{"id":67136,"date":"2024-10-27T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2024-10-27T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=67136"},"modified":"2024-10-27T09:41:53","modified_gmt":"2024-10-27T13:41:53","slug":"67136-what-wake-forest-is-saying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/10\/27\/67136-what-wake-forest-is-saying\/","title":{"rendered":"What Wake Forest Is Saying After Saturday\u2019s Win Over Stanford"},"content":{"rendered":"

With Wake Forest sitting at 4-4, the Demon Deacons are quite a ways away from their 1-3 start that had people writing off the season. One-third of the season remains with a chance to become bowl-eligible. It seems appropriate to see what Wake Forest is saying after Saturday\u2019s win over Stanford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dave Clawson<\/h3>\n

Even in the 27-24 win, one of Wake Forest’s inescapable issues was the penalties. The Demon Deacons were flagged 10 times for 95 yards. DeVonte Gordon<\/a> had four, including repeat calls for a lineman being too far downfield.<\/p>\n

Clawson said now that they have the technology tablets on the sidelines, they were able to review the plays right away. He said some of the calls were just incorrect. He also noted that it was a Pac-12 officiating crew calling the game. Anyone with any West Coast reporting experience will tell you that Pac-12 officials faced more criticism every year than even those from the ACC.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been running RPOs for how many years,\u201d Clawson said. \u201cWe had more downfields called in this game than probably the last three years combined.\u201d Clawson said the assistant coaches were going back to the tablets and admitting that some of the calls were right, or even close, but others were missed. \u201cUsually they only call that when it\u2019s egregious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then and Now<\/h3>\n

Now that we are two-thirds of the way through the regular season, Clawson talked about the team’s identity. \u201cI think all of our players and all of our assistant coaches deserve a lot of credit. To start out 1-3 kind of to be left for dead, and in the last four weeks we\u2019re 3-1 with three road wins in the fourth quarter in one-score games,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Clawson explained the difference in the team from that 1-3 stretch to the 3-1 period now. \u201cSometimes it just comes down to making a play,\u201d he answered. \u201cI just think the more you\u2019re in those situations, the better your football team handles it. We have eight games this year, and five of them are one-score last-play games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those losses to Virginia and Louisiana probably cut a little deeper now that the team has matured to a certain degree. While coaches say the past is the past, the idea that this team could be 6-2 instead of 4-4 is hard to ignore.<\/p>\n

Clawson said with the experience in those games, a certain mindset comes to be. \u201cI don\u2019t feel there\u2019s as much panic in those situations as there was earlier in the year,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know, I\u2019m always careful to declare that ok, now we have the secret sauce to win one-score games. Because the second you do that as a coach, you\u2019ll lose your next 15 one-score games.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hank Bachmeier<\/h3>\n

The transfer from Louisiana and Boise State was also asked about the difference in the 1-3 team and the 3-1 team, and the ability to close out one-score games. He quoted a Christmas movie. No, seriously. He quoted a Christmas movie. \u201cI think seeing is believing,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that\u2019s from Polar Express, a Christmas movie, a good movie. That\u2019s a quote from there.\u201d He added, \u201cI think for us to actually be able to do it, you see it, you believe it, and we\u2019re capable of doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bachmeier talked about the difficulty of losing offense in the second half. The team managed only three points in the last two quarters. A lot of it had to do with the persistent penalties. \u201cSo, obviously we didn\u2019t have a great second half. I think every drive we were behind the sticks from penalties. That\u2019s a killer.\u201d He said he was grateful to get the win, \u201cBut there is still a lot of stuff to clean up.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game at Stanford served as a Bachmeier family reunion. Tiger Bachmeier is a sophomore receiver at Stanford. Bear is a class of 2025 quarterback commit to Stanford. Their sister Ella Bachmeier is in her senior year at the University of Redlands as a heptathlete. And there is the youngest brother, Bucky, who is in middle school. All but Bucky sat on the Wake side of the stadium, with some cousins, for Saturday\u2019s family showdown. \u201cDamn, I don\u2019t know. I don\u2019t know,\u201d he laughed when told of the family seating arrangements. \u201cTiger\u2019s a sweetheart, so if they want to sit with him, I get it. I\u2019ll take the win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick Anderson<\/h3>\n

He had the game-saving interception as Stanford was driving for a potential game-tying field goal in the closing minute. \u201cIt\u2019s about time. I had my hands on a couple,\u201d he said, referring to the play. \u201cI think I was one for three today.\u201d<\/p>\n

He talked about the team’s confidence level growing due to the ability to win three one-score games this season. \u201cAll the credit goes to the coaches. We\u2019re highly educated in these situations and it pays off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor Morin<\/h3>\n

With four catches, the sixth-year senior went over the 200-reception mark for his Wake Forest career. He also had a critical punt return late in the game. The 36-yard return put Wake at midfield on the way to the game-winning field goal.<\/p>\n

Morin<\/a> deflected any credit for the career numbers. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely a huge credit to everyone that\u2019s poured into me. From youth football coaches, high school coaches, to the second I got to Wake Forest, Coach Clawson, Coach R (Warren Ruggiero), Coach Higgins, and now Coach Confesor. All those people have poured into me day in and day out. Getting to that milestone is a tribute to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the team’s maturity is starting to pay dividends through these close games. \u201cIt\u2019s a roller coaster of emotions but trying to be as even keel as possible through the entire course of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said there was no panic on the team when the offensive production wasn\u2019t there in the second half. \u201cGranted, it was what we wanted in the second half offensively. But we found a way to get it done. For us older guys, it\u2019s just making sure the sideline is engaged,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also gave credit in the leadership department to Bachmeier. \u201cWith Hank, I think he is as selfless as anyone I\u2019ve ever played with,\u201d he said. He called the quarterback\u2019s approach contagious throughout the team.<\/p>\n

Wake has four games left with two at home. But the record has been better on the road, (3-1). They have Cal and Duke at home. North Carolina and Miami are on the road.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"What
Photo courtesy: Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Wake Forest sitting at 4-4, the Demon Deacons are quite a ways away from their 1-3 start that had people writing off the season. One-third of the season remains with a chance to become bowl-eligible. It seems appropriate to see what Wake Forest is saying after Saturday\u2019s win over Stanford. Dave Clawson Even in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":67139,"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":[102,1135,5224,33534,34308,1249],"class_list":["post-67136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","tag-acc","tag-dave-clawson","tag-hank-bachmeier","tag-nick-anderson","tag-tiger-bachmeier","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Maggie Yarnell, Senior Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67136","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=67136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}