Press conferences after losses can be tough. The coaches and players don’t really want to be there. The media members have a lot of questions, but the wrong one at the wrong time can provide unfortunate results. When the game is definitive, as was the case with the Wake Forest 42-14 loss to Miami, the press conferences tend to be much shorter. The Demon Deacons are officially removed from any bowl game for the second year in a row. There wasn’t nearly as much to talk about. So let’s check in on what Wake Forest said after the Miami loss.
Dave Clawson
The game was really best characterized by Wake Forest having multiple opportunities go to waste. The score was close until the last six minutes of the game. Wake Forest has four drives in Miami territory in the second half and came away with exactly zero points. They even had a drive in the red zone, which crashed with two quarterback sacks and two false start penalties by the same offensive lineman.
“We didn’t take advantage of opportunities in the third quarter when we had the ball at midfield,” the Wake head coach said after the game. “And you know with Miami and their offense, it’s a matter of time.”
The Demon Deacons defense is what kept Wake in the game when the offense couldn’t generate much of anything. “I thought our defense played really, really well. But you know, in the fourth quarter when the dam broke, it broke.”
Clawson said the Wake offense had execution problems at every level against the Miami defense. The Deac receivers were not able to shake the Miami secondary, and then time would run out for quarterback Hank Bachmeier. The Canes had six quarterback sacks on the day. “If you can’t hold up in protection and you can’t separate, it gets really hard,” Clawson explained.
The 11th-year head coach said the offensive play scheming was more conservative than usual, and it was his decision to have it that way. “Part of it was we played a little bit more conservatively and wanted to run the ball more just because of how many turnovers we’ve had in the last few weeks,” the coach said. “We didn’t want to lose the game on offense through turnovers. That was from my direction. That was from me.”
Nick Anderson
He said once the Miami offense got going, it made the game really hard. “They’ve got good players all over the place. So you couldn’t focus on stopping the run or focus on stopping the pass. So that made it difficult. You had to play an all around game,” the senior defensive back said.
Hank Bachmeier
The Demon Deacons have now lost three games in a row. The two prior to the Miami game were both winnable. And the Miami game was competitive for three-and-a-half quarters. But Wake came up on the losing end all three times. “It’s a lack of execution. It’s a lack of communication,” the sixth-year quarterback said. “I’ve got to do a better job on pre-snap operation.”
You could sense his frustration. “There were definitely opportunities to close the gap and win this game. Obviously, the score is not indicative if you watched it. The defense did a phenomenal job. And I’ve got to do a better job on offense for us to score points.”
In terms of the game plan being more conservative, Bachmeier deferred to the coaching staff and offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero. “Coach R, he does a great job game planning. That’s what he felt was best for us. He’s calling the plays and we’re going to go out and run them to the best of our ability.”
Wake wraps up the 2024 season at home against Duke at 12 noon.
