{"id":77329,"date":"2025-09-07T16:00:50","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T20:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=77329"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:41:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:41:00","slug":"77329-what-wake-forest-said-after-the-western-carolina-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/09\/07\/77329-what-wake-forest-said-after-the-western-carolina-win\/","title":{"rendered":"What Wake Forest Said After the Western Carolina Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wake Forest needed a cleansing of sorts<\/a> to get the bad taste of last week\u2019s 10-9 win over Kennesaw State out of its mouth. It got that and a little bit more with the 42-10 win over Western Carolina Saturday in Winston-Salem. The game had two weather delays totaling more than three hours. And for the few hundred that returned to their seats after the second delay at halftime, they got what they came for: a healthy Demond Claiborne. He is what Claiborne and his teammates had to say after the Demon Deacons’ win.<\/p>\n

After the Western Carolina Win<\/h2>\n

Demond Claiborne<\/h3>\n

Last week, he played four snaps total after suffering an apparent bruised rib. This week, he had 193 yards and three touchdowns on 10 carries. His touchdown runs were for 27, 33, and 85 yards. He talked about what it was like to get ready for the game with the sore ribs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThursday came around and I was still limited a little bit,\u201d he told what was left of the assembled media after the game. \u201cFriday we had a little walkthrough in the daytime. \u201cCoach Dickert said I want to see you get hit [to test out the injury]. Some of the strength coaches came out and just \u2018thud\u2019 me up a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claiborne gave specific credit to Alison Mitchell, the head football athletic trainer, and her staff for getting him ready.<\/p>\n

He said there were a few things during the game that triggered some pain again. But the touchdown runs were not on that list. He was barely within arm\u2019s reach of a defender on any of those runs. \u201cToday I really didn\u2019t get hit as much,\u201d he said. As a result, he thinks he will be fresh for the Thursday night game against North Carolina State.<\/p>\n

There was a lot of time to kill with the two weather delays. Head coach Jake Dickert said they watched film of last Thursday\u2019s practice as well as of the first half (with the 42-minute delay at halftime). \u201cThat was a big help to us because we could go in and break down film and make adjustments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Barnes<\/h3>\n

Receiver Chris Barnes<\/a> had a breakout performance Saturday. The Washington State transfer had six catches for 149 yards, both career high marks. He talked about the hard work that went into getting this kind of performance in just his second year of college. \u201cI\u2019m a little smaller (5\u2019-7\u201d), so I\u2019ve got to be a little quicker and catch everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a healthy debate on the team and the coaching staff as to who is faster downfield, Barnes or Claiborne. The running back, fresh off three touchdown runs, said after the game, \u201cRight now I\u2019d give it to Chris.\u201d That \u201cright now\u201d part was a quiet reference to the rib injury. \u201cAny other time, I\u2019ve got him,\u201d Claiborne said.<\/p>\n

Zamari Stevenson<\/h3>\n

The defense got specific accolades from Dickert after the game. Western Carolina quarterback Bennett Judy had edge rushers in his face all game. Stevenson said that made things a little easier for his teammates in the secondary, including for the one interception he had. \u201cI love those guys. Those guys come to work every week,\u201d he said of the linemen in front of him. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t just happen on Saturdays for those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said with the quarterback being under duress so much, \u201cThey\u2019re going to make him make throws he doesn\u2019t want to throw.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wake\u2019s defense in the first two weeks has given up fewer points (19) over a two-game stretch than at any time since 2017. Stevenson said even with a high number of transfers, mixed in with a veteran Wake Forest secondary, they have learned to gel. \u201cNobody\u2019s out there trying to be Superman.\u201d He said in the past, even with the players being close, people were trying to do more than they had to.<\/p>\n

That defense held WCU to only 238 yards of total offense, including a net of just 34 yards rushing. They also sacked the Catamount quarterbacks five times.<\/p>\n

Next up is NC State at home Thursday night. The Wolfpack narrowly escaped the Virginia game on Saturday with a 35-31 win. Both teams are 2-0.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Wake Forest Athletics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wake Forest needed a cleansing of sorts to get the bad taste of last week\u2019s 10-9 win over Kennesaw State out of its mouth. It got that and a little bit more with the 42-10 win over Western Carolina Saturday in Winston-Salem. The game had two weather delays totaling more than three hours. And for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":77332,"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":[10629,9582,1249,35544],"class_list":["post-77329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-featured","category-news","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-demond-claiborne","tag-jake-dickert","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-zamari-stevenson"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77329","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=77329"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77333,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77329\/revisions\/77333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}