What They Are Saying: Stanford
10/24/2024 9:22:00 AM | Football
Hear what the Demon Deacons are saying going into the Stanford game on Saturday.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Following their 23-20 road victory against Connecticut last Saturday, the Demon Deacons will be back on the road as the team travels to take on the Stanford Cardinal on Saturday, Oct. 26, with kickoff scheduled for 3:30 p.m. The game will also be streamed live on ACC Network.
Ahead of their matchup, the Deacs met with the media to discuss the matchup and the other news around the Wake Forest program.
Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening statement…
"Just wrapping up the UConn game, that was certainly good to get a win and I always want our players to celebrate in the moment. When you watch the film, we certainly did good things. The highlight of the day was our defensive effort against the run and holding them to 40 yards. I thought for the most part we covered them well. [UConn] was the team averaging 450 yards and we held to about 300. In my mind, that game never should have come down to a three point game in the fourth quarter. That's a game that we should have won by 17 or 21 points. Our lack of production in the red zone. We had the ball in the red zone six times and only had two touchdowns. We missed a field goal and we threw a pick before the half, we just left so many points on the board. When you out gain a team by close to a hundred yards, have the ball 10 more minutes in them, run 11 more plays, make six more first downs, it should not be a three point game, it should be a 17-point game. On Monday, again, we always congratulate our players and we're going to enjoy wins. However, that thing almost became a loss because of things that we didn't do to close out the game. For example, with six minutes left, we were up 10 points and we allowed an 88 yard drive. The defense had a chance to put it away, then the offense got the ball back and went three and out. They had a chance to put it away. If we don't close games and put ourselves at risk, we're going to have some of these other games that we don't end up on the right end of a one score game. At our first team meeting, I sat here and every player and staff member was here. I said, 'I'm going to be surprised this year if we don't have at least eight one-score games'. Our ability to execute a two-minute drive on offense or stop a two-minute drive on defense is really going to determine whether we're an eight-win team or a four-win team. I just kind of gave a range of wins – I don't know if those were the exact numbers I used – and that's proven true. Right now we've lost to the two top-10 teams, we have two one-score losses, and we have two one-score wins. If you look at our schedule, I would anticipate we'll have at least two, three, four, maybe five one-score games down the stretch. We've got to find ways to win them. I'm glad we found a way to win them, but in my mind, that never, ever should have been a one score game. We had a chance to close a team on the road and we didn't do it. I'm glad we found a way, but it should have been a more relaxing fourth quarter than it was. Moving on to Stanford. I've got to know Troy (Taylor) a little bit through ACC meetings. Guys that can win at lower levels for the most part, figure out a way to win at higher levels. He's building a program right now. There's been games over his two years there that they've played at a really high level, like their win against Colorado, and they were down 29. They had their win at Syracuse earlier in the year and they gave TCU a heck of a battle. They've got some good football players on both sides of the football and defense. They're older, they have 10 juniors and seniors. They've got some very dynamic defensive ends. We really like the linebacker Tristan Sinclair and the nickel Collin Wright we think is a really good player and they're an older veteran team. On offense, they're younger but they're talented. We're not sure what quarterback we're going to see. The older guy Ashton Daniels has really good feet and can run the ball. The receiver, Elic Ayomanor, could play anywhere in the country, he's 6-foot-2 210 pounds. He's an elite receiver and Troy's a really good offensive coach. He's the head coach, but he is also the offensive coordinator, I believe he coaches the quarterbacks. He's a very aggressive play caller. They'll go for it on fourth down, they've gone for it 24-25 times this year. For the first time in my time here, we're traveling to California and playing Stanford. For us to get a fourth win and to go out there and get that before the bye week is really important if we want to finish the way we want to finish. I'm sure in their mind this is a huge game as well. I look at Stanford as a good team with a hard schedule. Right now in college football, the way these conferences are now with so many teams, part of your season's success a little bit depends on your luck of the draw with the schedule. There's teams that are off to incredible starts and they're playing good football with their strength of schedule. There's other teams like Stanford, they've played Clemson. You look at their defensive numbers and they've played three of the best offenses in the country between Clemson, Syracuse and SMU. Sometimes your record is a function of what your schedule is. This is a good solid football team that it's going to be a very, very competitive game and we're going to have to play well."
