{"id":77494,"date":"2025-09-12T13:00:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=77494"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:44:11","slug":"77494","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/09\/12\/77494\/","title":{"rendered":"What Wake Forest Said After the NC State Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

Usually, when we do these columns covering the post-game comments for Wake Forest football, we narrow the scope to the players. In most cases, we have used plenty of \u201ccolumn inches\u201d in the game analysis for the coach\u2019s comments. But Jake Dickert had so much more to say<\/a> after the 34-24 loss to NC State. It was more than what we could include in the post-game article, as the clock was well past midnight, and a small handful of reporters were still occupying the press box. So let\u2019s take a look at what Wake Forest said after the NC State loss, including more from the head coach himself.<\/p>\n

After the NC State Loss<\/h2>\n

Jake Dickert<\/h3>\n

After making the clear assessment that the second half of the game was a bad half of football, Dickert said he was still proud of the team, declaring that they are better now than they were two weeks ago. \u201cI don\u2019t want them to be lost in tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

We covered, in the post-game analysis, Dickert\u2019s assessment of quarterback Robby Ashford, not so much for the plays on the field, but for his reactions after the plays. It was reminiscent of times during camp when he would hang his head and isolate himself after a bad play. \u201cHe\u2019s got to be mature enough as a competitor to go out there and represent us the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He talked about what it is going to look like at the end of this week.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a lot of learns from this tape,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we have to be mature enough to come back on Sunday after a couple of days off and watch ourselves doing bad things that end up costing you the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the coaching staff will self-scout themselves as well as the players. Looking at the players over the bye means personnel changes are not out of the question. \u201cWho do we need to get the ball to? Who needs to play more and who needs to play less?\u201d He said this will be a culture test to see who stays together in challenging times.<\/p>\n

George Steih<\/h3>\n

The offensive lineman talked about the mental and emotional state of the team as the second half unraveled. \u201cIf someone\u2019s not feeling good or they\u2019re down in the dumps, it can affect other people. So, that\u2019s one thing we try to do on the sideline that we\u2019ve talked about before, is like being positive, extremely positive when things may not be going right on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dylan Hazen<\/h3>\n

The senior linebacker talked about what it was like in the second half as NC State put up 17 points. \u201cI think it\u2019s kind of the defense trying to do more than just what your job is,\u201d he said. Hazen said that when the defense stuck to the fundamentals, the result was good. But when there were players trying to do more than that, \u201cWe were letting the edges go and obviously, in the run game we were just getting creased here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added later, when asked about trying to maintain a mobile quarterback like NC State\u2019s CJ Bailey, that the over effort by the defense cost the Deacs. \u201cI think that goes back to just trying to do more than our job,\u201d he opined. \u201cJust trying, holding those edges, keeping that containment. Like you know, when we have an ability to make a play, make a play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nick Anderson<\/h3>\n

He was in the press conference room while Hazen was speaking. That is not unheard of it, but it is rare. Usually, the players come in one at a time. But it was clear watching Anderson\u2019s body language that the sixth-year defensive back was still stewing over the loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into halftime, we felt good about all phases of the game,\u201d he said. \u201cI just think we got out-executed, to be honest with you, in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it should not change the way players practice because he expects everyone to bring their best every day, regardless of what happened in the previous game. \u201cWe can go two directions from it. We can just be defeated and let all of the work we did in the offseason mean nothing. Or we can come back and grow from it and have a great year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conor O\u2019Neill of On3<\/em> calculated after the game that Wake Forest had 253 yards over its first 31 plays on offense (8.1 yards per play). They managed only 58 yards over the final 26 plays on offense (2.2 yards per play). Anderson was not placing blame on the offense not getting first downs, and the defense having to spend so much of the half on the field. \u201cIt\u2019s a team game and we all signed up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next<\/h3>\n

Because it is a bye week coming up, there is no weekly press conference with Dickert planned. And access to practice and players next week is very TBD. That would mean not hearing from quarterback Robby Ashford about his thoughts on his performance and the game overall. By the time the team and the media reconvene, it will be about the re-dedication to hard work and the focus on what is ahead. And that\u2019s fine. It is supposed to get to that point. But the Deacs have a long weekend and week ahead full of self-reflection, because this loss didn\u2019t have to happen.<\/p>\n

And this likely sounds trivial and was probably an oversight. But from his introductory press conference, through every press gaggle in Spring and Fall camps, to every weekly and post-game press conference during the season, Dickert ended his time behind the microphone with a robust, Go Deacs!\u201d With as downtrodden as the team was feeling Thursday night, there was no such proclamation from the head coach. Certainly, it is a trivial oversight that few, if any, caught. But it certainly was symbolic of the tone Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Luke Jamroz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Usually, when we do these columns covering the post-game comments for Wake Forest football, we narrow the scope to the players. In most cases, we have used plenty of \u201ccolumn inches\u201d in the game analysis for the coach\u2019s comments. But Jake Dickert had so much more to say after the 34-24 loss to NC State. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":77495,"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":[7,2,35635,17,35643],"tags":[33867,3634,33534,9186,1249],"class_list":["post-77494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-featured","category-nc-state-wolfpack","category-news","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-dylan-hazen","tag-nc-state-wolfpack","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\/77494","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=77494"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77498,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77494\/revisions\/77498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}