They can. I used to live about three miles from Lambert Field in St. Louis where McD built them. My friend was an engineer on the F-15s and would call me up to come out to the flight line to watch them test the aircraft. One day watching a pair of 15’s, they didn’t even get halfway down the runway and went vertical, straight up until you couldn’t see them anymore. Greatest fighter the US ever built (along with the F-18).
I vividly recall changing planes at Lambert... TWA was still in business... and I went out to have a smoke and heard a roar and then witnessed an F-15 takeoff, pitch to vertical and just head to the moon... what an awesome, awesome aircraft.
Now, the F-18 Super Hornet is a different animal, what the F-18 should have been all along. The engines were probably not available though.
It is an eye opener to see a Super Hornet take off without afterburner faster than the original F-18 with AB. Amazing acceleration.