Now that the Demon Deacons have hit the halfway point of the season, and have a bye this week, we can all get a little introspective on how Wake Forest got here and what lies ahead. The coaches and players may live week to week. It doesn’t mean it is a requirement for the fan base.
How Wake Forest Got Here
At 5-1 overall and 1-1 in the ACC, Wake has done exactly what it was supposed to do. The Demon Deacons took out the inferior opponents like VMI, Vanderbilt, Liberty, and Army. The Liberty game was too close for comfort for many. And winning a game on the road against an SEC team feels good, but at the end of the day, it’s still just Vanderbilt which, as a school, barely cares about football. Still, 4-0 against those teams is 4-0 no matter how you carve them up.
The win at Florida State stands out the most right now. There was a lot of commotion the week of the game. Hurricane Ian was targeting the state of Florida with a path unknown to even the weather experts. Tuesday afternoon of game week, head coach Dave Clawson threw down expectations, with really crazy notions. He wanted to make sure the team hotel would have electricity through any weather conditions, running water, and the ability to feed his team something other than whatever was in a storage pantry.
He was called out by Florida State digital media/home team sites, and their subscribers. The allegation was that he wanted to move the game to a different date on the calendar. A few claimed to have the definitive weather insights days before the government officials even had the path of the storm. Those Seminole fans are apparently experts at many things.
Florida State
But their football team could not back up the bluster from the fan base. After going down early 7-0, Wake scored 28 straight points en route to a 31-21 win. The offense had balance. Running back Justice Ellison had a 100+-yard rushing game. He outgained the entire Florida State rushing attack. And while FSU quarterback Jordan Travis had a good game with 281 yards passing and three touchdowns, playing from behind most of the game, limited the Seminole attack.
Getting the conference win was big. Getting it on the road was bigger. Wake had beaten FSU three consecutive years, but it was the first win at Doak Campbell since 2008. It was also a rebound win after a gut-wrenching double overtime conference loss at home to Clemson. More on that later.
After that came the home win, as expected against Army West Point. The Black Knights were so overmatched that even the most loyal of Wake fans, beyond family members, found other things to do outside Truist Field by the fourth quarter.
What Is Working
So where are the Demon Deacons at this point? To quote the late Arizona Cardinals coach, Dennis Green, “They are who we thought they are.” Quarterback Sam Hartman missed the VMI game, having undergone vascular surgery before the season started. Since his return, he is completing passes at a near 65% clip with 16 touchdowns and only two interceptions. Through the process, Hartman became the all-time leading passer in school history.
The Demon Deacons have depth at all the skill positions, so no one’s stats are going to jump off any post-season awards analysis sheet. But the performances during the season are what they need to be, and sometimes beyond.
The offensive line has had its moments, and more of them recently. Early on, Wake Forest was taking an absurd number of penalties. Some were by the defensive backs and the defensive line. But a disproportionate of undisciplined holding penalties were catching the eye of Clawson. He used words like, “brutal,” and “undisciplined” to describe the number of holding penalties that were not protecting the quarterback. Wake Forest had 20 penalties over the first three games. Last week against Army, they had one; a false start for five yards.
“Everything we’ve always done here program-wise is let’s not beat ourselves,” Clawson said Saturday after the Army game.
The Mental Approach And The Defense
Ellison pointed to a maturity in the philosophy of the team. “Just execute your job. Don’t make it more difficult than it needs to be. Play at a high level and raise the bar and the standard no matter who we’re playing,” he said Saturday. He added that the reduction in penalties has played a big part in the success. “Offense is about rhythm and getting that rhythm is so important.” The message from Clawson about the penalties has been clear. “We’ve been focusing on the details. Being intentional in the details is so important.”
The defense, under coordinator Brad Lambert has made some strides. At various points during the first six weeks, the defense has been without linebacker Ryan Smenda, and defensive backs Caelen Carson, Brendon Harris, and others. The defensive line has had flashes of physical freakishness to getting their hands on a quarterback in the backfield but not being able to bring him down.
The total defense has moved “up” to 75th in the country. The run defense is 81st. The statistical improvements are there but still need quick improvements. They are averaging more than 400 yards given up over the last two games. The future of the season is going to require it.
Linebacker Dylan Hazen said as the team spends the rest of the season in ACC play, the defense has to re-focus weekly. “Each week is going to be hard. Each week is a different season.”
Forgetting The Past In Order To Look Ahead
Hartman had previously given Clawson credit for the team’s focus. “You’ve got to give a shoutout to Coach Clawson. He’s not this coach that’s screaming at us when we get a three-and-out or running down the sidelines when we score a touchdown. He’s Coach Clawson. And I think we reflect that in the way we play. He’s an even-keeled guy.”
Saturday, Hartman said there is still an untapped upside for this year’s Wake Forest team. “I still think we’re waiting to throw that perfect game.”
They came close in the loss to Clemson in week four of the season. It has been what feels like forever since Wake last beat the Tigers. This was the best opportunity in at least seven years. But as was routine at that point, the Demon Deacons started slowly and got behind early. While they fought back and pushed Clemson to double overtime, the string of losses to the Tigers continued.
That loss may come to bite Wake as the fight for the ACC Atlantic division goes on. The Tigers have to face Florida State and Syracuse still, as well as an erratic Louisville team. There need to be two losses in the remaining six games to put Wake Forest back in the hunt in the division title. Or the Clemson game all the way back in September will be the night the ACC Atlantic got away.
Clawson, as any coach would, sticks to the week-to-week mentality while keeping an eye on the big picture. “We’re 5-1. A lot of our goals are still in place, really all of them” he said after the Army game Saturday. “We need a little bit of help in the Atlantic. There’s a lot of football left.”
If only the ACC had followed the Pac-12 lead and done away with the divisional races right away, this would be a different conversation at the halfway point of the season.
