{"id":68688,"date":"2024-11-22T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T16:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=68688"},"modified":"2024-11-21T16:54:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T21:54:47","slug":"wake-forest-has-to-face-the-real-college-football-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/11\/22\/wake-forest-has-to-face-the-real-college-football-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake Forest Has To Face the Real College Football Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Wake Forest had won three of its last four games and could entertain thoughts of a bowl game. Now that the Demon Deacons have lost two consecutive very winnable games, it is more about getting through the end of the season feeling better than they did after last year\u2019s 4-8 debacle. But Wake Forest has to face the real college football storm on Saturday as it travels to Miami to play the Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

Facing the Hurricanes<\/h3>\n

Miami is 9-1 overall and eighth in the college football playoff rankings. The Hurricanes are number one in the country in total offense, averaging 544.8 yards per game. Quarterback Cam Ward<\/a> is number one in the country in total passing yards with 3,494. That of course makes him number one in the country in passing yards per game, He also is eighth in the nation in passing yards per completion, (14.50), and fourth in passing efficiency.<\/p>\n

All of this coming Saturday against a Wake Forest defense that is 129th<\/sup> in the country in passing yards allowed, and 118th<\/sup> in the country in total defense.<\/p>\n

It has all the makings of the worst-case scenario you can think of.<\/p>\n

Strangely enough, it is the first time Clawson has faced off against Miami in his 11 years of coaching at Wake Forest. Miami joined the ACC in 2004. \u201cAnd I thought about all those years they were struggling,\u201d Clawson joked. \u201cAnd then the year we get them, they\u2019re 9-1.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Deacs’ Effort<\/h3>\n

Wake Forest lost to Cal 46-36 earlier in the month after throwing an interception on a drive that could have tied or won the game. Last week, it was three second-half turnovers that led to a seven-point loss to North Carolina<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wake head coach Dave Clawson said there is a distinct difference between this year\u2019s 4-6 team and last year\u2019s 4-8 team. Clawson said, unlike last year, this team has not quit in any game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the fight that we consistently show week after week after week. But that\u2019s enough to win football games against football teams,\u201d he said at his weekly press conference. \u201cAs I told the team on Monday, I appreciate how hard they play and their effort. And I never ever want to take those things for granted. But to beat good football teams requires a level of detail and execution that we did not have against North Carolina.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Veteran Team and a Lack of Fundamentals<\/h3>\n

Part of the challenge is undisciplined play by a very experienced team. Wake Forest had five first-half penalties against UNC and four of them were against the offensive line. That is a starting line that is stocked with fourth- and fifth-year, and even sixth-year players. So the false starts and snap infractions are confounding. He was asked after the game Saturday how these penalties happen with such an experienced group. It took a moment of reflection before he answered.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we\u2019re not\u2026I don\u2019t know,\u201d he said. It really is that inexplicable. \u201cThose are guys that have played a lot of football.\u201d<\/p>\n

After having time to break down the game film and assess what he and the coaches saw, the determination was that there is plenty of blame to go around for the drive-killing penalties. \u201cWhen your sixth-year guys and fifth-year guys are doing that, you\u2019ve got to take a good hard look in the mirror,\u201d Clawson said. \u201cPart of the value of experience is those are the guys that shouldn\u2019t make those penalties.\u201d He went on to say that since they are all his recruits going through his practices, he is responsible for their play, good and bad.<\/p>\n

The Devil is in the Deac Details<\/h3>\n

Clawson said it is the fine details in the game that are not getting done. \u201cWe have a sixth-year receiver that has a post route and he stops running. And if he just keeps running, maybe that\u2019s a touchdown.\u201d The next play was a pick-six thrown by backup quarterback Michael Kern. It was Kern, a sixth-year quarterback, who was credited with all three Wake turnovers, even if they weren\u2019t all his fault. He came into the game early in the third quarter for Hank Bachmeier who had injured his non-throwing shoulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u2019s a one-score game, you always go back to those individual plays and those individual penalties,\u201d Clawson explained. \u201cIt\u2019s not for a lack of caring or effort or desire. But in those critical times, we have to be more disciplined. Those penalties were made by guys who are usually our most disciplined guys. When that happens, you\u2019ve always got to look at yourself first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wake Forest is 107th<\/sup> in the country in turnovers lost. It is up to 18 now, and teams are putting up points with the new possessions against Wake. When you are losing the turnover battle every week, there is plenty of responsibility to go around. It extends from the players to the assistants, to the head coach. \u201cWe go through it every day,\u201d Clawson said when asked how to correct ball protection issues and penalties at this point in the season.<\/p>\n

The Attitude<\/h3>\n

One of the few upsides is the clear distinction between last year\u2019s team and this year\u2019s team. \u201cThey are kind of the same group every day,\u201d Clawson said of this year\u2019s team, drawing the comparison to last year\u2019s team, which saw a drop in effort from some as the record got worse during the season. \u201cYou\u2019re always worried, are you going to start losing guys, and it hasn\u2019t happened. \u201cLast year after the Florida State game and the NC State game, I don\u2019t think I could go to the press conference and watch the film and say, \u2018Geez, our guys gave everything they had.\u2019 I don\u2019t feel that way this year. Our guys are playing really hard. As the head coach, I\u2019ve got to get them to play with more detail and with a higher execution level.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of that will be needed over the last two games of the regular season, starting with Saturday. The Miami defense has been playing with fire every week. The offense is so potent, it makes up for whatever downside there is for the defense. Wake\u2019s margin for error is pretty much zero.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Wake
Photo courtesy: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was only a couple of weeks ago that Wake Forest had won three of its last four games and could entertain thoughts of a bowl game. Now that the Demon Deacons have lost two consecutive very winnable games, it is more about getting through the end of the season feeling better than they did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":68692,"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":[102,5224,94,1249],"class_list":["post-68688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","tag-acc","tag-hank-bachmeier","tag-miami-hurricanes","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68688","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=68688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}