of how high you are of the guys behind.
-Replacing your 4 top pass catchers including an NFL caliber TE- tall task
-Replacing an NFL RB

While I only know what I have read about Wake (haven't watched them) I know they recruit higher touted athletes than we do. I know they're playing at home, and I know they return more starters than we do.

I think we win this game, but I don't think losing it marks something seriously wrong. We are one of the least experienced returning groups in the country. It's naiive to think the guys we have replacing the starters that graduate will all be as good or better.

Last year with more returning, we couldn't beat what turned out to be a pretty average Big 10 team in our opener. P5s are no cakewalk and the disparity between the P5 and G5 is very real.

Has anyone heard which services are carrying ACC network?


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While it’s not a must win, I do think it set the tone and expectations for the first half the season. I think attendance will be better with a win. I watched some replays of both teams and I saw what looks like a favorable matchup. I think overall the talent discrepancy isn’t as wide as the local P5 team like to claim. It may be due to the 5 other FBS teams they share the state with. I go back to Wake being a run first team. Being able to stop the run is the key for USU. Love gets the ball out so fast and forces the defense to cover the entire field, so the offensive will put up points.

Jjoey53 wrote:Has anyone heard which services are carrying ACC network?


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From ACC web page:

How can I get ACCN in time for the August 2019 launch?
ESPN is working hard to ensure that ACCN will be broadly available via video providers across the country. Carriage agreements are already in place with the following video providers: DIRECTV, Google Fiber, Hulu Live TV, Layer3 TV, Optimum, PlayStation Vue, Suddenlink, Verizon Fios, as well as, members of the NRTC and Vivicast Media and more. For the latest updates and list, please visit GetACCN.com. You can also contact your pay TV provider and request that they carry ACCN as part of its channel lineup.


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I’m exited for chat

Remember when everyone was saying we would lose to North Texas because we lost our coaching staff, how did that game turn out? Oh we rolled them hard? Yea, we'll start where we left off!

ViAggie wrote: ↑

July 22nd, 2019, 2:39 pm

Remember when everyone was saying we would lose to North Texas because we lost our coaching staff, how did that game turn out? Oh we rolled them hard? Yea, we'll start where we left off!

I totally forgot that! Good point. I mean, we did have Yost still for that game, but still, there was a lot of disturbance in the coaching staff, yet the team weathered it.

You're comparing North Texas and Wake totally different beast

Both of our QBs are as good if not better than Wofford just a bit young. This team is much better than the one you played two years ago. We fired our crappy defensive coordinator mid-season last year and turned it around enough to go bowling and beat Memphis who was no slouch in our bowl game. We lost and NFL prospect game 1 Olinemen and a starting db game 1. We had 8 of 9 lbs hurt for the Clemson game and much of the season we were devastated all season. Dortch missed four games as well including the bowl.

jamesda3asu wrote: ↑

July 23rd, 2019, 1:33 pm

Both of our QBs are as good if not better than Wofford just a bit young. This team is much better than the one you played two years ago. We fired our crappy defensive coordinator mid-season last year and turned it around enough to go bowling and beat Memphis who was no slouch in our bowl game. We lost and NFL prospect game 1 Olinemen and a starting db game 1. We had 8 of 9 lbs hurt for the Clemson game and much of the season we were devastated all season. Dortch missed four games as well including the bowl.

I hope you are right. This should be a really fun game. The game 2 years ago with USU is about as relevant to the Aggies as Wake's previous loss in Logan.

Context is important when talking about transitions and this is about as seemless as it can get under the circumstances. This is Andersen's type of D and he's done nothing but add pieces that are going to make it better. Secondary is a bit of a question mark but so is Wake's.

Are transfer receivers and existing guys are all capable enough to give Love plenty of targets and the RB returning isn't a slouch. Most importantly the O-line got more reps together as a second unit than any team in the country and their coach is the best O-line coach I have seen here in his previous stint.

I disagree that their is any logical basis that Wake has an easy time of this game. It could easily happen as with any football opener in college football when the unknowns come together but Vegas agrees that it should come down the last possession.

jamesda3asu wrote: ↑

July 23rd, 2019, 1:33 pm

Both of our QBs are as good if not better than Wofford just a bit young. This team is much better than the one you played two years ago. We fired our crappy defensive coordinator mid-season last year and turned it around enough to go bowling and beat Memphis who was no slouch in our bowl game. We lost and NFL prospect game 1 Olinemen and a starting db game 1. We had 8 of 9 lbs hurt for the Clemson game and much of the season we were devastated all season. Dortch missed four games as well including the bowl.

Once upon a time there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly. Everyone died. The end.