TrueOrange
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It’s the black and gold bowl! Missouri and Wake Forest meet for the first time in each program’s history.
Missouri’s rushing attack and defense will try to match up against ACC Career passing TD leader Sam Hartman and Wake Forest’s high powered offense and, well, lack of a pass defense, who look to continue their dominance of black and gold teams this season (having beaten Vanderbilt and Army, who beat Missouri last bowl season).
The Tigers started the season 2-5 - in a series of close games with a defense that put a stop to most teams but an offense that couldn’t get out of its own way - only to beat a ranked South Carolina team en route to finishing 3-2, clinching a bowl appearance in the last game of the season with a 29-27 win against Arkansas.
After ducking Kansas in Memphis (allegedly), the Tigers head to Tampa Bay, however, having been hit pretty hard by opt outs and the transfer portal; so it will be interesting to see how what’s left of their defense fairs against the Demon Deacons…though what’s left of their passing game will probably fare just fine.
The Demon Deacons, meanwhile, come into the program’s 17th bowl appearance: 11 having been in the last 16 years and 7 of those having come since the arrival of Dave Clawson as coach. Wake Forest came into the season riding an ACC Championship Game appearance, 11-3 season, and the program’s first 2 appearances in the AP top 10, under the impression that their starting QB might miss the majority of the season following surgery. However, to everyone’s surprise, Hartman returned week 2. He and the slow mesh, high-powered offense led Wake Forest to a another top 10 start, going 6-1 with the only loss being in double overtime to Clemson, in a back and forth game which they led almost the entirety.
Then Louisville happened; a mess of a game where the offensive line couldn’t stop the pass rush en route to a disastrous 3rd quarter that saw their lead vanish among 6 turnovers in that quarter alone and 8 by game’s end. Things then got rough and dreams of the program’s 2nd ever Orange Bowl appearance evaporated, going 1-3 along the rest of the backend of their schedule…losing games to NC State, UNC, and Duke: all being 1-score losses, with the other team scoring the game-winning points at the end of the game (and Wake Forest being unable to get out of their own way blocking other teams and stopping other offenses…though they were able to beat an injury-depleted Syracuse roster).
That implosion sent the team from the decent ACC Bowl range to the lower tier and Tampa. They limp into the bowl having gone 1-5 over their last 6 games, but still bring in that high-powered, deep passing offense led by Sam Hartman, who has already said this will be his last year at Wake Forest and accounted for 35 passing TDs to tie the ACC total passing TD record at 107.
It should be an entertaining game, Wake Forest can score deep on almost everyone, but if the last half of the season is any indication, they can’t stop anyone from passing against them. Could be a fun one.
Missouri’s rushing attack and defense will try to match up against ACC Career passing TD leader Sam Hartman and Wake Forest’s high powered offense and, well, lack of a pass defense, who look to continue their dominance of black and gold teams this season (having beaten Vanderbilt and Army, who beat Missouri last bowl season).
The Tigers started the season 2-5 - in a series of close games with a defense that put a stop to most teams but an offense that couldn’t get out of its own way - only to beat a ranked South Carolina team en route to finishing 3-2, clinching a bowl appearance in the last game of the season with a 29-27 win against Arkansas.
After ducking Kansas in Memphis (allegedly), the Tigers head to Tampa Bay, however, having been hit pretty hard by opt outs and the transfer portal; so it will be interesting to see how what’s left of their defense fairs against the Demon Deacons…though what’s left of their passing game will probably fare just fine.
The Demon Deacons, meanwhile, come into the program’s 17th bowl appearance: 11 having been in the last 16 years and 7 of those having come since the arrival of Dave Clawson as coach. Wake Forest came into the season riding an ACC Championship Game appearance, 11-3 season, and the program’s first 2 appearances in the AP top 10, under the impression that their starting QB might miss the majority of the season following surgery. However, to everyone’s surprise, Hartman returned week 2. He and the slow mesh, high-powered offense led Wake Forest to a another top 10 start, going 6-1 with the only loss being in double overtime to Clemson, in a back and forth game which they led almost the entirety.
Then Louisville happened; a mess of a game where the offensive line couldn’t stop the pass rush en route to a disastrous 3rd quarter that saw their lead vanish among 6 turnovers in that quarter alone and 8 by game’s end. Things then got rough and dreams of the program’s 2nd ever Orange Bowl appearance evaporated, going 1-3 along the rest of the backend of their schedule…losing games to NC State, UNC, and Duke: all being 1-score losses, with the other team scoring the game-winning points at the end of the game (and Wake Forest being unable to get out of their own way blocking other teams and stopping other offenses…though they were able to beat an injury-depleted Syracuse roster).
That implosion sent the team from the decent ACC Bowl range to the lower tier and Tampa. They limp into the bowl having gone 1-5 over their last 6 games, but still bring in that high-powered, deep passing offense led by Sam Hartman, who has already said this will be his last year at Wake Forest and accounted for 35 passing TDs to tie the ACC total passing TD record at 107.
It should be an entertaining game, Wake Forest can score deep on almost everyone, but if the last half of the season is any indication, they can’t stop anyone from passing against them. Could be a fun one.
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