{"id":81562,"date":"2025-10-23T12:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T16:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=81562"},"modified":"2025-10-23T12:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T16:35:12","slug":"81562-wake-forests-jake-dickert-were-paying-on-production-not-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/10\/23\/81562-wake-forests-jake-dickert-were-paying-on-production-not-potential\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake Forest’s Jake Dickert; “We’re Paying on Production, Not Potential”"},"content":{"rendered":"

A large handful of things have changed at Wake Forest in the transition from the Dave Clawson era to the Jack Dickert world. The offense is different. The coaching staff was overhauled. There is unprecedented access to the transfer portal players<\/a> via the admissions department. And there is a new approach to Wake players being offered opportunities at other schools (see: tampering).<\/p>\n

There is a new transfer portal system that goes into place effective immediately. The Spring window that lasted for two weeks toward the end of Spring camp is gone. The Winter window is no longer 30 days stretching from December into January. We are now at two weeks from early to mid-January.<\/p>\n

“We’re Paying on Production, Not Potential”<\/h2>\n

A Change in the System Creates A Change in Approach<\/h3>\n

What isn\u2019t new is the concept of player tampering. Players are still being offered financial opportunities at other schools if they enter the transfer portal. It’s been going on everywhere, including Wake Forest, for as long as there has been a portal. Sam Hartman meeting with Notre Dame assistants during the week of the Gasparilla Bowl; players being approached on the field in the post-game handshakes; offers being relayed to the Wake coaching staff, for some in hopes of finding a way to make more money. That’s not as likely to work the way it may have in the past.<\/p>\n

The difference in Winston-Salem is the approach. \u201cWe\u2019re paying on production, not potential,\u201d Dickert said earlier this week when asked about the new system and if it changes the potential for tampering.<\/p>\n

For the last few years, Clawson would tell the media by mid-October about players coming to him and telling him of offers from other schools. He was clear that he was grateful they were telling him upfront. Not everyone was using it as a negotiating tool. Some were using it as a way just to let him know what was going on. But Clawson was open about his struggles with the level of finances coming from the Collective or the low-budget NIL opportunities. His point was that Wake could not compete with the better-financed programs for top players, including some from its own roster.<\/p>\n

Dickert\u2019s engagement plan differs. He said he had dealt with the early tampering issues when he was at Washington State. But his message now is about timing. \u201cFocus is real. And one thing we\u2019ve talked about is controlling your environment. We\u2019re not going to negotiate contracts until after the season,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to let that all play out.\u201d<\/p>\n

He acknowledged that, like any program, Wake Forest will have players who are a priority to retain.. And then the staff will work its way through the roster and then on to money for potential portal players. \u201cOur guys need to be focused on finishing these games [the final six games of the season],\u201d he said. He repeated his mantra to the players about controlling the environment. \u201cWho you let into those conversations, and who you\u2019re listening to. And are you getting the truth? All of those things are really, really important to our success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Easier Path<\/h3>\n

The change in the portal window calendar does allow Dickert some time to talk with his players after the season. It is something Clawson did not have<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Winter window used to begin in early December, right after conference championship weekend. Being ready with new agreements for your players or defined budgets for transfer players had to be done by the first weekend of December.<\/p>\n

The move to change the calendar was something advocated by coaches across the country for a long time. At the American Football Coaches Association meeting in Charlotte in January, we talked with several coaches who said the December calendar was untenable. Under the old format, there was the start of the portal window, high school recruiting\/signing days, and post-season bowl prep for many.<\/p>\n

For a school like Wake Forest, Clawson said, with no postseason appearances for the last two seasons, his players had the ability to get active in talks with other schools very early in the process. He also had a consistent message, particularly in the last month of his coaching career at Wake, that the school did not have the financial resources he needed.<\/p>\n

With all schools on the same salary cap via the House v. NCAA revenue sharing agreement<\/p>\n

Flaws in the New System<\/h3>\n

Dickert, like many coaches we have spoken with over the last nine months, is in favor of the one portal window. They are also in favor of the January time frame. And for any player who is on a team that is still playing when the window closes, they are granted an extra five days from the end of their school\u2019s season.<\/p>\n

But there are now communication restrictions also built in. In an effort to cut down on the tampering, schools can only talk with their own players in December when it comes to the contracts. A player must be in the portal for another school to communicate with him. That has always been the rule, from a technical standpoint. But now four weeks of portal activity is going to be compressed into two. That goes from player entry to official talks with other schools and financial agreements.<\/p>\n

Dickert said not having an official communication window prior to the actual portal window is likely to create more tampering, not less. He projects chaos for the two-week January window. \u201cWe could get to know these kids, and we could see who is in. And we could get transcripts and meet and talk numbers and contracts before they even get here,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s going to be a mad dash for 15 days.\u201d He said not having the communication window in December means the NCAA is saying, \u201cTampering is ok. That\u2019s to me what one window represents in January [without the December communications window].\u201d<\/p>\n

The Road Ahead<\/h3>\n

He called it a big miss in the new system. But he believes everything is subject to change in the new world order of college sports. \u201cI think there is a lot that goes on. I think our game is still evolving. For Dickert, the next subject on the priority list for the business of college football is a better refining, defining and regulation of NIL and Collectives.<\/p>\n

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

A large handful of things have changed at Wake Forest in the transition from the Dave Clawson era to the Jack Dickert world. The offense is different. The coaching staff was overhauled. There is unprecedented access to the transfer portal players via the admissions department. And there is a new approach to Wake players being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":81567,"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":[7,2,17,7316,35643],"tags":[1135,9582],"class_list":["post-81562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-featured","category-news","category-recruiting","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-dave-clawson","tag-jake-dickert"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81562","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=81562"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81569,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81562\/revisions\/81569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}