Already four weeks into the season, the Pack is preparing to experience a series of firsts this week as it prepares for a road tilt against Wake Forest Saturday afternoon. The match-up will be the first away game the Pack has played this year and will also be the team’s first ACC game this season.
Redshirt freshman R.J. Mattes said playing outside of the familiar confines of Carter-Finley Stadium would be a challenge.
“An away game is going to be a little different,” Mattes said. “We are used to having Pack nation being all loud and rowdy. It’s going to be a hostile environment over at Wake. I’m sure we’re going to have a lot of fans, because it’s only an hour and a half away.
“It might feel a little bit like a home game but it’s always different going out in front of an away crowd. We just need to come out and perform.”
Wake Forest is 2-2 (0-1) on the season and is coming off an overtime loss to Boston College, in which the final score was 27-24.
The Deacons are lead by redshirt senior and four year starter Riley Skinner, who is the all-time winningest quarterback to play for Wake and also holds records for passing efficiency and competition percentage.
“He does a great job of keeping his poise and moving in the pocket,” coach Tom O’Brien said. “He is always stepping up and finding a seam and making a play. He takes very few sacks and gets rid of the ball fast, which you would expect out of a four year starter and the things he has done the previous three years. He is a really mature quarterback.”
The biggest matchup of the game will be the No. 1-ranked Wake offense against the No. 1 defense of State. State is giving up only 201.2 yards of offense a game while limiting teams to only 14.8 points per game.
However, Wake Forest runs an unusual offense utilizing a lot of motion, option runs and reverses that could trouble the Pack.
“Wake Forest runs a lot of bone and Wing Bone,” redshirt freshman safety Earl Wolff said. “We have practiced that a lot and coach always talks about how Wake is the best total offense in the ACC and we take it as a challenge and play our hardest on Saturday.”
Even after the huge win last weekend against Pittsburgh, the Pack still has a long way to go to be a dominating football team and it is hoping to fix some of the mistakes that haunted it throughout the Pitt game.
“We just have to get rid of our mental mistakes,” Mattes said. “We can’t have pre-snap penalties like that. We just have to eliminate small mistakes like that because that can cost you the game, especially in red zone situations.
“We just have to get our steps down, get our blocks down. We know Russell [Wilson] can make big plays so we just have to stay in our blocks longer than we were staying in our blocks against Pitt and let Russell [Wilson] do the work.”
After losing redshirt senior linebacker Aaron Curry, who was drafted fourth overall in this past year’s draft, the Wake defense is now lead by two defensive tackles. Both redshirt seniors, John Russell and Boo Robinson lead a defense that is sixth in the ACC in rush defense.
“They are fifth years guys and obviously Russell is a leader of their defense,” O’Brien said. “He kind of reminds me of Chris Hovan, that we used to have at BC and he is still playing in the NFL. But he makes a lot of plays, he is tough to block, and he is very active. [Robinson] is very strong and powerful.”
Wake’s secondary was recently shuffled for various reasons and the team’s defense has given up an average of 217 yards a game through the air.
Should the Pack capitalize in the way O’Brien and his staff have stressed in recent weeks, the team could continue its recent dominance through the air behind redshirt sophomore quarterback Wilson.
“We have to do what we do best,” O’Brien said. “Changing people is something you have to just wait until you play them. But as long as the structure remains the same you attack the structure of the defense. And if you can find someone personal wise you can attack, then we will make that adjustment as the game goes on.”