On if this will be his first time coaching in California
"I believe so. I was told I was 15-1 in New England and I had no idea. I didn't know I had made 16 trips to New England in my head coaching career."
On it being something new and if the players have been looking forward to it
"For some of our players, they're excited to go out there. For some of them, they're very excited to go out to the West coast and see California for the first time. I'm really thankful that we have a bye afterwards. [Rutgers HC] Greg Schiano is a friend of mine. I really respect Greg Schiano as a football coach and after playing UCLA at home, they've got to go to USC and play on a Friday. I mean, that's crazy. Who possibly comes up with a schedule like that and says this is good for student athletes? I have this week — it's a normal week. We had a noon game at UConn, we got back fairly early. We'll fly out Thursday, we have a bye week afterwards, I'm good with it. You look at some of these schedules and we know why they're doing it, but there is an impact it's going to have on student athletes, their sleep, their mental health and their academics. Those discussions certainly aren't at the forefront when they discuss these things. We're fortunate we take one trip out there, that's great – I'm good with it. I feel for Stanford and Cal that have to come out here probably three times a year, it's going to take a toll on them."
On the decision to leave a day early (Thursday)
"I made that decision early in the year because another thing to consider with our schedule is you don't know when you're playing, sometimes until six days before, usually 12-13 days before. The logistics of getting out to California have to be planned in the summer, you have to get the plane early. My concern was if we ended up having a 7:30 p.m. or an 8:00 p.m. west coast kickoff time, you have to plan for that in case it is that way. I would want to get out there early and adjust to the time change. If I had known three or four months ago that it was a noon game, which is 3:30 p.m. EST, we maybe would go out there Friday, but you just don't know. My thought was let's go out there Thursday so we can adjust to the time change. Then we can get rid of the jet lag just in case it is a later game."
On if they will practice in Winston-Salem Thursday before flying out
"We practice here Thursday and then we'll fly out there. We get out there around five o'clock and we're doing all the research with sleep experts and you try to get them used to West Coast time the first night. It's probably less critical with a 12:30 p.m. PST kickoff than it would've been with a night kickoff."
On the need to put teams away in the fourth quarter
"There was that sinking feeling in my gut when we didn't get the touchdown. We kicked the field goal and I thought, 'here we go again'. In the Virginia game, we didn't put them away and we lost the game and in the Connecticut game we didn't put them away. The Louisiana game was different, we never had a lead in that game. I thought in the NC State game we did to them what Virginia did to us and what UConn almost did to us. We've taught our players every game, you have to go in every game expecting it to be a 60 minute, four quarter, one score game. Now at some point I'd appreciate it if it wouldn't be that way. I mean the old coach is going to be an early grave if we keep doing this. I told them if they really loved me that we'd find a way to win one of these games by 21 points so that I can smile in the fourth quarter. But that's not the nature of our league in our schedule. Even the group of five teams we've played this year have been good teams, Louisiana's 6-1 now and Connecticut was a good football team. They blew out Florida Atlantic, and Buffalo was having a good year and they blew them out. That's a good football team, they're very talented if you look at all the transfers that they had from Power five schools. Those guys played at those Power five schools, that was a very good roster and we knew that going in."
On the importance of not leaving the corners on islands
"You have to mix calls, you got to mix calls. During my first season, it was pretty easy to call defenses. We had Kevin Johnson and Bud Noel. We could play lockdown press quarters. All the variety came from what movement our blitz was running inside and now we don't have that luxury. That's on me. It's my job to recruit the players and have guys ready and all that. But, this is the hand we're dealt and so we have to change up looks. I will say this, Jamare Glasker is becoming a really good corner. He's playing at a high level. When the year started, I didn't know if we had one guy that could lock down and Jamare is playing really, really good football. I thought that was a heck of a play he had in the last play of the game to seal the win."
On the postgame handshake and conversation with UConn head coach Jim Mora
"First of all, after the game, he was extremely professional. I told him how much respect I had for the job he's done there and how quickly he's turned that team from last year to this year. He could not have been any nicer, any more professional. He knows I have nothing to do with the call. There's calls in games that sometimes go your way and sometimes don't. There's a bunch of calls in that game that I thought should have been called against us that didn't get called. Then maybe if we get those calls, it never comes down to that. If you watch the play, their kid grabbed our kid's face mask right before, so that could have been a pass interference. It also could have been a face mask because that face mask kind of drug Jamare to the play if you really freeze frame that. We will agree to disagree on that one, but he's a competitor and he wants to win. When you lose games like that, it hurts. Afterwards he was nothing but a complete professional and complimentary of us. I told him what a great job I thought he was doing and it didn't even come up. In my interaction with him, he was first class."
