Wake Forest Puts Clemson Behind Them, Turns to Florida State
As the Wake Forest football team left the field on Saturday after their double overtime loss to No. 5 Clemson, the pain was palpable. In his postgame press conference, center Michael Jurgens fought back tears, and quarterback Sam Hartman called his performance a failure despite a school record six touchdown passes. In short, that loss hurt, probably more than just about any other.
“They were gutted,” head coach Dave Clawson said in his weekly press conference. “Our whole football team was gutted. It was a hard loss. We felt that awful, terrible feeling. But, all that means is that we cared and that we were invested — that it was important to us.”
Clawson felt the pain too. Now in his ninth season with the Demon Deacons, he and his teams have never beaten the Tigers. Never have they come so close — in his words on Saturday, just one play away.
“When you love your job and you care about it, you put yourself at risk,” he said. “I wouldn't want to live any other way. I love it that I have a job that can make it that painful. That it’s a sleepless, awful night, tossing and turning, wondering if there’s any little decision that I could have made that could have affected the outcome in a positive way for my football team.”
READ: Florida State Cancels Class Ahead Of Saturday's Game
Even when trailing 14-0, through all the back-and-forth of that battle, Clawson’s team truly — and maybe for the first time they’ve ever played Clemson — thought they could go do something special.
“In terms of our players — their preparation and effort — they absolutely sold out for that game,” Clawson said. “I think from the time we came in here [that week], till the end of the game, we believed we were going to win. We didn’t, and we’re disappointed. That’s football. Now, you have to move on to the next challenge.”
That next challenge is a daunting one. Florida State is not the shadow of a team they were in 2021, when they left Winston-Salem with the bitter taste of a 35-14 rout in their mouths. This year, the story is much different.
“The team that we’re watching right now on tape doesn't look anything like the team that we saw last year,” Clawson said. “They’re playing with a different energy this year, with a different confidence, a different sense of purpose. They’re playing at a high level.”
That new No. 23 Seminole team, the one that’s defeated LSU and sits at 4-0, is a juggernaut on offense. Their 503 yards per game leads the conference. In Clawson’s eyes, it all starts with dual-threat quarterback Jordan Travis.
“He knows the offense, he’s comfortable with it,” Clawson said. “He does a great job. He tests you and probes you. I’d love to face an immobile guy. It would be nice one of these weeks to say a quarterback’s a statue and can’t run.”
Unfortunately for Clawson, Travis is no statue. Coming off an injury against Louisville, he threw for 321 yards against Boston College. Another problem — the Seminoles hit first, and they hit hard.
“We have to start fast,” Clawson said. “We can’t start out [down] 14 to nothing. Florida State’s a great first quarter team. They scored 55 points in the first quarter [this season]. They’ve jumped on people.”
READ: Florida State Team Overview
There’s another variable at play in the buildup to Saturday’s game — the weather. With Hurricane Ian set to touch down in Florida at the end of the week, Wake Forest is forced to prepare for a hard-fought contest that may not even happen.
“We have to have blinders on,” Clawson said. “We have to approach the week like we’re playing this game on Saturday. If we even allow ourselves for one second to think, ‘let's cut 20 minutes from practice. We're probably not going to play anyways,’ we will get our butts beat.”
Regardless, the situation is still concerning, and a decision will soon have to be made.
“It’s in the league’s hands and Florida State’s hands,” Clawson said. “We’re monitoring the weather and we’re not going to go down there and put anyone at risk. It’s in our hands whether we feel traveling is safe. You certainly hope the ACC office makes the right decision.”
“If [everyone] says it’s safe to play, we’ve got a football game in five days,” he continued. “As soon as [the game] kicks off, nobody cares about any of that. All they care about is the result.”
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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.