There will be familiar faces as Wake Forest meets Vanderbilt this weekend in Nashville. The return of Sam Hartman to quarterback for the Demon Deacons has been well-chronicled. Wake linebacker Ryan Smenda will take the field for the first time this season after a dubious one-game suspension from last season’s bowl game. But there are also the handshakes and chatter that will take place with the coaches before the game.
Recognizable Faces
Wake head coach Dave Clawson is heading to Nashville to coach against one of his former assistants, Clark Lea, the second-year head coach at Vanderbilt. Lea was the linebackers coach for Clawson at Bowling Green in 2012, and then again at Wake Forest in 2016. Clawson called Lea, “Very smart and a strategic thinker.”
One source of inspiration for being a strategic thinker likely came from another Clawson assistant who will undoubtedly be chatting with Lea. The Vandy coach waxed poetic this week about his relationship with Wake Forest offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero. The two would room together when they were working the camp circuit in Ohio during their time at Bowling Green. “Warren would be awake every morning at five to have his coffee. And he’d have his yellow legal pad out. I would always ask what he was doing. Well, he was always drawing up plays. It took me some time to realize his genius in play design.”
That was the early innovation of what is now Wake’s slow mesh offense. Lea called it a challenge to defend because it is unlike most other offenses in the country. “Wake Forest is about explosive plays and scoring points,” he said. “They’ve done it through a high-powered offense.” He said he has been preaching to his defense this week that the key to playing against the Wake offense is patience. “There are ways to make an aggressive call that keep you within the structure. There are also ways to be reckless. And when you’re reckless with this team and this offense they wind up in the end zone.”
The Here And Now Of Vanderbilt
The Commodores are 2-0 coming off a blowout win at Hawai’i and victory over Elon last week that was much closer than it should have been at 42-31.
Lea said while his team is experienced in terms of years, it is maybe not so when it comes to playing with big leads. That made the Elon game a new learning experience. “We didn’t close the game out,” he said earlier this week. “It was a result of us letting off the gas. And it was us not playing to our identity as we did against Hawai’i. The scoreboard lies to you. So, it’s human nature to soften once you felt you’ve built a lead. And elite teams don’t do that. We’ve got to learn to fight through that psychologically and closeout.”
Vandy has the ability to put the points on the board. Third-year quarterback Mike Wright already has six throwing touchdowns and four more on the ground. While he is not being asked to put the ball up a lot, he’s throwing at a 62% completion rate with zero interceptions. He is averaging a little more than 10-yards per carry en route to 250 yards rushing in two games.
Clawson and Wake’s defense have certainly taken notice. “He has breakaway speed. He’s got legit speed.” Defensive lineman Rondell Bothroyd has watched the film on Wright and said, “He’s probably the fastest quarterback we play. He’s smart, and they’re all well coached,” he said. “If we let him, he can run all over us. We’ve got to keep him contained.”
Stop The Flags
Something Clawson wants to see contained is the penalty flags coming out of the game officials’ pockets. Several days after the season-opening win against VMI, Clawson was still visibly bothered by the seven penalties for 70 yards amassed by the Demon Deacons. And upon watching the game film, he said there probably could have been a couple more called. “The sloppiness came from too many penalties,” he said earlier this week.
He said in his analysis, that the holding penalties on offense cost Wake two touchdowns and a two-point conversion. There was also a roughing the passer penalty on defense that negated a pick-six by Isaiah Wingfield. In repeating what he said immediately after the game last Thursday, he referred to them as “Undisciplined penalties.” He added, “It’s just not smart football. Those become selfish penalties.” He was referring specifically to the roughing the passer penalties. “You’re frustrated you didn’t get there, so you’re going to take a shot.” The message to the team could not be clearer. “My job as the head coach is to make sure those things don’t happen. And if they continue to happen, we can’t play those players that have those types of mistakes.”
At the time of his comments, Lea was unaware that Hartman would be returning to the Wake offense this week. It may not have mattered in his analysis. “They’ll change subtlety in personality depending upon who the quarterback is,” he said. “But this is a system. It seems like anyone that they have put back at quarterback has found success and rhythm in the system.”
Wright versus Hartman and Wake Forest versus Vandy kicks off at noon eastern on Saturday.
