The difference a year makes is striking. At the Wake Forest Pro Day in 2025, Dave Clawson was a significant presence. He had resigned/retired/stepped down as head coach three months earlier. But he wanted to be around for the guys who had played for him the previous season. New head coach Jake Dickert was there but stayed in the background. Move forward to Wednesday at the McCreary Football Fieldhouse, and it was now Dickert’s show.
Sure, some of these guys were recruited by and played for Clawson. But this is Dickert’s program now, and he was there to see through the players who went 9-4 in his first season (10-3 with an asterisk, he said with a sly grin).
Jake Dickert’s Stamp on Wake Forest Pro Day
Fourteen players in all performed an array of weight room measurables and drills on the field in front of pro scouts. There were 13 recent Wake players and offensive lineman Zach Vaughn. He played for the Deacs from 2021 to 2024 before transferring to Western Michigan for the 2025 season. Vaughn was invited to have his pro day at Wake Forest to perform in front of a bigger crowd of scouts.
Twenty-eight NFL teams and seven Canadian Football League teams sent scouts to observe the day’s workouts. There is a prize in plain view for the CFL franchises. Canadian teams are permitted to have 19 Americans, not including the quarterback on a roster. But Wake’s defensive lineman Nuer Gatkuoth is from Edmonton, Alberta. A player who refined his skills in Winston-Salem, but does not count against the American roster limit, is an enticing proposition for CFL teams.
Advice for His Players
Dickert talked with the media before the day’s events. “I remember standing here a year ago, last year, and just kind of watching and observing,” he said. “Now to have these 13 guys. I just got done talking about them to the NFL scouts. These guys are cornerstones for our program.”
He said he told his players to relax throughout the day, as they have done these drills so many times over the year. Dickert said no matter what happens on a day like this, “Your tape speaks for itself.” He said the game film is always going to get more credit from scouts and NFL front office personnel than does the NFL Combine or Pro Day. “I try to remind them this game isn’t played in shorts and tights.”
Dickert gave credit to his front office staff for working with pro football scouts to help prime the pump for Wake players. There is the added value that getting players in at the next level helps Dickert’s recruiting pitch for high school players and for the transfer portal players. “From a recruiting standpoint, it’s huge. And we use it quite often to talk about development,” he said on Wednesday. “I think we do an elite job developing football players, emotionally, physically, systematically.”
The Numbers That Got Attention
The media was not allowed in the weight room, where vertical jumps and bench press numbers were under scrutiny by the scouts. But there were plenty of on-field drills to get through.
All results are incredibly unofficial. But the scouts compare notes on things like the 40-yard times for players. Much like with the NFL Combine, those times are talked about the most. But for the scouts, it is obvious that there has never been a play in a game where someone ran 40 yards in a straight line with no gear on and no football in the hands. The relevance of those times is relative.
But if numbers are going to be examined, Wake standout players like defensive back Nick Anderson and his 4.45 40-yard dash time are going to be notable. So is the day for the linebacker Dylan Hazen. He looked like he had bulked up a little in the off-season workouts with pro trainers. Hazen did 39 reps at 225 pounds on the bench press and had a 39-inch vertical leap. He also had one of the best broad jump numbers of the day at 10’-4”. He also ran a very unofficial 4.4 40-yard dash.
Time for Wake Stars to Look Ahead
Running back Demond Claiborne did not do the measurables at Pro Day. He had done them all at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis last month. But he did do a series of on-field drills that were specifically observed by scouts from the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys.
He told the media he added about five pounds of muscle. Claiborne went through some injuries during the 2025 season. And although he routinely fought to get back into the lineup, he said he wanted to prove to scouts that he could be a pro ball carrier. “A lot of teams just want to make sure that I can compete and that I’m durable; somebody that’s available week to week,” he said.
Claiborne said the weight and strength increases were about showing that he can sustain the physical play of the NFL and not lose speed in doing it. Coming from King William, Virginia, a town with fewer than 500 people, these are heady times for Claiborne. “During this process, I continue to learn that I can do hard things.
Anderson was all smiles when it came to his Pro Day experience. “Back to the place where a lot of dreams came true,” he said. “So it’s on to the next step, and it was a really good day.” Anderson said even with his good numbers, he understands that the tape is the thing for scouts. “At the end of the day, football is football, and I’m a football player.”
There are telltale signs for players who may be getting real looks from the pros. It is about getting invitations for individual workouts with teams. There, the drills are completely designed by the coaching staff, so they are seeing what they want to see from players and getting more one-on-one interview time.
Main Image: Wake Forest Athletics
