Head Coach: Dave Clawson is entering his 11th year as the head coach of Wake Forest with a 63-61 record. This is weighed down by a 6-18 record his first 2 years but they recently hit a downslide with a 4-8 record this past year. Otherwise it’s been very successful. Prior to last season Wake Forest had been to 7 straight bowls, winning 5 of them and they even made an appearance in the ACC championship game in 2021, Wake Forest was in the tougher division with Clemson and Florida State yet is the only program besides those 2 to win that division while it existed.
Program Outlook: This program has been in really good shape under Clawson, he’s turned them into a consistent bowl team and overall a frequent factor in the ACC, something that hasn’t always happened for Wake Forest. Last season’s setback does being some concern, how long will it take to rebound?
How does the 2024 Roster look?: The questions start with the offense, Wake Forest has a great system in place but they simply weren’t able to replace Sam Hartman or the group of receivers they had as easily as expected. They never could get any sort of rhythm on offense so they’ll need to figure out who their QB will be. The odds on favorite is Hank Bachmeier, he’s got loads of talent but still needs to speed up his decision making to make this work, they also have 6th year Senior Michael Kern who knows the system well, but could they end up turning to a freshman? Jeremy Hecklinski reportedly turned some heads in the spring. The star of the offense is RB Demond Claiborne, he’s very explosive. They have a nice group of receivers, but the other question mark for the offense to come together is the offensive line. That unit struggled a bit. The collapse of the offense completely overshadowed the improvement Wake Forest saw on the other side of the ball. Their defense made huge strides. This improvement was led by a front seven that played very well, and they could be primed for yet another step this year. The secondary could also be primed for improvement, they struggled a bit last year but it was a rather young unit.
Screenshot from fbschedules.com1
2024 Schedule Thoughts: This isn’t the worst ACC schedule, but it’s pretty challenging. That early conference game against Virginia is really going to set the tone for the season, Wake might be looking at another season without a bowl if they don’t win that one. The home game against Ole Miss on The CW is extremely random but difficult and heads a rough stretch, the Louisiana game could be a challenge especially with NC State/Clemson right after. The next stretch is a potential get right spot before a challenging last stretch against some in-state rivals and Miami FL.
Vegas Projection: Wake Forest has a win total set at 4.5 with the odds geared toward the over. Vegas doesn’t see much of a rebound coming for the Deacs.
2024 Best Case: It’s a surprise out of camp as Hecklinski is named the starter, but it becomes apparent why when he torches Virginia to give Wake a nice early start, but it gets much better the next week when the magic of The CW strikes again and they pull an absolutely stunning upset over Ole Miss. They use the bye week to avoid a letdown against Louisiana and then manage to outscore NC State to beat the Wolfpack on the road. The undefeated run ends against Clemson but at least they’re competitive. It doesn’t stop Wake however, they roll through the rest of their schedule including dominating wins over rivals UNC and Duke who both don’t even make bowl games. Wake misses the ACC championship as a result of Clemson having the head to head tiebreaker but they earn a birth to the playoff. It ends with a loss at Ohio State but with Hecklinski at the helm is apparent the Deacs will be a problem for the ACC the next few years.
2024 Worst Case: No one truly emerges as the runaway QB in camp and that inconsistency hampers the offense while the defense suddenly bottoms out again. They wheeze past NC A&T before their problems become apparent in a loss to Virginia. There’s no The CW magic as they’re blown out by Ole Miss and it doesn’t get any better after a loss to Louisiana. In fact they can’t find another win the rest of the way, the tough road slate precents them from beating either UConn or Stanford and Wake ends up 1-11. NC State makes the college football playoff, North Carolina wins 10 games and even Duke wins 8. Clawson decides he needs a new start and bolts for the Big 12.
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