Behind Enemy Lines: Talking Wake Forest Football With Blogger So Dear

For each game this season, BC Interruption talks with opposing writers about the teams that they cover. Today we speak with Cam Debro of Blogger So Dear. Make sure to follow Cam on Twitter, as well as the site’s main Twitter account.

BCI: Talk about Sam Hartman, with Kendall Hinton suspended the freshman will get the start. What kind of quarterback is Hartman, and what strengths and weaknesses have you seen so far.

BSD: I was the biggest skeptic of Hartman to enter the season. He’s a true Freshman QB, but he has very much improved and outperformed my expectations and I’m more than happy to be wrong on this. He’s a bit more mobile and is exceptionally talented putting it on a dime. Weaknesses would be his freshman mistakes he’s made 2 in 2 games and he needs to clean them up and not keep the streak of a turnover a game in this one.

BCI: Wake has been plagued by injuries so far this season. Who has stepped up to fill in those gaps?

BSD: We’ve seen a big contribution out of Sage Surratt taking a big step but he was always soon to be a factor in this offense, the injury to Scotty Washington has just accelerated that process. With the injury to Justin Herron, while a loss of someone who’s draft stock was doing nothing but rising always hurts, the fact that Wake had a 6th starter in Nathan Gilliam has really softened the blow a lot. Defensively we’ve seen a lot of Ja’sir Taylor and Traveon Redd who are very good in their own right but still young and it’ll help to get Cameron Glenn and hopefully Amari Henderson back in the secondary. However, losing 7 players to ACL tears this year isn’t optimal.

BCI: AJ Dillon is a lot to handle. How do you expect Wake to attack him?

BSD: Bend not break. It’d be stupid of me to say I think we completely shut him down, and it’s kind of a cop-out but it comes down to the health. If Amari Henderson is ready to go and the secondary is all healthy then I fully expect Clawson to come out and say, “Anthony Brown, you have to beat us.” Wouldn’t be shocked to see the box stacked more often and the Defensive line of Wake has been good (not great because there are times where they still haven’t finished) but I do think they are talented enough to give Dillon SOME problems but not a total shutdown.

BCI: Where are season expectations at right now for Wake Forest fans?

BSD: It’s at an impasse. There are people on one side that think 7 wins is about where the team will lie, get to an alright bowl and keep that streak going. Then there are people like me who think a 9 win season is very attainable. This game really is the catalyst in everyone’s minds. If Wake shows up here and wins a game they’re not favored in by any means, a bit more confidence is pumped in not only to the ND game next week but the season on. Looking at the schedule there is absolutely zero reason Wake Forest should not be bowl eligible so then it comes to what really are those “unwinnable games.” Outside of Clemson and MAYBE NC State since it’s on the road and Wake is historically awful there, the rest of the games Wake would be either favored or have more than a fighting chance in those games. If Wake loses then we fall back into “ok I can see 6 wins how do we get to 7 or 8 to avoid Shreveport”

BCI: Predictions for today’s game?

BSD: So when I thought this was going to be a wet one I had Wake winning 24-21 in a slugfest. Now that it looks to be 80 degrees and just 17MPH wins I feel a bit more confident that Wake can actually run their uptempo offense a bit better than they would in the rain. Wake 34-28, Dillon gets a few Touchdowns but behind Greg ”The Magician” Dortch and the stable of RB’s Wake comes out with a win in this one.