{"id":76237,"date":"2025-08-12T15:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T19:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=76237"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:41:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:41:06","slug":"76237-the-wake-forest-tape-doesnt-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/08\/12\/76237-the-wake-forest-tape-doesnt-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wake Forest Tape Doesn’t Lie"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert had some very specific thoughts on his team\u2019s performance after Saturday\u2019s scrimmage<\/a>. Then he looked at the tape afterwards. And the tape doesn\u2019t lie.<\/p>\n

The Tape From the Scrimmage<\/h2>\n

As we say far too often in the football world, \u201cUpon further review,\u201d Dickert still was not pleased with what happened Saturday. \u201cI thought our competitive endurance isn\u2019t nearly where it needs to be in a gameday-like atmosphere,\u201d he told the media Monday. What he had set as the bar was \u201cThree hours of max compete, communicating with each other. Getting out of your individual competitive silo and becoming a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that there is still competition for playing time. \u201cBut we\u2019ve got to make sure as a team, we\u2019re in certain spaces,\u201d he added. \u201cIt was a big evaluation day, but our competitiveness as a team to go out there and grind through it wasn\u2019t good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, how did he get that message to his team? \u201cOh, we addressed it,\u201d he assured the reporters. \u201cThey saw it in a very direct way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Leadership<\/h3>\n

But this is also where veteran leadership within the Wake world has to step up. By several accounts, that was Nick Andersen. The sixth-year defensive back was seen on film talking to his teammates throughout Saturday\u2019s scrimmage, as well as after, holding them accountable for their play. \u201cI just expanded on Nick\u2019s points,\u201d Dickert said. \u201cHere\u2019s what the team leader said. Here\u2019s what the captain said.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linebacker Quincy Bryant<\/a> backed up what Dickert said about Andersen and leadership. \u201cMe and Nick did have a conversation toward the end. We talked about where we are as a team. I think there\u2019s much more of a focus on how we feel as a whole team.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said they went over details of what they saw and what they thought needed fixing. \u201cHe\u2019s much better at talking (to the team). I\u2019m much quieter than Nick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryant actually revealed that Anderson is the reason he came back for another season. The two made a pact with each other after the last game in 2024 and saw it through, even with the coaching change. \u201cWe want to win at Wake because of how much it has done for us,\u201d Bryant said.<\/p>\n

The Quarterback Race Shrinks<\/h3>\n

The quarterback reps at practice are going to see a change. It is back to a two-player race. The starter will be either Robby Ashford, the transfer from South Carolina, or Deshawn Purdie, the transfer from Charlotte. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing against Steele (Pizzella),\u201d Dickert said in confirming what we were seeing for ourselves. \u201cWe\u2019re going to take a look at those two guys mainly. And then we\u2019ll kind of make the decisions from there.\u201d The timing was somewhat ironic in that Ashford had one of his most productive days of camp on Monday.<\/p>\n

What Lies Ahead<\/h3>\n

Regardless of who is taking the starting snaps, the offense is still a significant work in progress. The lack of a downfield passing threat has been obvious. Dickert gave credit to a secondary that is performing very well in camp, but he said the offense has to find a way to push downfield better.<\/p>\n

He also talked about his frustration from Saturday, with the lack of production in the red zone. \u201cWe got down there. We moved the ball. But we never finished any drives.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are just a couple of practices left before camp finishes with a scrimmage Friday afternoon. Then, the team begins preparations for week one against Kennesaw State. Dickert said the work will get done. \u201cI told them by Hell or high water, we\u2019re going to be a tough football team.\u201d He was already pleased with the step up from Saturday to Monday.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Tony Siracusa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert had some very specific thoughts on his team\u2019s performance after Saturday\u2019s scrimmage. Then he looked at the tape afterwards. And the tape doesn\u2019t lie. The Tape From the Scrimmage As we say far too often in the football world, \u201cUpon further review,\u201d Dickert still was not pleased with what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":76243,"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":[7,2,17,35643],"tags":[34945,9582,33534,9186,1249],"class_list":["post-76237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-featured","category-news","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-deshawn-purdie","tag-jake-dickert","tag-nick-anderson","tag-robby-ashford","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76237","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=76237"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76262,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76237\/revisions\/76262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}