It’s not like Wake Forest didn’t have its chances to salvage the season despite huge numbers from Tar Heels running back Omarion Hampton. Wake had a chance for its fifth win Saturday night and a shot at a bowl game. Instead, it let opportunities go to waste, losing to North Carolina 31-24 at Keenan Stadium in Chapel Hill. The loss knocks the Demon Deacons down to 4-6. They have two games and must win them both to be bowl-eligible. Next week they are at Top 10 Miami to face the Hurricanes and Heisman candidate quarterback Cam Ward. It’s likely time to be real about this season.
UNC Stays With Hampton
Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson said during the week that Hampton was going to be a handful for the Deacs defense. Clawson may have underestimated the issue. Hampton had a career-high in carries with 35 and a career-high in rushing yards with 244. At halftime, he had more rushing yards than Wake had in total offense.
Yet, the Deacs still had multiple opportunities to get out of Chapel Hill with a win. But you can’t turn the ball over three times in the second half, commit drive-killing penalties, and expect to win.
Wake had a small early lead. After UNC’s Noah Burnette hit the left upright with his 34-yard field goal attempt, the Deacs got a 33-yarder from Matthew Dennis. And that was it for a lead Saturday night.
Hampton rushed for 57 total yards on UNC’s next drive, going into the second quarter. Quarterback Jacolby Criswell finished it off with a four-yard run for the 7-3 Tar Hells lead. UNC added a 24-yard Burnette field goal for the 10-3 halftime lead. Hampton had 130 yards rushing in the first half. Wake’s entire offense had 117 yards. Just as significant, Wake had five penalties in the first half, four of them by the offensive line for undisciplined things like false starts and a snap infraction.
Kern Gets a Chance
On the first drive of the second half starting Wake Forest quarterback Hank Bachmeier injured his left shoulder. Clawson would report after the game that it was essentially a stinger and that Bachmeier could have gone back in. But the Wake game plan was to run the quarterback quite a bit, and he wanted to protect the sixth-year senior.
Michael Kern came in and with the help of a pass interference call against UNC, led a virtually flawless scoring drive. The Deacs went 75 yards in seven plays and Kern was three for three for 43 yards on the drive to tie the score at 10-10.
UNC answered with a full dose of Hampton. On third and one from his own 34-yard line, Hampton busted out of Wake Forest arm tackles for 38 yards down to the Deacs’ 28-yard line. Three plays later Criswell scrambled to the right and found J.J. Jones in the back of the end zone for a 17-yard touchdown pass and the 17-10 lead.
On his next possession, Kern threw a short pass to the left and never saw linebacker Power Echols read the route. Echols jumped up and came down with the ball and was off for a 42-yard pick-six. Just like that UNC’s lead was two touchdowns at 24-10.
Wake Has Its Opportunities
UNC tried to let Wake back in the game. For reasons unclear to any of the 48,364 in attendance, Tar Heels coach Mack Brown kept a plan of having Criswell attempt to throw passes, despite Wake being unable to stop Hampton. After a Wake punt, Criswell dropped back at his seven-yard line and just lost the handle on the ball. B.J. Williams recovered it for the Demon Deacons. Demond Claiborne shoved his way up the middle for the seven-yard touchdown and Wake was within reach again at 24-17. It also put Wake in the position of wasting more golden opportunities.
UNC went nowhere on its next drive. Criswell, inexplicably throwing the ball, had three straight incompletions. Wake had the ball on its own 42. And on the second play of the series, Kern threw behind receiver Horatio Fields and it was intercepted by UNC’s Marcus Allen. The Tar Heels got no points out of. But Wake was throwing away its chances.
Wake had one fourth-quarter drive killed with penalties. And then on another possession, Kern was hit and fumbled at his own 18-yard line. UNC stopped the nonsense of trying to have Criswell throw the ball to win. This time, all of the yards were on the ground with Hampton including the six-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 31-17.
The Deacs made sure their next drive was harder than it needed to be when Fields, the receiver, got called for a false start. They still managed to go 80 yards for the score with Kern hitting Taylor Morin with the 16-yard touchdown pass. But there was only 1:12 left and Wake had only one timeout remaining. UNC killed the clock and likely Wake’s bowl chances.
A Gloomy Post-Mortem
Clawson appeared to be as befuddled as anyone as to how a veteran lineup can kill its opportunities as it did Saturday night. “We’ve had opportunities this year, that we have momentum and we just let it go,” the coach said after the game. “The three turnovers were absolutely killers. That’s seven turnovers in two weeks. This was really, I feel, two weeks in a row where we beat ourselves.”
The list of issues was long. “We get into the red zone, and we have false starts. The center flinches. We take a sack. We have a holding call. Again, they’re a good football team. But when you do things like, you’re beating yourselves.” He called a trend the last two years that goes against the trademark of his teams at Wake.
After the journey down to South Beach for Saturday’s game against Miami, Wake has what is at least the regular season finale, if not the end of the season as a whole, at home against Duke on Thanksgiving weekend.
Last Word will have complete post-game coverage with comments from the coach and players later today.
