What Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said before facing Notre Dame

Wake Forest (4-6) head coach Dave Clawson’s team is on the brink of snapping a seven-season bowl game streak. The Demon Deacons’ next loss eliminates them from the postseason. No. 19 Notre Dame (7-3) can do the damage Saturday in South Bend.

Here is what Clawson said about the state of his program and the matchup with Notre Dame.

Recapping Wake Forest’s loss to NC State

“Obviously after watching the game, I think a lot of the things I said after the game were accurate. I was disappointed with our performance, our lack of detail and lack of offensive production. The only thing I would amend a little bit is that after watching the tape, I thought our defense played hard the last two-and-a-half quarters. I don’t think we showed up right away. The whole key to the game was limiting [NC State wide receiver Kevin] Concepcion, and on the very first play we don’t keep contain, it becomes a 65-yard play and then we give up an easy touchdown.

“We’re down 21-0 and a team very well could shut it all down, but I thought our defense played hard and really shut them out. The field goal was on a short field after a turnover and the two points was on a conversion attempt. Disappointed, but we have to move forward.

“Offensively it was really disappointing, but the only bright spot is I thought some of our young receivers made some good plays late. I thought Horatio Fields made a good play and the touchdown to Deuce Alexander was probably the only contested catch we made the whole day, and that’s a true freshman. I thought Tate Carney did some good things. Here we are. Not where we want to be. We’ve changed our practice up this week and are giving some of those younger guys some reps. If they practice well, you may see some of those guys out there this week.”

Previewing Notre Dame

“Obviously we have a tough game this week. Notre Dame is an excellent football team. Their head coach has done a good job there and they’ve had some big wins this year. They really should have had Ohio State. They had a great win against Duke. Defensively, this will be the best defense we’ve faced all year. They’re simple, but sound and well-coached. They are so gap-sound and assignment sound. There’s no freebies, and they are old. Of their 12 starters, 10 of them are seniors. The safety, [Xavier] Watts, is leading the country in interceptions. Every time he gets a pick, he either scores or Notre Dame gets the ball within the 10-yard line. Their front is really talented. There’s not a weakness on the defense. They’re only giving up 16 points a game. They’re one of the best defenses in the country.

“Offensively, we certainly have a lot of respect for their quarterback. We know what he’s capable of. This is a team that wants to line up and pound you running the football. They have a great running back in [Audric] Estimé, who might be the most talented back we’ve faced all year. He’s big and powerful. He’s a home run hitter. They’re very veteran up front. They have a big, experienced offensive line. They’re always massive, are veterans and are well-coached. They’re a little younger at the skill positions.

“We know this will be a really hard game. But we have an opportunity to play an annual top-10 team that’s one of the most historic programs in all of college football in an incredible venue. When kids grow up they dream of playing in that stadium. We have to put together a great week of practice and play really good football to be competitive. That’s our plan and we know it’s going to be difficult. But we’re going to go up there and try to have a magical moment in our program. That’s our goal.”

On what has gone wrong for Wake Forest in 2023

“I think looking back, coaching college football in 2023 is completely different from coaching college football in 2021. I don’t mean the Xs and Os. It’s how you build a team and a roster. In retrospect, maybe we should have taken one less freshman offensive linemen and tried to get a transfer. Maybe tried to take a transfer at another position. In some cases, we tried. We’re never going to be a school that’s going to take a lot of transfers. There’s certainly challenges to taking transfers here that are unique to academic schools. We’re never going to be able to do what a Louisville or Colorado did. That’s never going to be us. But we probably have to be a little more open to maybe be a little more aggressive in that area for the right play and right position, so we don’t have the drop off we had this year.”

On how name, image and likeness has changed the game

“Right now, you have to be open to anything and everything. We’re never going to be able to take a lot. There are challenges here to taking transfers that are different than other schools in the country. We’re never going to be able to live on that. We’re always going to have to be a program that grows its own. We’ve tried to use transfers in the past to fill gaps, and we’ve done that with some success. But that market has changed with name, image and likeness. You have to be more aggressive.

“Quite frankly, you have to be willing to buy players. That’s part of it. You’re always worried about what that’s going to do to your locker room. Looking back, maybe that’s a risk worth taking, because it’s better than not winning football games and what that does to your locker room. You have to be strategic about it. We’re never going to be able to do what some other schools in our league do. But if it creates competition and raises the level of everyone, we have to be more open to taking those type of shots.”

On transfer portal obstacles, which are very similar to those of Notre Dame

“We have to take guys after the last year where they’ve graduated. Grad transfers are easier for us, if they come from good schools with a good GPA. We’ve had a lot of success with those guys, like Donald Stewart, Jacob Roberts, Kobie Turner. Those have been really good one-year fits.

“You can’t get a Wake Forest degree unless at least half of your credits come from Wake Forest. I agree with that policy. I don’t think you should be able to get a degree like this unless you’ve done the majority of your work here. That almost eliminates every third and fourth year player who doesn’t have their degree. So most of our transfers have to be in their first year, like Malik Mustapha and Chelen Garnes. They spent one year at a school, and they both went to really good schools, Richmond and Navy. We were able to accept almost all of their credits and get them eligible.

“Once a player spends four-or-five semesters at another school, we often become limited in how many credits we can take. At some schools their intro classes aren’t at our level. Once a player has 45-60 credits accumulated, sometimes when we get the review, we’re not going to be able to get them eligible, because they lose too many credits. The sweet spot for transfers have been year one from good schools, where a lot of those intro level classes we can still take. Or guys who have already graduated. Once a player has been at another school four or five semesters, it’s really hard to get them eligible. I don’t feel right recruiting them if I don’t know if we can get them eligible.

“You see all these guys in the portal and people wonder why we aren’t even looking at them. It’s because we wouldn’t be able to get them eligible. They will lose too many credits, and the NCAA has all these requirements that after one year you have to have X amount of credits, after year two this many and this many after year three. If they transfer and the credit aren’t accepted, they won’t count. There’s two sweet spots for us, and that’s where we’ve had success. That’s a lot of our challenge navigating the portal.”

On the struggles of the Wake Forest wide receiving corps

“We felt really good about that position going in. The position just hasn’t been as productive as we would have hoped. It’s been at times problems at quarterback or offensive line, but I thought Saturday there were chances to make plays, and they didn’t. So we changed practice this week. There’s a lot less scout team. We’re doing a lot more 1s vs. 1s and 1s vs. 2s. Those guys are getting a lot more reps, and some of those guys will get an opportunity to play this week.

“Regardless, these are guys we’re counting on next year. Having game experience in a place like Notre Dame will help them for next year. If you look at last week, those guys made plays, so give them a chance to go out there and make plays. But they weren’t ready in September and weren’t quite ready in October. I still believe we need to redshirt and buy that extra year of development to remain a competitive program.”

On if teams have figured out the slow-mesh offense Notre Dame will face on Saturday

“We’ll look at everything. A lot of times, it’s why did it break down? We’re not as good up front as we were the last two or three years. A lot of times with the slow mesh, I think the quarterback got hit sooner than in the past. We’re not getting the deep balls down the field. Part of what we do is when you outnumber the run, we throw over people’s heads. [AT Perry] and Donavon [Greene] got behind coverage more often than we did this year. Jahmal [Banks] made some great contested catches. But I don’t think we’re running by people the way we did for two or three years. When you can’t do that, everything else gets clogged up.

“We haven’t played as well at the quarterback position as we have the last two or three years. Between not being as good up front, the quarterback not having as much time, the decision making not being as good — all those things factor in.”