Deacon Sports Xtra: A New Mindset for 2022
8/2/2022 11:33:00 AM | Football, Les Johns
“We've got to remain humble and yet stay hungry and never ever be satisfied with where we're at.” - Head Coach Dave Clawson
Wake Forest Football made the leap from "Good to Great" in 2021, capturing a program-record tying 11 wins along with an ACC Atlantic Division Championship and Gator Bowl victory over Rutgers.
Mission accomplished, right?
"Enjoy the moment, but don't get lost in it," Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson has told his squad as they enter 2022 focused on "Mindset."
The Demon Deacons are likely to be nationally ranked as the 2022 season begins and multiple players have already been recognized on preseason award watch lists. Clawson said it's important to present new challenges and goals to his team, and to ensure that they prepare in much the same way this season as they have in previous seasons when they've been incorrectly projected as cellar dwellers in the conference.
"As much as we enjoyed last year's success, we're still driven," Clawson said during last week's ACC Kickoff event at the Charlotte Westin. "You want to get better and improve. There's never a time in this profession anymore where you can take a deep breath and look back and reflect on what's happened. You're worried if you do that, you're going to become complacent. We don't want to do that in our program.
"We're proud of the way we've grown the program and the Wake Forest brand. People are just wired to be competitive or they're not. I'm not wired to look back, reflect and relax. Our staff isn't and our football team isn't."
The breakout interview room showed a marked increase of activity around Clawson and the trio of players (Sam Hartman, Rondell Bothroyd and Michael Jurgens) who made the trip to ACC Kickoff last week, as six-straight bowl appearances and last year's Atlantic Division championship displayed that Wake Forest is no longer considered an ACC afterthought.
"Every year, we come to these media days and people have low expectations of us, and we never let that dictate how we went about our weekly process or our preparation," Clawson explained about this year's focus. "We had confidence that we could be a good football team, maybe despite what people on the outside thought. Now that people have a different perception of us, we welcome that, but it can't change the way that we operate. It can't change our mindset and the way that we go about our daily tasks and our preparation.
"We've got to remain humble and yet stay hungry and never ever be satisfied with where we're at, and with the leadership that we have here today, I'm very comfortable and confident that that will happen."
That focus starts with Sam Hartman, the returning starting quarterback and potential Heisman Trophy Candidate, who returned for one final season under center after throwing for more than 4,000 yards while scoring a mind-boggling 50 touchdowns a season ago.
"That mindset for us is consistency," Hartman said at ACC Kickoff. "Last year, we pushed ourselves as hard as we could, and ended up coming a little short at the end of the year, but we have other steps. Like A.T. Perry has another step in his game. Donavon Greene has another step. Blake Whiteheart has another step. I believe Michael Jurgens has another step. I believe myself and Justice Ellison (have another step). It goes across the board even on defense as well.
"That's one of our biggest pushes is, can we be consistent, but can we also make a stride? Preseason rankings? Whatever. Hope they rank us 12th or 13th, 14th, 15th. Maybe they don't put us there. That would be nice because that's where we live."
The Deacs are once again stacked offensively, returning between eight and 11 starters, depending on how you choose to count guys like Blake Whiteheart, who was in an equal time split a season ago with Brandon Chapman; and guys like Je'Vionte Nash and Donavon Greene, who were starters in 2020 before missing last season because of injuries.
Clawson is looking for consistency on defense this season, and hired Brad Lambert to return to Winston-Salem as defensive coordinator to make the changes needed to accomplish that task.
"I'm excited to play in the fall," said defensive end Rondell Bothroyd. "I'm just excited to just be able to go and not really think about having to play on the line of scrimmage.
"We're going to be really aggressive this year, so hopefully we can have more turnovers than that, which 29 is a lot, but just being more aggressive will have more teams on the edge of not wanting to turn it over, which helps a lot."
The season kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1 against VMI at Truist Field on ACC Network. Clawson and his team are hopeful to continue the positive momentum of student engagement that saw roughly 90 percent of the student body show up for the climatic 45-42 victory over NC State last November.
"The engagement level was incredible," Clawson said. "That's one of the unique aspects of coaching at Wake Forest. When you are such a small school and a smart school, our players know these other students. They go to class with them. They live with them. The engagement gave us energy. I think it brought value to the entire university.
