{"id":62883,"date":"2024-08-24T12:45:18","date_gmt":"2024-08-24T16:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=62883"},"modified":"2024-08-24T12:45:18","modified_gmt":"2024-08-24T16:45:18","slug":"62883-the-wake-forest-getting-off-the-field-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/08\/24\/62883-the-wake-forest-getting-off-the-field-process\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wake Forest Getting Off the Field Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

Getting off the field on third down. Along with not giving up explosive plays, it is a primary theme for Dave Clawson this season. That puts the onus on every position of the defense. But the defensive line is going to have to be a starting point in the Wake Forest \u201cgetting off the field\u201d process.<\/p>\n

The Demon Deacons defense was 70th<\/sup> in the country last year. That put them at ninth in the ACC\u202610th<\/sup> if you want to now include new sibling SMU. Wake gave up 386 yards per game at just under six yards per play. Giving up explosive plays will slant those stats against you. But so does giving up first downs when you have the other team at third and fourth or even longer. It happened routinely last season. Wake was 82nd<\/sup> in the country in sacks by the defense at under two per game. The pressure in the opponent\u2019s backfield was too little and far too infrequent.<\/p>\n

Wake\u2019s opponents had a 40% conversation rate on third down and a 63% 4th<\/sup> down conversion rate last season. While the offensive production for the Demon Deacons rarely did the defense any favors, the defense had plenty of its own blame to take for being on the field far too long. The defense also had only 23 sacks on the season, half of what the Wake offense<\/a> gave up. There simply has to be a more sustained push and containment from the defensive line in order to help the rest of the defense not give up so many explosive plays.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of Fall camp, Clawson said he felt good about where the depth of the defensive line is. He called it, \u201cA pair and a spare.\u201d Translation: two defensive tackles who are your clear starters, but another one or two guys who performed well enough at camp to make the coaches comfortable with putting them in and not having the production drop. The same sentiment goes for the defensive end position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel good about the d-line,\u201d Clawson said. \u201cYou have three tackles that are all grown men. Kevin Pointer, Bryce Ganious, and Justin Cody, and then you have three other guys fighting for time.\u201d \u00a0Clawson said he has high hopes that he can count on production from Ka-Shawn Thomas, Wyatt Crespi, and Zach Lohavichan among others.<\/p>\n

The same holds true for the defensive end position. Jasheen Davis<\/a>, Kendron Wayman, and B.J. Williams are the ones expected to set the table for the ends. But Clawson said guys like Kerrington Lee, Camden Hardy, and Tyler Walton are going to have to step up into being ready to produce. The numbers say it is about needing a pair and pair of spares<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Clawson referred to guys like Lee, Hardy, and Walton as, \u201cThe next generation.\u201d That puts them as future leaders and starters. But he also acknowledged it is also about the here and now. It\u2019s about how quickly they can step and produce now behind his first pair and a spare.<\/p>\n

Wayman knows the song from the choir director. \u201cGet off the field on third down,\u201d was what he told us the most critical part of the defensive line\u2019s job was going to be this year. And how do you fix that? \u201cConsistency,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to keep working at being that good on every play, not just some plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wayman was also impressed with the camp Lee and Walton had. \u201cThey both did good and we\u2019re looking for them to get a lot of playing time this year. We need to keep a nice little rotation to keep everybody fresh.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any group is a reflection of its leader. For the defensive line, there is little doubt that the person they are looking to for leadership is Davis. Wayman said it is a leader-by-example model. \u201cJust watching the way he goes hard every day. He keeps us going with how he plays and his mindset.\u201d Wayman said whatever it takes to, \u201cGet off the field on third down is the focus and whatever it takes to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clawson\u2019s expectations on the topic are pretty simple. \u201cIf you have three, four, five opportunities in a drive to get off the field on third down, you better cash in one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The improvement in the defense overall is going to have to be substantial from last year. And it is going to have to start up front.<\/p>\n

\"The
Photo courtesy: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting off the field on third down. Along with not giving up explosive plays, it is a primary theme for Dave Clawson this season. That puts the onus on every position of the defense. But the defensive line is going to have to be a starting point in the Wake Forest \u201cgetting off the field\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":62886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7],"tags":[102,1135,34012,34013,1249],"class_list":["post-62883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","tag-acc","tag-dave-clawson","tag-kendron-wayman","tag-kerrington-lee","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}