Summer Scheming ‘24: Wake Forest Demon Deacons (2024)

Dave Clawson has been a head football coach at the college level since he took over the Fordham Rams in 1999. That version of the Rams finished 0-11, marking a decade of losing seasons in the Bronx.

Clawson finally got the Rams over the hump in 2001 with a 7-4 record, and took the Rams into unprecedented territory with three-straight winning seasons, a double-digit winning season in 2002, and and a I-AA (FCS) Quarterfinal appearance over that stretch.

Clawson has won everywhere he’s coached, including FCS Quarterfinal (2005) and Semifinal (2007) appearances with Richmond, and a 10-win season at Bowling Green in 2013.

Since arriving in Winston-Salem NC, Clawson has taken the Demon Deacons on highs and lows. Clawson was 6-18 to start his run at Wake Forest before a streak of four-straight winning seasons. After a 4-5 COVID season, Wake bounced back in 2021 with and 11-3 record, ACC Championship Game appearance (lost to Pitt) and a Gator Bowl victory.

In 2022, Wake Forest finished 8-5 before a tough 2023 season where the Dekes went 4-8 without Sam Hartman (Notre Dame, Washington Commanders) at quarterback.

In 2023, Wake forest went on a five game losing streak to end the season. It was a tough slate of games against FSU, Duke, NC State and Notre Dame before losing to bottomed-out Syracuse.

This season, Wake plays four preseason ranked opponents, including the Miami Hurricanes down at Hard Rock Stadium sandwiched between rivals UNC and Duke.

Program Evaluation

Acquisition

Per 247 Sports, Wake Forest had the 11th best recruiting class in the ACC and the 52nd composite ranking overall. Wake’s transfer portal class was ranked 102nd in the country. WF had one four-star player signed in the class of 2024 in Jeremiah Melvin. A wide receiver from NC, Melvin is six-foot-five and provides length for the Clawfense.

In ‘23, Wake Forest signed the 54th ranked composite class and 75th ranked transfer class. Clawson has signed eight total transfers over the past two seasons- truly looking to establish culture over a talent grab. The lone four-star of the ‘23 group was also a WR in Micah Mays Jr.

Development

The Demon Deacons have 20 alumni playing in the NFL on active rosters. With Dave Clawson having been at Wake for a decade, every single player can be attributed to his coaching staff. WF is represented at every position group except for running back, which is only because Kenneth Walker III transferred to Michigan State after a solid start at Wake.

Deployment

Deployment objectively can best be judged by Bill Connelly’s SP+ analytics system. The SP+ combines returning production with recent recruiting (recency is biased) and recent history (2-4 seasons).

The SP+ has Wake Forest at 72nd overall in FBS. The slow mesh offense is 96th, the defense 44th and the kicking game is a lowly 103rd. Wake is sandwiched between Baylor and Cincy in the SP+ overall rankings.

Miami’s SP+ OODK has the ‘Canes at 21st overall, 17th on offense, 38th on defense and 3rd in kicking. If the Dekes can get the offense back on track they’ll be a pain to defend in the slow mesh and their RPO game.

Level Up: Area of Improvement

The defense wasn’t anything to write home to mom about, but the offense was down right ugly in ‘23. Wake scored a miserable 20.2 points per game. That number is good for 115th of 133 FBS teams last season.

There’s a new quarterback at the controls of the slow mesh in Hank Bachmeier. This is Bachmeier’s third program in six seasons as he previously played QB at Boise State and Louisiana Tech. Bachmeier has 38 games under his belt and has thrown 51 touchdowns with 24 INT’s and only five rushing TD’s.

The slow mesh will have to be adjusted to a less run happy QB, which shouldn’t be too big of an issue since Clawson likes to tag RPO’s on which can become a double-option type of play for his offense.

Hedgehog Concept

Wake Forest didn’t have the elite names to poach coming out of the 2023 season (Hartman, Walker) and will start 10 guys on offense and nine on defense, ie. they brought in eight transfers and three should start.

Wake Forest’s Hedgehog Concept has been culture and the run game since Clawson arrived. The reason he’s not up for a ton of jobs is because of his expectation that it takes time to turn around a program. He’s had a tough first year or two at almost every stop on his resume before turning the program around.

This is an experienced group for the Dekes with only two expected starters in the 22 that aren’t a junior or senior. Expect Wake to rely on the defense and run game once again in ‘24.

Most Interesting Game from ‘23

Wake started strong, tanked some games, and then got a spark from their 3rd string QB with a win over the Pitt Panthers. That’s the same Pitt team that beat Louisville but had a horrendous 3-8 record.

WF QB Santino Marucci threw one touchdown with two INT’s, Demond Claiborne rushed for 96 yards and two touchdowns on 6.9 yards per carry, and four Demon Deacons had double-digit yards per catch averages in the contest.

Wake turned the ball over twice, lost the time of possession battle but committed nine less penalties while converting 50% of their 4th down tries to Pitt’s 0-for-2 day.

GIFs

Above- motion play-action and a slide route. Pitt is well coached on defense and they play the flat and the QB boot really well.

Above- Stretch is well spilled by the defense and taken down for a loss. Pitt gets the edge with the DE on the kick out from the TE and holds their ground.

Above- How do you take down the slow mesh? Fake a mesh charge and do a great job of staying square and scraping to close off the bounce.

Above- Hold the edge, know who needs to drop and who needs to close on the QB, and force a bad throw.

Above- Pitt creates a nice wall with their front eight but the safety doesn’t rotate down to the empty space. He comes too far inside and is beat on the bend back.

Above- Outside zone, let the OL fan and cut back underneath it. It takes a ton of patience from the RB, the QB holds the back side DE on the mesh and the back toughs out a big play.

Above- Something Miami DC Lance Guidry will deploy is a CAT blitz from the boundary side CB. Pitt uses it here to scrape exchange basically but it’s a play-action and works for a sack, too.

Above- Marucci is a G5 QB now after transferring but hits a big boy throw here on the fade. It’s dropped over the outside shoulder away from the safety and over the CB.

Above- When DC’s want to show their LB blitzes or run fits too early the QB can adjust. The TE is checked to a front side kick out and the back squeezes under it for a TD.

Above- I love routes that go against your usual stuff. They’re basically counters in the passing game. Situational adjustments. On 4th and 1 Pitt is playing really far off in coverage and WF gets the 1st.

Above- There’s two schools of thought on a do or die situation.

1- Go with the tried and true player and plays. Santana Moss stuff about big time players.

2- Do something you never do so they sleep on it / the player.

TE Cameron Hite caught a single pass all afternoon and it was this 15 yard TD for the win. He runs a beautiful route but even he is shocked he score the walk off.

Wrap up

Wake isn’t the Wake of Walker and Hartman but it will be an experienced squad in ‘24 that have played a ton of football together. The QB is new, but so are a ton of QB’s around college football (Will Howard, Cam Ward, etc.). Never count out the Clawfense!

2024 Prediction

Wake Forest should absolutely get boat raced by Miami at Hard Rock. It’s a home game for Miami, Wake is playing their rivals before and after the ‘Canes, and the talent matchup isn’t even close. Miami is a 61% Blue Chip Ratio, their highest in recent memory.

Way too early game prediction: Miami by 20.