{"id":83890,"date":"2025-12-16T09:00:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=83890"},"modified":"2025-12-15T23:13:40","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T04:13:40","slug":"83890-jake-dickert-deals-with-roster-fluctuation-as-wake-opens-bowl-game-prep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/12\/16\/83890-jake-dickert-deals-with-roster-fluctuation-as-wake-opens-bowl-game-prep\/","title":{"rendered":"Jake Dickert Deals With Roster Fluctuation As Wake Opens Bowl Game Prep"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wake Forest has begun its official practices in preparation for the Duke\u2019s Mayo Bowl, but not without some challenges. It used to be that schools had to deal with the occasional player opting out of a bowl game. Now, coaches have to concern themselves with players leaving before a bowl game so that they can go into the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

Roster Fluctuation As Wake Opens Bowl Game Prep<\/h2>\n

Working Through the Personnel<\/h3>\n

Demon Deacons head coach Jake Dickert met with the media on Monday as the team began practices for the bowl game. The time came just a day after receiver\/kick returner Chris Barnes announced he was leaving Wake to go into the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

Just a couple of hours after the practice, starting running back Demond Claiborne<\/a> posted on his Instagram page that he was declaring for the NFL. There was not much surprise there. Claiborne has no college football playing eligibility left. What wasn\u2019t explicitly said in the post is what the real story is. He is leaving Wake Forest to begin workouts with his trainer ahead of the Senior Bowl at the end of January. He has not gone through the official invitation\/acceptance process yet, but it will be there. And then after that, it is the time needed to get ready for NFL workouts. \u00a0He is done at Wake Forest effective immediately.<\/p>\n

Dickert said finding out who is staying and who is going is just an added part of getting ready for the bowl games now. He coached in two bowl games while at Washington State (to an 0-2 record). But even over that short period of time from then to now, things have changed. \u201cThe frustrations I had probably the first couple of times of earning that [bowl game] with your team, and then you\u2019re a different looking team once you take the field down there,\u201d he said on Monday. And now? \u201cYou\u2019ve got people that needed to get into the portal. You\u2019ve got people that chose to get into the portal. You have seniors that are preparing for their future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The System and the Bowl<\/h3>\n

The biggest issue with the system, according to Dickert and many others, is not the system, but the calendar for the system. The portal window opens on January 2nd<\/sup>. That is the same day as the Mayo Bowl. While Dickert would like to be selling the virtues of Wake Forest to potential transfers, he has a more pressing need at the moment; coaching his team in the bowl game. With the expansion of the playoff causing adjustments in the calendar, the college football rules still treat the sport like it is one semester in length, while it very clearly bleeds into two semesters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt isn\u2019t good,\u201d Dickert said of the timing of the system. \u201cIt\u2019s an honor to play in the game. It\u2019s an honor to be in Charlotte. Demon Deacons, we never thought we were going to be here in year one. So, celebrate that. There\u2019s obviously challenges that come with it, and this is obviously one of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickert and his staff spent the two weeks after the loss to Duke<\/a> in the regular season finale meeting with players to assess their individual futures. Some are getting new or extended contracts at Wake, complete with revenue sharing. A new high school class with 30 signees will soon be welcomed in. It\u2019s a class that Dickert called, \u201cThe best Wake Forest has ever seen.\u201d And there are those who are moving on for the reason Dickert listed.<\/p>\n

Dickert said that based on those meetings, he believes the program is returning approximately 87% of the on-field snaps from the 2025 season. \u201cIf you can do that year in and year out, we\u2019re going to be really, really successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Time Ahead<\/h3>\n

The current week is being used as a pre-bowl camp, similar to Fall camp. Some of the players who were further down the depth chart are going to be getting a lot of reps at practice as attrition plays its role on the roster.<\/p>\n

Next week, they will get time off to go home for Christmas. And then they will be back right away to begin preparation specific to playing Mississippi State in the Mayo Bowl.<\/p>\n

Dickert is already on top of the Mississippi State game films. \u201cYou\u2019re talking about a team that played five one-score games. They\u2019re the fastest, I think, or the second fastest, offense in the country analytically. So, our guys have got to be in shape over the next four weeks,\u201d Dickert said. \u201cThey\u2019re big. They\u2019re long. They are exactly what you think of as an SEC team. They are going to get off the bus, and you\u2019re going to go, \u2018Hey, hello, here we go.\u2019 But what an opportunity for our guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickert described the approach he is taking with the team as one of mentality. He said the team will get Mayo Bowl rings. \u201cBut do you want them to say participant? Or do you want them to say champion?\u201d<\/p>\n

Main Image from Tony Siracusa<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wake Forest has begun its official practices in preparation for the Duke\u2019s Mayo Bowl, but not without some challenges. It used to be that schools had to deal with the occasional player opting out of a bowl game. Now, coaches have to concern themselves with players leaving before a bowl game so that they can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":83891,"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":[7,7361,2,35585,17,3,35643],"tags":[35542,6945,9582],"class_list":["post-83890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-bowl-games","category-featured","category-mississippi-state-bulldogs","category-news","category-sec","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-chris-barnes","tag-dukes-mayo-bowl","tag-jake-dickert"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83890","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=83890"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83895,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83890\/revisions\/83895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}