{"id":65399,"date":"2024-09-29T15:00:23","date_gmt":"2024-09-29T19:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=65399"},"modified":"2024-09-29T13:05:31","modified_gmt":"2024-09-29T17:05:31","slug":"65399-what-wake-forest-said-after-another-close-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/09\/29\/65399-what-wake-forest-said-after-another-close-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"What Wake Forest Said After Another Close Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

An unrealistic pre-season outlook for the first month of the season for Wake Forest would have been a 3-1 record. A 2-2 mark would have been easy to be expect. But now Wake has to leave the comfort zone of Winston-Salem with a 1-3 record. They are six points away from the lofty 3-1. But it is the teams that lose those close ones that count the point differential as some sort of bar they nearly cleared. So let\u2019s see what Wake Forest said after another close loss Saturday night<\/a>, this one to the Sun Belt\u2019s Louisiana Ragin Cajuns.<\/p>\n

Dave Clawson<\/h3>\n

During the week, he said a significant point of focus was fixing the issues in the defensive secondary. He has frequently repeated that he expected more of last year\u2019s players to be back. DaShawn Jones transferring during the Spring portal window was a blow to the depth chart. The plan has been to try to simplify the schemes in the secondary. Based on Saturday\u2019s performance, it\u2019s not going so well. He was asked about it in the post-game press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can only be so simple,\u201d Clawson said. He repeated about how much of the secondary got there during the Summer and has not had enough time to work together. \u201cThey\u2019re giving effort. They\u2019re trying. They are just playing this level of football for the first time ever. Sometimes the game goes too fast for them and there\u2019s just nobody else to put in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clawson didn\u2019t put the entire onus on the secondary. He said there was not a good enough pass rush from the defensive line and said he didn\u2019t think the linebackers played well in the first half. \u201cThe secondary is always going to be the one where it\u2019s most noticeable. Because when they screw up, it\u2019s touchdowns.\u201d He added, \u201cI have a hard time right saying anyone on defense played well.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also reiterated how they tried to get help via the portal during the off-season. \u201cThat\u2019s an expensive problem to fix. And when you don\u2019t have much money, it\u2019s hard to fix it.\u201d He later added, \u201cWe recruited what we could afford.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of the game Saturday, Clawson said, \u201cThese losses, they gut you. They absolutely gut you. They\u2019re hard. I\u2019m disappointed that our program is not in a better spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hank Bachmeier<\/h3>\n

The sixth-year quarterback<\/a> has notoriously taken losses hard, going back to his days at Boise State. It was visibly painful Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely eats you, because I think we a really good frickin\u2019 team,\u201d he said in a hushed tone Saturday night. But you\u2019ve got to be able to pull these out. These are the type of games you have to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was asked, with his history of taking losses hard, how he gets to the next page. \u201cIt really hurts right now. So, I kind of sit on it for a little bit.\u201d Bachmeier said he tries not to stew on it for too long because it is not healthy. He does have the friendly face of his Great Pyrenees dog, Harley to go home to. He says he takes her for a walk and thinks about life and it helps cleanse the mental and emotional palate. \u201cIt\u2019s over now and you can\u2019t let the past predict the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bachmeier threw his first interception of the season Saturday night. It was on a pass that bounced off receiver Horatio Fields. The quarterback has had a well-deserved reputation of trying to thread needles that would have been better left alone. That has not been the case this season. He has hit the thousand-yard passing mark earlier than at any point in his college career. Bachmeier also has the second-highest completion percentage of his college career. He credits the coaching staff for their faith in him. \u201cIt\u2019s a great honor and credit to the play calling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for us to be successful and push through this is we\u2019ve got to be together and go to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick Anderson<\/h3>\n

Going back to the issue of the defensive secondary, the issue may be a little more complex than what Clawson described above. The staff has tried to \u201csimplify\u201d the defense. But Anderson said there was more to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a little discrepancy in getting the signal again. It\u2019s something that each week we have to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, you \u201cheard\u201d him use the word again. \u201cIt\u2019s happened several times,\u201d he said Saturday after the game. \u201cWe\u2019ve come up with different ways to try to fix it. Obviously, we\u2019ve got to find some more ways to try to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson the thing the players have to guard against is a fracturing of the locker room, which tends to happen during losing seasons.<\/p>\n

More Clawson<\/h3>\n

That brings us to the elephant in the room. This was game four of Wake\u2019s season. Anyone who has played in each of them is at the maximum allowed if they want to hold on to the redshirt season. While that may sound like a foreign concept at Wake in the \u201cmiddle\u201d of the season, it happened at several schools last week. Players shut down their season in order to maintain the year of eligibility and go into the portal.<\/p>\n

So, it had to be asked. With the team struggling, and many having played their four games, does Clawson expect to be able to maintain the roster as is for the rest of the season and is he having to work on that right now?<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a guy after four games wants to quit, he\u2019s going to quit. Those guys have to make individual decisions,\u201d Clawson said. He is hopeful of a particular element that will keep that from happening. \u201cOne thing here is we\u2019ve never overpromised and underdelivered. I don\u2019t think there is one player on our roster that would ever say, \u2018I was told I was going to get A, B, and C,\u2019 and we didn\u2019t deliver A, B, and C.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he is confident the school has honored its commitments to the players. \u201cBut by the point they come to you with it, their decisions already done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Demon Deacons go on the road for the first time next weekend to NC State. Clawson was too hurt by the loss Saturday to talk about that game but said he would be ready to move on by Sunday. Bachmeier said a road game can often be useful for rallying the team together.<\/p>\n

\"What<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unrealistic pre-season outlook for the first month of the season for Wake Forest would have been a 3-1 record. A 2-2 mark would have been easy to be expect. But now Wake has to leave the comfort zone of Winston-Salem with a 1-3 record. They are six points away from the lofty 3-1. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":65402,"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":[102,1135,33534,1249],"class_list":["post-65399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","tag-acc","tag-dave-clawson","tag-nick-anderson","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65399","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=65399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65399\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}