Wake Forest HC Dave Clawson: “We're still a good football team"
Sitting at 6-3 and out of the rankings for the first time this season, Wake Forest is in a bit of a rut. Looking back on the loss to NC State on Saturday, Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson noted that his team’s effort was far different than the previous week’s loss to Louisville.
“I thought our football team showed up ready to play,” Clawson said. “Our guys competed their butts off. You can watch that film, and there was effort down to the very final whistle.”
Still, with the way the Deacs prepared, they couldn’t find a way to pull out the win.
“The bottom line is, they made more plays than us,” Clawson said. “And really, they made fewer mistakes than us. It's mistakes that, if we played lesser teams, maybe don't cost us the game. NC State has the No. 1 defense in the ACC. Any mistake you make against them gets magnified because of how good they are.”
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Along with giving up several big plays and committing critical penalties on defense, the offense was greatly affected by the raucous crowd inside Carter-Finley Stadium. The offensive line was called for five false starts, and Sam Hartman threw three interceptions.
“Right now, we're turning the ball over too much to beat good football teams,” Clawson said. “In two weeks, we've gone from 6-1 and ranked 10th in the country to not being ranked. Part of our plan to win is winning the turnover battle, and we've turned it over 11 times in two weeks. We're not ranked right now because we're turning the football over.”
While unranked now, Wake Forest immediately has an opportunity to make a statement win this weekend. No. 15 North Carolina is 8-1 and more than likely ACC Championship bound. With redshirt freshman Drake Maye (29 TD, 3 INT) leading the offense, the Tar Heels will prove to be a tall test.
“He makes plays within the design of the offense,” Clawson said. “Then where he just absolutely kills you is when the play breaks down and he scrambles. He beat Duke with his scrambles. Duke had unblocked guys, then he made them miss and they end up as touchdowns.”
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Despite having a new quarterback in Maye under center, the Tar Heels offense is reminiscent of seasons past. In their past two meetings, North Carolina has stormed back from three-possession deficits to stun Wake Forest.
“I still have tremors from the last two years,” Clawson said. “We have not finished games against them.”
As Wake Forest looks ahead to this game, Clawson made clear that there is still much left to play for this season.
“We're still a good football team,” he said. “There's a lot of teams out there that would like to be where we are. We've changed the standard here of what a good season is. And that's a good thing. We want that standard and we want those expectations. And when we win [these] games, bowl games get better and we get ranked.”
Wake Forest and North Carolina kick off Saturday at 7:30 on ESPN2.
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Essex is the lead football writer and a managing editor for Deacons Daily. Essex served as the Sports Editor for the Old Gold & Black for two years, in addition to roles as a beat and feature writer.