Wake Forest is once again playing for its season. The Demon Deacons have backed themselves into a corner again. After starting the season 1-3, Wake got itself even by winning three of the next four games to find itself at 4-4 and on a relative uptick. Then came a tough-to-swallow to Cal last week at home. The Demon Deacons, (4-5 overall), have three games left and need to win two of them to get to a bowl game.
That starts this Saturday night at North Carolina. The Tar Heels have a similarly bouncy season. But while they are also 2-3 in the ACC, as is Wake, UNC has a 5-4 overall record. They took care of business in the out-of-conference schedule.
The Heels
The Tar Heels are coming off a bye week. Two weeks ago they beat up Florida State, picking up 500 yards of offense in the process. UNC is a run-first offense. A couple of points put that into the facts column. They have Omarion Hampton at running back. He is sixth in the country in total yards, needing just 22 this weekend to get to 1,200. He is sixth in the country in rushing yards per game at 130, and he is in the top 10 in the country in rushing touchdowns.
Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson is duly impressed with Hampton. “You can’t arm tackle him and you can’t throw a shoulder at him,” Clawson said earlier this week. “He’s not a speed back. And he’s not a power back. He’s both. I think he’s projected to be a late first-round, early second-round pick.”
The other element that makes it clear that UNC is not a quarterback-centric team is the amount of the game that they do not put on Jacolby Criswell’s shoulders. In the win over FSU, he had only 17 passing attempts, going 13 of 17 for 211 yards and a touchdown.
The Wake Pass Defense
Of course, if you are UNC head coach Mack Brown, you look at the Wake Forest game film, any game film this season, and likely see the big opportunities in passing the ball against the Deacs’ defense.
Wake Forest is 131st in the country in passing yards allowed. That would be 131st out of 133 teams. The Deacs are giving up just a tick under 300 yards per game passing. They aren’t giving up the explosive plays, or getting beat deep like they did last year. They are getting chunked to death underneath. Teams are averaging 10.4 yards per completion against Wake’s pass defense over the last four conference games.
And a secondary that was fighting to meet Clawson’s needs, particularly at cornerback, gets thinner as Capone Blue has called a career after meeting with doctors and his family. He has had an injury-plagued season, and the decision was made to look after his health. Whether the adjustment to keep everything in front of the secondary is better than giving up the explosive plays is a matter of interpretation. “It’s the same pick your poison, right?” Clawson said. “Football is a game of numbers, angles, and leverage and you can’t double-team everybody.”
Mack Brown’s Take
The Wake offense has started running hot and cold also. The Deacs had a chance to move downfield to tie or win the game in the closing two minutes against Cal. But quarterback Hank Bachmeier tried drilling a pass through double coverage and got intercepted.
When taking a look at Wake’s offense, Mack Brown pointed out the yearly skill set that the Deacs have at the receiver position and the run game with Demond Claiborne. He is 150 yards shy of the 1,000-yard rushing mark this season. Brown said Wake’s offense was, “Very unique,” (and we will forgive him the grammar faux pas). He thinks the key to the game will be UNC’s ability to force turnovers, which he does not think they have done very well lately.
A Story With the Coaches
There is also a bit of a side story for this game, and it is the two coaches. Clawson may not be a coach at the top of every fan’s mind across the country, but Brown is a fan. “He is a dear friend,” Brown said this week of the Wake coach. He referenced Clawson’s role on the board of trustees in the American Football Coaches Association. “He’s been amazing at taking on hard topics,” Brown said of Clawson’s part in big-picture topics impacting the sport across the country. “I’m really impressed with Dave and how much he cares about the game.”
As for Brown, every season brings on new retirement rumors. He is 73 years old and in his second stint at UNC. At ACC Media Days during the Summer, he referenced how much it frustrated him that opposing coaches used his age against him in recruiting. He said he knew that opposing coaches would tell recruits that he, Brown, would not be around for their entire stay at UNC.
During a four-game losing streak this season, there was talk of Brown’s dismissal. That of course was absurd. There may be ways to “urge” Brown about when it is time to retire. But to think the school would consider firing him shows a lack of insight. “Mack is good for college football,” Clawson said of his counterpart. “He’s got a good big-picture perspective.”
The big picture for the two teams gets pretty simple on Saturday night. If UNC wins, it is bowl-eligible. If Wake wins it moves to five and five and still needs a win against either Miami or Duke in the final two weeks to get to a bowl.
