Hey there. Thanks for stopping by again. I traded barbs with the Wake Forest outlet Blogger So Dear over at SB Nation this week and came up with some stats and uncomfortably dodged questions about the topic of the week: Riley Skinner’s Hog. No homo. Check out my responses here (forthcoming.)

1) Wake Forest has one of the better passing attacks in the ACC. What kind of set up should Clemson expect to see? Who are Wake Forest’s big men catching the football?

To be honest, I’m about as in the dark as you guys are. That’s typically what happens with us. We’ve been running some no huddle and a lot of shotgun lately but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we come out in the I just because Coach Lobo (the offensive coordinator) likes to out think himself and basically put formations in a bowl and pick one out.

But if you held a gun to my head, I’d say expect a lot of shotgun. We haven’t been using a lot of double T so you’ll see a lot of three receiver sets. With big men, are we talking TEs, because that’s Andrew Parker’s domain. If we’re talking “big” men, like big play guys, you’ll get a heavy dose of three receivers: Marshall Williams (32 rec, 472 yards, 5 TDs), Devon “Y’lou” Brown (22 rec, 334 yards, 1 TD) and Chris Givens (26 rec, 356 yards, 5 TDs).

2) Have any other teams had any success defending against the Riley Skinner and his passing? If not, what do you think the Tigers defense needs to do in order to slow down Wake?

Baylor had a lot of success containing Riley (as evidenced by his 3 INTs), but to be honest I feel like a lot of that was Skinner feeling pressured to carry the team with all the talk of the new defense. So he forced some throws, had happy feet and all in all looked downright terrible. He looked a lot like that in the first half of the Stanford game too, but played a lot better in the second period.

The way to contain Skinner is by collapsing the pocket from the outside in. He is extremely comfortable making his own play and scrambling (especially right), so keeping him in the pocket and blitzing from the ends will force him to throw over the DL, something he has trouble with because of his size.

3) On the other hand, Wake Forest has been lagging in the rushing category. Where is the breakdown occurring?

The rushing struggles are a bit exaggerated. In two of the last three games the Deacs have rushed for 142 yards (BC, 4.6 ypc) and 156 yards (Maryland, 4.0 ypc). In the NC State game, the terrible stats are heavily weighed down by State’s pressure on Skinner. He was sacked six times and on “11 rushes” lost 33 yards. So if you remove that from the equation Wake rushed for 53 yards (still not great) on 2.9 ypc (also not very good). But Skinner threw 45 times and Wilson attempted 43 passes so it was a shootout type of game and running wasn’t exactly the focal point.

The fact remains that Wake isn’t a run-first team this year. The team is running way too many unsuccessful end-arounds and pitches. The inside draws and the sweeps to the sidelines have worked well though.

4) It’s kind of worrisome for you guys that the Deacs have had some trouble in Death Valley lately, especially given your recent upswing of talented players. Is this the year that the cycle gets broken? How has the Wake Forest defense fared against the schedule this year?

Who knows? I was at the game two years ago and it was just plain domination by the Tigers. The crowd was into it and the atmosphere was tremendous (not to mention you guys were really good hosts to me during tailgating, confederate flag beer pong table aside), but BOY did the Demon Deacons look horrible.

Do I want the cycle to get broken? Of course I do, or I wouldn’t write a Wake Forest blog. But do I think it will? Well again, I write a Wake Forest blog so I have been conditioned to expect the worst. I just flipped a coin. Heads was win, Tails was loss. It was heads. So with the shakiest of convictions I will take the Deacs by 3.

5) Who are the standout players that Clemson fans should highlight in their programs for Saturday?

Because he’s good and because his name is so darned fun to say, Gelo Orange (Really?  – WM.) Also defensively [we've got] John Russell and Brandon Ghee. On offense you can draw whatever you want next to Riley’s name, but also star Marshall Williams, Brown and Givens.

6) Run a Google image search for “Riley Skinner” with the safe search option off. What the hell is that? Seriously? I need an explanation for this. Also, no homo.

It’s obvious Riley decided to give himself a fall back plan in case the NFL does not pan out. And he has a built in adult film name… Riley Fore…well you can figure out the rest. Plus, the Remington rifle sign in the background is a nice touch. It gives new meaning to the “he has a cannon” and “gunslinger” cliches. There’s a lot of speculation and rumor behind the picture, but I won’t go into any of that because I’m still not sure what the truth really is. Plus, it’s more fun to just make stuff up.