Is the national attention shining on the Wake Forest football program a benefit?
The answer is both no and yes, a little bit and a lot. Either way, the Deacons are getting deserved praise for what they continue to accomplish.
They’re 7-0 heading into Saturday’s game versus Duke. They’ve climbed to No. 13 in the Associated Press top 25 poll, which is flirting with the highest ranking the school has had: the Deacons rose to No. 11 in 1947.
But it’s much more than the poll. Quarterback Sam Hartman received multiple player of the week awards after his six-touchdown performance against Army, and wide receiver A.T. Perry became a midseason addition to the Biletnikoff Award watch list after catching eight touchdown passes in seven games.
The Deacons have been projected in New Year’s Six bowl games the Peach or Fiesta bowls, which would be their first trip to one of those since the ACC championship season in 2006 ended with an Orange Bowl berth. National media outlets are breaking down Wake Forest’s unique offense.
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The recognition can be a mixture of positive and negative. It isn’t so useful to Dave Clawson, the Wake Forest football coach in 2021, but it can be more helpful to a coaching staff trying to sustain a program that has now won at least seven games in five of the last six seasons.
“Anytime there’s an article that says Wake Forest football’s good, or Wake Forest football’s ranked, we like that attention,” Clawson said. “… But we never want that to be our main focus. That happens because of what we’ve done on the field. We’re not doing what we do on the field because you get that attention.”
If it does one thing this season, though, it proves Clawson’s feelings right from the preseason. The coach maintained throughout that the team and its returning super seniors were set up nicely to potentially piece together a strong 2021 season.
“We focus on the things we control, and our players have done a good job of that,” Clawson said. “And there’s no point wasting any energy on it. Because it’s not going to help us. And the second you start worrying about that stuff, it’s just misplaced energy and time. I want to focus on our football team, our players, getting them ready for the next game and if we play well in the field, eventually those things happen.”
Clawson said that Tuesday during his weekly news conference. Roughly 15 minutes earlier, running back Justice Ellison proved his point.
The freshman running back had been asked about the national attention and the validation of a season, and he said the focus remains fairly simple: Ellison said players aren’t playing for themselves, but for their teammates.
They focus through countless meetings as a tribute to their teammates, and they’re all lifting to push everyone forward. That keeps all the extra eyes now paying attention to Winston-Salem from adding extra weight to what the Deacons do week in and week out.
“The pressure comes in when you are 1-6. I feel like if you’re 7-0 — I mean, there’s pressure but it’s not as much as people think,” Ellison said. “Running backs before every Tuesday meeting, we go meet up with the O-line, and we talk about what our run game’s going to be for that particular game.
“And it’s just important that no matter who we play — it can be Clemson, Boston College, shoot, we play the Jets — it’s about exactly sticking to what we’ve learned on Tuesday so that we can apply it to the game. So we’ve been doing a really good job.”
There’s no doubt the benefit it has for the athletics department and the university with sheer reach nationwide. Wake Forest is the smallest of the Power Five institutions with an undergraduate enrollment just more than 5,400, or just smaller than the populations of, say, Walkertown, Mocksville or Stokesdale.
Steve Forbes, the school’s second-year men’s basketball coach, said the exposure provided by football right now can’t hurt the school or any of the other programs. While the football success likely won’t net the basketball team a commitment, it does help Wake Forest enter the sports consciousness of people outside the state. Forbes said some of his friends and family from Iowa have been checking in with him on the success of the Deacons.
“It’s good for all of us, and, hey, that’s our job, right? You know, to continue the momentum, wherever theirs ends,” Forbes said. “Hopefully in a big-time bowl game or however they do it now with playoffs.
“... We’ve got to carry the water. And we (men’s basketball) haven’t been doing that. And that’s what we’re here for, is to do that. And congrats to them for having, so far, an unbelievable season. I know, as a coach, you just worry about the next game. I know he’s feeling that way. I talked to him enough to know. I like Dave — Coach — a lot. And he’s smart, and a great coach. And so I’m sure he’s sitting there today thinking about one thing, and that’s Duke.”