Going 4-8 in any football season is a tough pill to swallow. Doing it after seven straight years of bowl appearances and unprecedented success in the program is much worse than swallowing a pill. So it is that Wake Forest opens training camp Monday as the Demon Deacons seek a do-over from the 2023 season.
The changes have been clear since Spring. The Wake system under head coach Dave Clawson was built on spending years developing players until they were ready to step in and contribute. Factor in redshirts and the Covid exemption year and the roster had more than its share of fifth, sixth, and even seventh-year players. That meant that the more traditional sophomores and juniors spent years getting limited reps at practice.
Players who had theoretically developed within the system and bided their time were now ready for their names to be called. But that didn’t go so well for some of them last season.
Learning From the Past
The most obvious was at quarterback. After three years in the system, Mitch Griffis was ordained as the heir to Sam Hartman’s legacy, and it happened back in Spring camp last year. But when it came time to play, the game was too fast for Griffis physically and mentally. While he had an enormous amount of time in the pocket in practice, that had little resemblance to what he saw in the games.
The offensive line went through what most lines go through with injuries. But while they had bodies on the depth chart, they were not necessarily game-ready bodies. They had not gotten the work in camp, or perhaps at practice, to be ready to step up.
The defense did its job for the most part. There were lapses. But when you are routinely having to defend a short field because of turnovers on offense, or when you are on the field for a disproportionate percentage of the game, it happens.
Some Obvious Changes
Fast forward to now. Clawson went transfer portal shopping for a quarterback. Hank Bachmeier will be spending his sixth college football season at Wake Forest. The Southern California product spent four years at Boise State and one at Louisiana. He has a good command of many styles of offense and an arm to back it up. His touchdown-to-turnover ratio is a bit high because he does have a propensity to try to thread needles where he probably should not.
Last week at ACC media days, most schools brought their quarterback. A couple even brought two quarterbacks. More than half of them were transfers. Yet, Clawson had his quarterback(s) at home.
Some TBD
He made it clear that he is not ready to name a starter. This may be, in part, a reaction to what happened last year when he ordained a starter too early in the process. But whatever the reason, camp opens Monday with Bachmeier and Wake Forest veteran Michael Kern vying for the starting job.
“At some point, we’re going to have to make a decision of who the starter is,” Clawson said last week. “And you know the second you make that decision, there’s someone who’s extremely happy and there’s someone who’s extremely upset.” He added that he expects whoever does not get the job to be upset because they are a competitor. He also added that the decision is rarely final because of injuries.
Kern replaced Griffis in the Virginia Tech game last year only to get hurt himself and miss an entire month of the season.
Clawson said he has no timeline to make a decision on the starter. “You collect as much information as you can until you have to make the decision,” he said at ACC media days. “But I don’t think you ever establish an artificial timeline. Ultimately you’d like the players to make that decision.”
Replacing OL Fixtures
Whoever it is behind center has some work on cohesion to do with the offensive line. Longtime line fixtures Spencer Clapp and Michael Jurgens are gone. Devonte Gordon and Nick Sharpe, critical elements on the line in 2023 are back. So are George Sell, Zach Vaughn, Luke Petitbon, Matt Gulbin, and Erik Russell who took plenty of snaps or in some cases had spot starts. But an offensive line is not a plug-and-play unit. There is a lot of work to be done in the Fall to turn them into a cohesive line.
Demond Claiborne will be the workhouse in the backfield with the portal departure of Justice Ellison. “I think he has a chance to be a really, really special player for us,” Clawson said of Claiborne.
And the receivers room is again stacked with talent with returning players. Donavon Greene returns after missing last year with a torn Achilles. Taylor Morin will be the starter in the slot. There was also a lot of progress seen in Spring from the likes of Deuce Alexander and Horatio Fields.
A Defense That Needs Work
Clawson said the keys to his defense will be giving up fewer explosive plays and getting off the field on third down. “The games that we won; we were good on third down. The games that we lost, we were awful on third down.”
Jasheen Davis will be the one getting the attention on the defensive line. He is one of the better edge rushers in the ACC. Kevin Pointer, Wyatt Crespi, Kendron Waymon, and Kerrington Lee will factor in for the rest of the line.
Chase Jones is gone from the linebacker spot leaving that leadership role to returning starter Dylan Hazen. He finished last year with 86 tackles, including eight-and-a-half for loss.
A Secondary With Questions
The defensive secondary is an area of huge concern. You don’t lose players like Malik Mustapha and Chelen Garnes and just plug someone else in. The Spring saw significant personnel shifts between the safety and corner positions. The Fall will likely see more. Getting overly hung up on compartmentalizing the positions is ill-advised.
Evan Slocum and Nick Anderson will be the leaders in the defensive backfield. Capone Blue, Davaughn Patterson, and Rushaun Tongue were among those who made seemingly big strides in Spring. Some of that was erased with the secondary giving up multiple big scoring plays in the Spring scrimmage. The position goes into Spring as a big unknown.
The biggest change was the way Clawson ran Spring camp, doing the live scrimmaging on both fields simultaneously. It was the first time in many years that the number of significant snaps was not being held for the presumed starters. The number of snaps for the twos and threes more than doubled.
Playing the younger guys, if they are ready, is the current state of college football, regardless of the school. Clawson seemingly learned a lesson from 4-8 and 2024 is the shot at the do-ver.
