All good points Mike. I’ve come to find out that you’re good when it comes to Devil’s Advocate
I feel good about the defense. New DC (I believe Conklin was the problem), whole DL is coming back, Wirginis is back at ILB plus a preseason award candidate at OLB (a former walk-on no less), and a secondary that got better as the season went on.
- Wake won’t be a walk-over, but I feel confident that we should beat them. Their defense was 105th in the country, even worse than our’s. Maybe that’s a good thing they’re returning everyone
Run defense was abysmal and that’s the one thing we’re good at, even at QB. Add to the fact that they would’ve had three of their last four games on the road and Clemson before that, and there may be some fatigue setting in as we come to town.
- North Carolina isn’t looking much better than last year and they’re in trouble with the NCAA again, possible suspensions coming. We play them early in the season so that may affect our matchup. This is the year we beat them.
- We beat Syracuse last year with better QB play. We now have that in Pickett. Add to the fact that we play them at home (a place we haven’t lose to Cuse since 2001) and we should beat them. Dungy is good, though. Absolutely torched us in 2016 with Ismael at WR.
- Duke was injured last year, but we were down as well and we still pulled out a win. We’re both still on the same level but we get them at home. I give the edge to us.