On if there's a different level of focus with his team right now on the road
"If you look at our road record right now, it's better than our home record. It's one of those things every year you look back on. When we first got here and we were struggling, we never won on the road. Then there was a big emphasis on being a great road team and lock in. Then we won on the road and we didn't win at home. There's no question when you're on the road, there's less distractions. Guys aren't worried about tickets as much or what are you doing after the game, they're there to play football. The other thing to consider is you don't travel the whole team, everybody on the trip is going to play. In a home game, we dress 115-120 guys and a third of them aren't going to get in the game unless we're up or down 30 points. Being on the road is a part of it, but another part of college football is having your home crowd and having your students involved. My favorite wins that we've had here for the most part are at home. Again, they're all good wins. I don't feel our losses at home had anything to do with being home or a lack of focus. We're getting better on defense. UConn was a team that averaged 450 yards and at the end of the day we stayed in our gaps and only missed five tackles the whole game. Usually if you miss under 10, you're going to win. I thought Evan Slocum played his best game he's ever played here as a safety. A healthy Branson Combs was a difference maker for us. We also did some stupid things, like Branson's personal foul led to three points, Demond's little shimmy gave them the ball at midfield and led to a touchdown. We did some things to hurt ourselves in that game."
On if he saw Tony Bennett's press conference and his reaction to it
"Yeah, I did."
On if the positives still outweigh the negatives coaching football
"I mean I'm still coaching. I don't know Tony well but I know their athletic director Carla Williams very well and the world of her. She's smart, personable, and gets it. Tony's daughter went to Wake Forest and at ACC meetings I had a quick conversation with Tony. This is my 36th year coaching college football and the part of the job that I truly enjoy being with the players, being on the practice field, the relationships, the interactions, helping them get through hard times. There's no question that's becoming a smaller percentage. As coaches, we all deal with this scale of before it was like 90% enjoyment, 10% things that you didn't enjoy doing. With some people there becomes a tipping point of when all the stuff you don't enjoy doing outweighs the things you do enjoy doing. For some people that's when they decide that they've had enough. For me, the scale still tips, but there's still a lot more of it I enjoy than I don't. I would say that scale is a lot more even than it was 5-10 years ago. For example, just last week we were going to play our seventh game of the year. We're halfway through the season and our players are already getting poached. Their high school coaches are getting calls, their agents are getting calls and asking them: 'Are you happy? Is he thinking about going to the portal? If he does, what will it take to get him?' Even at 30, 40, 50 years old, those things are distracting. We had a player last week that got offered half a million dollars by another school. Can't the season be sacred? I understand with antitrust laws and all these different things that they're not employees and so you can't really regulate those things. However, you work all year for the season that we're not even halfway through it and we've got 19-21 year-old young men that are getting presented with these life-changing money opportunities. How do you keep them focused on the season?"
On the transfer window never really closing
"No, and what happens is that there's teams we play that say, 'hey, that guy's a good player, what year is he? Does anybody know him? Does anyone on the team know him? Let's call his high school coach. Is he happy there?' What 20-year-old is happy every day of the week, right? If he gets the call on the wrong day where his girlfriend said something mean to him, or he got a bad grade in the paper, he's going to be like, 'yeah, I'm not happy and this is what I need.'You got it. The best ones are the ones that tell you. If they tell you about it, you know they're telling you because they want to stay. The ones that don't tell you, I have no idea who those are. Again, it's the job, but that would be the part of the job on the scale that I don't enjoy. They have the freedom to go on the portal. They can get paid through name, image, likeness licensing fees. Can we not just keep the season sacred? In the NFL, if you do that, you get fined and lose draft picks and lose money. You can't do that in any other sport and in college athletics and it's really, it's two, it's college football and college basketball because we're the two revenue producers and that's where the money is. But I mean you're recruiting these guys 365 and at some point if you're going to be a good coach to them and make them better, you got to at times coach 'em hard. I mean I had a player last year that blew off a class. At Wake Forest you go to class, you go, our policy in the football team is you go to class, it's mandatory.
