{"id":70531,"date":"2024-12-17T12:42:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T17:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=70531"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:41:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:41:23","slug":"dave-clawson-leaves-because-its-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2024\/12\/17\/dave-clawson-leaves-because-its-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Clawson Leaves Because “It’s Time”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dave Clawson stepped down as head coach of Wake Forest after 11 years at the helm. \u201cIt\u2019s time.\u201d An emotional Clawson met with the media as well as boosters and school administrators Tuesday for the official announcement that he is stepping down as Wake\u2019s head coach<\/a>. A crowd of a couple hundred people turned out for the event.<\/p>\n

The news broke Tuesday after Clawson had told athletic director John Currie at the end of the 2024 season that he needed a couple of weeks to consider his future.<\/p>\n

Clawson’s Official Farewell<\/h2>\n

Clawson has long said that the current state of college athletics with the transfer portal, nil, and revenue sharing made the job more taxing than what he went into coaching to do.<\/p>\n

Clawson got emotional several times as he reflected on past players and teams. \u201cMy overwhelming emotion right now is just gratitude,\u201d he said during his opening remarks.<\/p>\n

He has been a head coach for 25 years<\/a> with stops at Fordham, Richmond, and Bowling Green prior to his arrival at Wake Forest. He reflected on what that kind of time away had meant that he missed out on. \u201cThere is no average Saturday as a coach,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a coach\u2019s family, everything revolves around your job.\u201d He noted that even during the off-season the weekends were spent with recruits, boosters, and players. \u201cIt is an all-in profession with your family.\u201d He said he would be spending time with his family without worrying about player texts or messages from his assistants.<\/p>\n

He is, for the time being, moving into the role of special advisor to athletic director John Currie. What that looks like, in terms of the details, neither of them was prepared to address, as it is clear it is still a work in progress. \u201cToday is the first time in 47 years that I haven\u2019t been part of a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Impact<\/h3>\n

He admitted that he considered staying another year, or longer because he worried about the future of his coaching staff now that he is no longer head coach. He teared up again in paying tribute to his staff. \u201cThe hardest part of this decision is I know the impact it\u2019s going to have on their lives. For that reason, I wanted to try to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clawson was clear that the last two years have taken a toll. It has been clear to those who cover the program that the losses were hitting a lot harder this season. Clawson said the change in the systems that are the new foundation of college football made it hard to see himself continuing to do this. He said after the season that he told Currie, \u201cI don\u2019t know if I am going to get back to a point that I\u2019m still the best leader for this program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clawson added, \u201cI truly believe it\u2019s time for new leadership. And the bottom line is right now this is somebody else\u2019s job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Game<\/h3>\n

With regard to the changes in college sports, \u201cI\u2019ve made no secret that the last two years have been very frustrating.\u201d He has been an advocate for players getting paid, and for players being able to move from school to school, but the system in which they are happening has made the job more difficult, Clawson said, though he made it clear it was not the only reason he was leaving the job. \u201cI\u2019m at peace with the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what is next for him? The advisor role gives the appearance of a lot of fluidity. It allows Clawson to stay employed at Wake and have the occasional big-picture meeting with Currie. But beyond that, there is not a lot of structure or detail yet. Clawson made it clear that he will not be hanging out at football practice under the new coach. He said the new coach needs to be free of the shadow of the predecessor. He also said he would have no role in picking his successor.<\/p>\n

The Big Picture<\/h3>\n

Because Clawson has been so freely outspoken about the current state of college football, he was asked if he could now see himself in a bigger, more global role in the game and its future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just jumped off that cliff. I\u2019m floating somewhere. I have no idea where I\u2019m going to end up landing right now,\u201d he responded. But he did not deny that in the not-so-distant future, he could see himself playing a bigger role in the game. \u201cI\u2019d certainly love to be able to help it get to a better place than it\u2019s in right now. College football, college sports right now is not in a healthy place.\u201d He said he could see himself in a role with the NCAA or ACC being an advocate for the game.<\/p>\n

Next<\/h3>\n

Clawson did not shut out the potential that somewhere down the road he could coach again, saying, \u201cYou never say never.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clawson said in recent days he has heard from coaches around the country like Mack Brown, Dabo Swinney, Mike Elko, and Clark Lea, some of who he has worked with and others with whom he knows through the profession.<\/p>\n

Currie would not give a timeline for naming the new head coach<\/a>. He acknowledged that he started working with a search firm while Clawson was still pondering his future, knowing that tie was of the essence if the coach walked away. But as the new college football system takes its revolutions, Currie was asked about Wake\u2019s commitment to revenue sharing once the House v. NCAA settlement is finalized in April. Currie confirmed that Wake intends to spend all the way to $20.5 million cap. That will be a large financial asset for whomever the next coach is.<\/p>\n

Speculation is that we will have a name within a week, likely sooner.<\/p>\n

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

Dave Clawson stepped down as head coach of Wake Forest after 11 years at the helm. \u201cIt\u2019s time.\u201d An emotional Clawson met with the media as well as boosters and school administrators Tuesday for the official announcement that he is stepping down as Wake\u2019s head coach. A crowd of a couple hundred people turned out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":70535,"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":[2,7,35643],"tags":[1135,2584,1249],"class_list":["post-70531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-acc","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-dave-clawson","tag-john-currie","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70531","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=70531"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70536,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70531\/revisions\/70536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}