The tone and tenor around Wake Forest football took a pretty big turn from one week to the next. Last week, the team was feeling pretty upbeat, beating a good SMU squad. But this week, the Deacs are trying to find a new resolve after taking a 42-7 beating at the hands of Florida State. The win over Wake Forest was the first conference win of the season for the Seminoles. Head coach Jake Dickert said the team needed a reset going through the last four weeks of the season.
The Aftermath
Florida State was up 35-0 before Wake even got on the scoreboard. The Demon Deacons went into the game with the 23rd-ranked defense in the country. They walked out at #34. “I said it last week. If you don’t humble yourself in this game, you’ll get humbled really quick,” Dickert said at his press conference earlier this week. “It isn’t all gloom and doom, and it can’t be. We talk about winning and showing the bad. When we talk about losing, you’ve still got to show the good.”
Dickert said it took some effort to find the good in the game films from last Saturday. “When you peel back the sludge, there was things that we did well. And we have to lean on that.” Among the positives, he said he felt like the offensive line showed progress. There was also the play of defensive back Nick Anderson. “He made a mistake, but he played one of his best games I’ve seen, and the moment wasn’t too big for him.” Dickert also continued to praise the defensive line and Gabe Kirschke in particular.
The Responsibility
Dickert leans into putting the responsibility for the error on himself first, then his staff, and the players after that. It is pretty much weekly that as he ticks off the list of things that need improvement, he puts the onus on himself to have the team better prepared. “If you have extreme ownership of a program and the people within it, then that’s my responsibility,” he said. “I’ll never come in here and say we have a talent gap 9or we don’t have enough players to do this,” he said. “These guys have great strengths. We need to coach them to those strengths. And we need to put them in situations where they can be successful. And I always say that’s on me because I’m responsible for everything we do here.”
But in the post-game interviews with the players, Jayden Loving said he felt the team lost focus. As hard as it is to imagine losing focus when the postseason fortunes are on the line, Dickert assigned responsibility to himself and the staff for that as well. “In these games, sometimes you can overhype it a little bit,” the coach said. “And I think when that happens, sometimes that can lead to a lack of focus on just the details. Because the details win you games.”
He said during the press conference that with the assistant coaches, he stressed consistency, doing the same things they did in every game where they had success during the season.
Who Runs the Offense?
There are obvious questions at the quarterback position. Robby Ashford started the game, although still not likely 100% physically. It didn’t go well at all. He was 12 of 21 throwing (57%) for 93 yards, no touchdowns, and an interception. On the interception, he was banged up pretty hard and left the game. Deshawn Purdie came in to finish the fourth quarter. He was six of 10 for 69 yards and a touchdown.
Dickert had said two weeks ago that the position would remain in competition on a week-to-week basis. So, where does it stand this week as the team prepares to play the top team in the ACC, Virginia? “If you peel back the tape, one of the reasons we went with Robby is because he can extend the play and we felt like we would need to do that against their [Florida State’s] defensive line,” Dickert said. “We’ll evaluate the quarterback position week to week, and sometimes series to series. Those guys know that. I think they handled it really well. I thought it was time at that moment to go to Deshawn, and I thought he came in and did some good things.”
The key, Dickert said, out of either quarterback was who could provide the most consistency for the offense.
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