Wake Forest Athletics
Grit, Character, Toughness Help Deacons Persevere to Win
10/21/2019 4:05:00 PM | Football, Les Johns
The hearty Wake Forest faithful that stuck it through to the finish in Saturday night's 22-20 win over Florida State left with their hands wrinkled and fingernails chewed to the nub.
The downpour conditions were new. What wasn't different was watching their beloved Deacs take another contest down to the wire.
"What a great college football game," Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said after the victory. "I think both teams played well, and it came down to the last minute. Once again, this week we found a way to win and I'm proud of our guys."
The 'once again' is appropriate, as Wake has now been in five one-score contests this season, coming away with a win in four of them. Each of the last three games this season have been decided by a field goal or less.
"Our team just refused to give up and continued to find a way to win," Clawson said. "Those games can go either way. What a great win."
Clawson claimed those games can go either way, but they haven't recently. The Deacs are now 13-4 in games decided by seven points or fewer since the start of the 2016 season.
"It was a great team win," Clawson said Saturday. "I'm very proud of our team. We've had some good wins here over the last three-to-four years, but I think that was as gritty of a win as we've had."
Grit and character are traits that have defined this Wake Forest team, one that was forged by sharp talent evaluation and nurtured by rampant redshirting.
There are just 11 scholarship non-freshman on the Wake Forest roster who haven't sat through a redshirt season, and the two-deep depth chart features 22 players with four-or-more years of experience in the program.
That experience seems to pay off in clutch situations.
"Geez. This might not happen tonight," Clawson said he felt nearly 10 times during the game Saturday night.
"Our kids just never listened to those voices, and I'm just so incredibly proud of them."
This is also a group of players that Clawson and his staff have personally chosen to play for and represent Wake Forest. The nine redshirt seniors on the roster experienced the 3-9 campaign during Clawson's second year at the helm in 2015 and have been a part of the Demon Deacon resurgence that now has them bowl eligible for a program-record fourth-straight season.
"I'm emotionally spent right now, which I usually don't get," Clawson said with his voice cracking as emotions swelled. "That was just such a hard, gritty win.
"This is certainly up there, of all the teams I've coached, I don't know if I've ever felt better about the overall character of a football team. We have so many kids who love football that I trust. We've had other great teams, but if you go from one-to-107 (players), just the overall character of this football team is different."
Clawson said the season is quite a grind on the staff and the players, especially considering the academic rigor at Wake Forest, but the high moments make it worth the effort.
"The football season is hard," he said. "We work everyday and the days are long. It's a grind."
It's tough to find time to relish to the special moments Clawson said, like breaking through for the first win over Florida State in eight years.
"When you have a group like this you have to enjoy it, but sometimes it's hard to enjoy another 80-hour week," Clawson said. "But when you get in that locker room and see that celebration, and see how happy those kids are, it makes all the time and investment worth it.
"If we'd lost today, I'd still feel the same about the character of our team. That's not conditional or transactional. I think these results happen because of our character, but if we lost that doesn't change the character of our team."
The downpour conditions were new. What wasn't different was watching their beloved Deacs take another contest down to the wire.
"What a great college football game," Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said after the victory. "I think both teams played well, and it came down to the last minute. Once again, this week we found a way to win and I'm proud of our guys."
The 'once again' is appropriate, as Wake has now been in five one-score contests this season, coming away with a win in four of them. Each of the last three games this season have been decided by a field goal or less.
"Our team just refused to give up and continued to find a way to win," Clawson said. "Those games can go either way. What a great win."
Clawson claimed those games can go either way, but they haven't recently. The Deacs are now 13-4 in games decided by seven points or fewer since the start of the 2016 season.
"It was a great team win," Clawson said Saturday. "I'm very proud of our team. We've had some good wins here over the last three-to-four years, but I think that was as gritty of a win as we've had."
Grit and character are traits that have defined this Wake Forest team, one that was forged by sharp talent evaluation and nurtured by rampant redshirting.
There are just 11 scholarship non-freshman on the Wake Forest roster who haven't sat through a redshirt season, and the two-deep depth chart features 22 players with four-or-more years of experience in the program.
That experience seems to pay off in clutch situations.
"Geez. This might not happen tonight," Clawson said he felt nearly 10 times during the game Saturday night.
"Our kids just never listened to those voices, and I'm just so incredibly proud of them."
This is also a group of players that Clawson and his staff have personally chosen to play for and represent Wake Forest. The nine redshirt seniors on the roster experienced the 3-9 campaign during Clawson's second year at the helm in 2015 and have been a part of the Demon Deacon resurgence that now has them bowl eligible for a program-record fourth-straight season.
"I'm emotionally spent right now, which I usually don't get," Clawson said with his voice cracking as emotions swelled. "That was just such a hard, gritty win.
"This is certainly up there, of all the teams I've coached, I don't know if I've ever felt better about the overall character of a football team. We have so many kids who love football that I trust. We've had other great teams, but if you go from one-to-107 (players), just the overall character of this football team is different."
Clawson said the season is quite a grind on the staff and the players, especially considering the academic rigor at Wake Forest, but the high moments make it worth the effort.
"The football season is hard," he said. "We work everyday and the days are long. It's a grind."
It's tough to find time to relish to the special moments Clawson said, like breaking through for the first win over Florida State in eight years.
"When you have a group like this you have to enjoy it, but sometimes it's hard to enjoy another 80-hour week," Clawson said. "But when you get in that locker room and see that celebration, and see how happy those kids are, it makes all the time and investment worth it.
"If we'd lost today, I'd still feel the same about the character of our team. That's not conditional or transactional. I think these results happen because of our character, but if we lost that doesn't change the character of our team."
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