"My hope is the students had such a good time last year coming to our games, celebrating with our team after games that now that just becomes part of their habit and part of their social experience and being a student at Wake Forest, that you go to football games."
Mission accomplished, right?
"Enjoy the moment, but don't get lost in it," Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson has told his squad as they enter 2022 focused on "Mindset."
The Demon Deacons are likely to be nationally ranked as the 2022 season begins and multiple players have already been recognized on preseason award watch lists. Clawson said it's important to present new challenges and goals to his team, and to ensure that they prepare in much the same way this season as they have in previous seasons when they've been incorrectly projected as cellar dwellers in the conference.
"As much as we enjoyed last year's success, we're still driven," Clawson said during last week's ACC Kickoff event at the Charlotte Westin. "You want to get better and improve. There's never a time in this profession anymore where you can take a deep breath and look back and reflect on what's happened. You're worried if you do that, you're going to become complacent. We don't want to do that in our program.
"We're proud of the way we've grown the program and the Wake Forest brand. People are just wired to be competitive or they're not. I'm not wired to look back, reflect and relax. Our staff isn't and our football team isn't."
The breakout interview room showed a marked increase of activity around Clawson and the trio of players (Sam Hartman, Rondell Bothroyd and Michael Jurgens) who made the trip to ACC Kickoff last week, as six-straight bowl appearances and last year's Atlantic Division championship displayed that Wake Forest is no longer considered an ACC afterthought.
"Every year, we come to these media days and people have low expectations of us, and we never let that dictate how we went about our weekly process or our preparation," Clawson explained about this year's focus. "We had confidence that we could be a good football team, maybe despite what people on the outside thought. Now that people have a different perception of us, we welcome that, but it can't change the way that we operate. It can't change our mindset and the way that we go about our daily tasks and our preparation.
"We've got to remain humble and yet stay hungry and never ever be satisfied with where we're at, and with the leadership that we have here today, I'm very comfortable and confident that that will happen."
That focus starts with Sam Hartman, the returning starting quarterback and potential Heisman Trophy Candidate, who returned for one final season under center after throwing for more than 4,000 yards while scoring a mind-boggling 50 touchdowns a season ago.
"That mindset for us is consistency," Hartman said at ACC Kickoff. "Last year, we pushed ourselves as hard as we could, and ended up coming a little short at the end of the year, but we have other steps. Like A.T. Perry has another step in his game. Donavon Greene has another step. Blake Whiteheart has another step. I believe Michael Jurgens has another step. I believe myself and Justice Ellison (have another step). It goes across the board even on defense as well.
"That's one of our biggest pushes is, can we be consistent, but can we also make a stride? Preseason rankings? Whatever. Hope they rank us 12th or 13th, 14th, 15th. Maybe they don't put us there. That would be nice because that's where we live."
The Deacs are once again stacked offensively, returning between eight and 11 starters, depending on how you choose to count guys like Blake Whiteheart, who was in an equal time split a season ago with Brandon Chapman; and guys like Je'Vionte Nash and Donavon Greene, who were starters in 2020 before missing last season because of injuries.
Clawson is looking for consistency on defense this season, and hired Brad Lambert to return to Winston-Salem as defensive coordinator to make the changes needed to accomplish that task.
"I'm excited to play in the fall," said defensive end Rondell Bothroyd. "I'm just excited to just be able to go and not really think about having to play on the line of scrimmage.
"We're going to be really aggressive this year, so hopefully we can have more turnovers than that, which 29 is a lot, but just being more aggressive will have more teams on the edge of not wanting to turn it over, which helps a lot."
The season kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 1 against VMI at Truist Field on ACC Network. Clawson and his team are hopeful to continue the positive momentum of student engagement that saw roughly 90 percent of the student body show up for the climatic 45-42 victory over NC State last November.
"The engagement level was incredible," Clawson said. "That's one of the unique aspects of coaching at Wake Forest. When you are such a small school and a smart school, our players know these other students. They go to class with them. They live with them. The engagement gave us energy. I think it brought value to the entire university.
"My hope is the students had such a good time last year coming to our games, celebrating with our team after games that now that just becomes part of their habit and part of their social experience and being a student at Wake Forest, that you go to football games."
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