There were some terrific plays on both sides of the ball by Wake Forest, mixed in with plenty of sloppiness by both teams Saturday afternoon in Nashville. In the end, there was enough of the terrific to see the Demon Deacons pull away from Vanderbilt 45-25.
Of course, the anticipated news was the return of Wake quarterback Sam Hartman after vascular surgery last month.
Tough Start
Wake’s first and second drives went nowhere, yet the Demon Deacons were down only 3-0 early because Vandy’s offense couldn’t muster anything more than a 35-yard Joseph Boulvas field goal with its first couple of opportunities.
Even on Wake’s first touchdown, it was the defense that stepped up. Vanderbilt quarterback Mike Wright was flushed from the pocket. As he was hit he threw wildly to the right side. Wake’s Brendon Harris tipped the ball. Coby Davis grabbed the ball out of the air, raced to the middle of the field, and made his way into the end zone for the 7-3 lead.
One Play Opens The Offense
Wake Forest’s offense played big much of the day. After the pick-six, the Demon Deacons held Vandy to three and out. Hartman finally found his timing with a 68-yard pass over the middle of the field to a streaking A.T. Perry for the touchdown and the 14-3 lead.
As the rain picked up in the second quarter, it limited the amount Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea was going to rely on Wright’s throwing arm. With Wake’s defense able to key on the run, Wright was hit and fumbled. Chelen Garnes recovered it for Wake on the Vandy 35-yard line. Three plays later, Hartman bootlegged to the right and dumped a two-yard pass to Christian Turner in the right side of the end zone. An offense that had a hard time finding its sea legs in the first couple of drives had scored three unanswered touchdowns, built a 21-3, and the game was never going to be close again.
That didn’t mean Wake Forest was free from the sloppiness that defined the game. Taylor Morin fumbled a Vanderbilt punt at his own 24-yard line. Vandy’s Ray Davis picked up 15 yards in two running plays. It was Davis who eventually ran it in from a yard out in the wildcat formation to give Vandy its first touchdown nearly halfway through the second quarter.
Tempers Before Half
It stayed 21-10 through the rest of the first half with both sides trying to maneuver through a driving rain, and managing little offense in the process. The only other thing the two teams produced were hot tempers. Wright was hit near the sidelines by three Demon Deacons, but inbounds. The Vandy bench was incensed at no flag being thrown. So when Hartman was taken out of bounds at the Commodores’ bench he was quickly surrounded by a lot of hot-tempered Vanderbilt players. It took a moment for any Wake players to go drag him out of the potentially tenuous situation. And Hartman being Hartman was giving back as much as he was getting verbally all the way back to his own bench.
Putting The Game Away
Wake Forest scored twice in the third quarter. On the Demon Deacons’ first drive of the period, Hartman engineered a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. He found Morin in the back of the end zone for a nine-yard completion to put Wake up 28-10.
The lead grew to 35-10 later in the third quarter. Hartman found Tennessee native Cameron Hite up the middle for a 17-yard touchdown pass. The game was over at that point other than head coach Dave Clawson working on Wake Forest’s depth by getting some reserves in.
There was little left to prove. The Demon Deacons went into a rainy SEC stadium and rolled up 451 yards of offense. Hartman finished the game 18-27 for 300 yards, and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
The start was a little sluggish, but Perry said he had a feeling once he and Hartman connected on that first touchdown play. “We were working on that ply during the week,” he said. “But seeing him throwing the ball in the game, it was like, ‘We’re back at it.”
Hartman said after the game that he felt a little rusty at first. But he said with his receivers, you don’t really lose the timing, “But like A.T. said, once we got it rolling, we got it rolling.”
Putting The Game in Perspective
Clawson was clearly happy with the return of his starting quarterback. “He’s just played so much football. When he goes out there, he just has a command of things. I think everyone else’s play kind of elevates with him.”
Clawson was also quick to credit the defense. Wright came in as a dangerous dual-threat quarterback with nearly 300 yards rushing in the first two games. He was absolutely held in check by the Wake defense. Wright went eight of 15 for 35 yards passing with no touchdowns throws and one interception. He also was kept to 17 net yards rushing on eight carries. “I thought we did a good job of tackling on the perimeter,” he said. Vandy was held to two of 13 on third down conversions. “I thought we had good pressure on the quarterback. The escapes were five- and six-yard plays. They weren’t 40- and 50-yard plays.”
The increased pressure on Vanderbilt’s receivers from the Wake Forest defensive backs was also apparent. “I thought they played a lot more confident than a week ago. I thought last week we played a little soft. We challenged them to play a little tighter,” he said. “We played with a lot more confidence on the perimeter.”
Wake Forest comes home from a soggy, half-filled First Bank Stadium in Nashville with a win that was both sloppy and high end if there is such a thing as combining the two. Having Hartman back in the fold certainly changes things going forward as they have back-to-back home games including the conference opener against Clemson in two weeks.
