Clemson at Wake Forest QA Preview

Clemson travels to WinstonSalem to battle the Wake Forest Demon Deacons on Saturday at noon ESPN. Clemson has more wins against Wake Forest than any other ACC opponent 771, and theyll attempt to win their 16th in a row against Wake Forest which would be the longest in the series. After an ugly start to their season, Wake Forest earned a big road win over their rival NC State and now hosts Clemson with a little more pep in their step. To help us preview the contest, we connected with Robert Reinhard, a Wake Forest expert and WinstonSalem native. We hope you enjoy the Kantor: After losing to Virginia, Ole Miss, and Louisiana, a listless two or three win season seemed likely. The Deacons headed to Raleigh as 6point underdogs to the rival Wolfpack, but on an excellent 4th down conversion flipped the game, used Coach Doerens timeouts against him, and earned an ACC win. For those who didnt catch the final five minutes, can you recount how the Deacons pulled it off and then tell us a bit about what it means for the rest of the season?Robert Reinhard: It was incredibly methodical. Wake got the ball with 7 minutes remaining down 3 and drove 65 yards down the field before scoring the gamewinning touchdown with just over a minute remaining. Wake got back to running the ball on this drive, as they made a concentrated effort to feed future NFL back Demond Claiborne https://www.clemsontigersfansshop.com/312-Clark_Sanderson_Jersey. 9 out of the 13 plays on the drive were on the ground, and the few passes that were attempted probably didnt have a depth of target beyond 5 to drive featured 2 4th down conversions, the second of which was a decision by Head Coach Dave Clawson to opt against a 43yard field goal attempt with 1:45 remaining that wouldve tied the game. Even had we not gotten it I wouldve totally supported the call. All in all it was one of the more exciting wins Ive watched during Clawsons year absolutely needed that one, as they couldnt have afforded to fall to 14 to start the season with a matchup against Clemson looming. Wake has been bad in onepossession games over the past two seasons, when before that Clawsons teams historically had a much better than average record in close games. But Wake lost to Virginia at home by 1 after blowing a 13 point lead with the ball in the 4th and missed a gametying field goal against Louisiana as time expired. So Wake could easily be sitting at 41 right now and feeling terrific about its trajectory. Still, the win gives us hope and hopefully the team can continue to come together and find a way to win road games such as UConn, Stanford, Carolina, etc. Had Wake not beaten NC State, then things could have gone downhill : Wake Forests passing game was abysmal last season, but they got Donavon Greene back from injury to pair with Taylor Morin at WR and brought in former Boise State and Louisiana Tech QB Hank Bachmeier via the transfer portal. Has this solved their passing woes?Robert: The Wake passing attack isnt as elite as it was under Hartman, but Bachmeier has been quite good this season. He didnt have his best in the NC State game, but prior to that he was top 5 nationally in PFF Grades among QBs. Thats not to say that hes been a Top 5 QB nationally, but if youre getting graded that high youre clearly performing at a high receivers we have are talented, but theyre young for the most part. Morin is as seasoned as it gets in college football, but Greene has been injured as of late after his very hot start to the season. Behind them we have Deuce Alexander and Horatio Fields who are both inexperienced at the position, but showing a lot of flash I am excited to see where the passing game is by : In the past, Wake Forest has struggled against Clemson in part because Clemsons defensive tackles blow up the slow mesh and disable the core of the Wake Forests offense https://www.clemsontigersfansshop.com/334-Shelton_Lewis_Jersey. How has the Demon Deacon offensive line performed thus far? Do you expect them to have more success with the slow mesh than in past matchups?Robert: I have actually been pretty pleased with the performance of the offensive line so far this year, particularly when it comes to pass blocking. Offensive line was a major weakness last year for the Deacs. We had terrible quarterback play, but a lot of quarterbacks wouldve had issues given how little time they were providing the quarterbacks. While this unit isnt as strong as Wake offensive lines of several years ago that have produced a number of NFL players, they are typically providing Hank Bachmeier adequate time to find an open has looked to hit some fairly deep passes routinely this season. I think theyll have to adjust a bit and focus on plays that dont require as much time to develop, as I do think Clemsons defense will pose a challenge to Wakes : Zooming out from this game, where do you see Wake Forest fitting into the new world of college football? While Clemson is often criticized for their failures to fully leverage NIL and the transfer portal sometimes merited, how has it impacted Wake Forest? Have they been winners or losers so far? Where do you expect things to settle with the ACC lawsuits?Robert: From a football standpoint I think that NIL and the transfer portal is going to be a major issue for Wake and is going to force them to have to adjust some program philosophies, which theyve started to do to an extent. When Wake has been at its best under Clawson and even before when Jim Grobe had his run, it was centered around redshirting and developing players so that you can play a team full of experienced 4th and 5th year guys. Now, were losing some of our guys in those 4th and 5th seasons to other programs, so that hurts both top end talent as well as depth. Sam Hartman becoming the QB at Notre Dame is our biggest example, but we had a player in Dashawn Jones complete spring practice and then transfer to , Clawson is starting to play more true freshmen as a result because theres no sense in him preserving a year of eligibility for a kid if hes just going to use that extra year of eligibility somewhere else. As a counter I think were going to have to try to spend more time in the portal ourselves. Not necessarily taking kids from SEC programs, but finding quality players from either the FCS or lower FBS level. We have done that selectively in the past to great success NFL players Kobie Turner and Malik Mustapha, etc. but I would like to see us attempt to use the portal even : Lets end with a twopart prediction. How do you see this game playing out? More broadly, how do you foresee Wake Forest and Clemsons seasons unfolding beyond this contest?Robert: As great as last weeks win was for the Deacs, I know they face a stern test in the Clemson Tigers Olsen Patt-Henry Jersey. Clemsons offense has been explosive at times this year, and Im expecting them to take advantage of a poor Wake Forest secondary. I believe the spread is about 20. 5, and my inclination is that Clemson covers that line. I view Clemson as the best team in the conference and expect to see them holding the trophy following the ACC Championship for my Deacs, Id say that once we get beyond this game there is only 1 game left on the schedule that will be a major challenge, and that is at Miami on November 23rd. We are going to need to see our offense stay hot, and our defensive line is going to have to start generating more pressure. So the games will be winnable, but a lot of the contests will be on the road, so it will make it extra tough.