Wake Forest got its first conference win of the season, and the first ACC win for Jake Dickert. The Demon Deacons stopped a two-game skid with a 30-23 win over Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. There is still a lot to clean up. But for one day, the Deacs left the field with a lot of smiles, so let’s hear what Wake Forest had to say after the Virginia Tech win.
Jake Dickert
In our recap on Saturday, we talked about how triumphant head coach Jake Dickert was after the game. “It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t easy,” he said. “But I’m just so proud of our football team to come into this environment and show who we are.”
Who Wake is has not always been clear over the last few weeks. It wasn’t just that the Deacs lost their first two conference games. It was how they lost, with a lot of self-inflicted damage. That was still there on Saturday. But Wake did just enough on the right side of the ledger to get the win.
He gave a lot of credit to a much more aggressive defense. “So proud of that defense.” He said that aggressiveness was the plan all week long, saying he did not think the VA Tech offensive line could handle the pressure. “We talked about it on Monday. Let’s stay aggressive. Let’s go win the game. And let’s trust that our guys can go out there and win the game.”
Dickert talked about the play of the defensive line and how that made a more aggressive secondary possible. Davaughn Patterson led the team with eight tackles, and Nick Anderson added seven. Usually, when defensive backs are leading the team in tackles it is a sign of a problem for the defense. But in this case, it had more to do with the blitz packages and the attacking style.
Of Anderson, Dickert said, “I’ve actually never seen a player play this much on instincts,” he said. “He’s just playing like he’s a playmaker. He sees it. He feels it. And very few people trust themselves like that.” Dickert said those skills are born in practice. The coach described Anderson as, “A guy that practices his ass off like you’ve never seen.”
Nick Anderson
The sixth-year defensive back said Wake did a good job of staying on balance through a back-and-forth game on Saturday. “I think we did a good job of not riding with the highs and lows too much. We pretty much did a good job of just staying even keeled.” He called it the best defensive performance of the year so far for Wake Forest.
Anderson said confidence in the defense allowed for that aggressive style that worked. “We’re confident in who we have rushing. We’re confident in who we have covering,” he said. “Those guys up front, they’re all animals. Every single one of them. Not only against the run, but against the pass. It makes it easy to play DB when you have that in front of you.”
He joked that with the success of the blitz packages, several positions had impactful games. “They’ll be coming in Monday, saying how they’re good pass rushers and stuff.”
Devin Kylany
He talked about what it took to get past the frustration from the overtime loss to Georgia Tech last week. “We turned the page come Monday. It was the only choice we had was to start focusing on Virginia Tech and come in here focused,” he said. “It didn’t taste good, but we couldn’t leave that taste in our mouths for too long.”
There were still several areas that will need immediate cleanup. One is penalties. Wake committed 11 of them (actually more when you factor in the offsetting penalties or declined calls). Several of them were false starts. “That’s the most important thing we saw in this game. We came out victorious. But the only time we didn’t score is because the Deacs stopped us.”
Robby Ashford
The definitive part of the game came halfway through the fourth quarter, when Wake put together a clock-killing drive, lasting six-and-a-half minutes. It ended with a field goal that gave Wake the final margin of victory. “We just had to dig deep. Hats off to the o-line, running back, receivers, tight ends, everybody,” the quarterback said. “I’m just thankful for the other guys. It was a great team win.” He added, “We overcame better than we have in all our other games. That shows our growth as a team.”
Ashford said the team needed to move past the losses in the last two games. “NC State sucked. Georgia Tech sucked [the games, not the teams]. Now it feels good to be on the winning side of one,” he said. “This team’s going to keep fighting.”
He said part of the lesson learned over the last week was, “Don’t take wins for granted. Because they are hard to come by in the ACC and this division in football in general. You play great competition every week, and you’ve got to come out here ready to work.”
Ashford is looking forward to the game on Saturday in Corvallis. He spent his first two seasons at Oregon. And even though he rarely played, he still has a strong dislike of the rival Oregon State Beavers.
Still to Come
Wake had one first down in the third quarter and nine yards rushing when Demond Claiborne could not play due to an apparent knee injury. The Deacs also still have not scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter. And even though they won the game, they were outscored in the second half for the third game in a row. All of those questions and answers could wait while the team enjoyed the vibes of a winning game. There is plenty of time on Monday to drill down to the critical details.
Main Image: Brian Bishop-Imagn Images