"That's why our team GPA is 3.26. That's why our graduation rate is the second highest in the country. I had a player tell me when I told him he had to go to class, he goes, 'well, if you're going to treat me that way, just send me the compliance now so I can go to the portal.' Now, if you want to go, that's not going to change here. As long as I'm the head coach, you're going to go to class, but we're doing this for your interest to help you get a degree that's going to last you for 40 years. This is part of my job. I accept that responsibility, but I love coaching football. I love being with our players. I love developing relationships. There's just a whole new dynamic to this that never existed before."
On keeping players focused on the season instead of the transfer portal
"I just say, guys, we still have five games left. Let's keep the main thing, the main thing and whatever success you have this year or whatever success we have this year will only make your situation better. At the end of the day, if you want to leave Wake Forest, that's an option you have. We will do anything we can that we're allowed to and capable of to keep you here. I mean, these are good kids and they're good people and they do care about our program. But if you're 20 years old and someone's calling you and says if you go in the portal, you're going to get half a million dollars. Nobody's ever offered that to me. If I was 19-20 years old, nobody would. That's why I was at Williams College in division three. Our coach would tell us all the time, the only time you're here is there is no division four.
"So these guys have options and opportunities to make money that most of us never had. I'm certainly not going to be critical of them. Our goal is to educate them and we've had a lot of instances where players leave and they are promised A, B, and C and they don't even get A, let alone B and C. That's why they can't be offered a contract before they go on the portal, and once they go on the portal, in the words of Tony Bennett, who I have great respect for, college athletics is just not in a healthy space right now."
Redshirt Senior Defensive Lineman Kevin Pointer
On the turnaround from UConn to Stanford
"Coach has a plan for us to leave on Thursday. He said that most of the teams that went out to Stanford and had success out there went out Thursday early. We're going to get adjusted to the time and we're just getting prepared and ready to face Stanford."
On playing away from home
"I guess it's something that's working, going away from home. Honestly, we're just a little bit more locked in going into away games. We're just trying to focus and lock in and make sure we come back with a win."
On bonding with the team during road trips
"Yeah. It is. We are on those long bus rides and plane rides with each other just getting to know each other better and different stuff like watching film together. I feel like it really helps being together more than you usually do in a normal week. In the week we watch film together, but not as much as we do when we get on the bus or on the plane. It's cool to just talk through things and get more prepared mentally on those trips."
On traveling to California
"It's going to be my first time. I'm excited to be in California, but I'm ready to get this win. The hotel that we are staying at is pretty nice, so I'm looking forward to that. We're right across from the 49ers stadium, so it's going to be fun to see how the atmosphere is out there and different stuff and just seeing a different state that I've never been to. It's going to be pretty good."
On preparing for Stanford and their two quarterbacks
"With this situation, it's like you're preparing for two different styles of quarterbacks. It is kind of a little tough. We don't know if we're going to get 14 who runs the ball like Lamar Jackson at times, or if we're going to get the pro-style quarterback they like to throw bombs. We are practicing for both and we'll see what goes on when the game comes."
Redshirt Sophomore Running Back Tate Carney
On going out to California for the first time
"I'm really excited for it. I'd say for the better half of our team it's probably the first time they'll ever be out there on the west coast."
On winning on the road
"There's a magic sauce. It's just that everybody is finally paying attention to the right details and it just so happens to be on the road. We're trying to win at home and we're going to get one these days."
On the focus levels when the team goes on the road
"Maybe there's that 'it's us against everybody else' kind of feeling that brings you closer together on the road, especially when you have other people hollering at you. It makes it a little bit more fun fighting for your brothers."
On the troubles finishing in the red zone against UConn
"It was just little things from all the positions. You know, we're so close and one person makes a mistake. I know I made a mistake on one third down and let up a sack that killed that drive. Fixing those little mistakes is what we got to do to get back to being good in the red zone. That we can be a great red zone team, but we've got to go out there and prove it."
Ahead of their matchup, the Deacs met with the media to discuss the matchup and the other news around the Wake Forest program.
Head Coach Dave Clawson
Opening statement…
"Just wrapping up the UConn game, that was certainly good to get a win and I always want our players to celebrate in the moment. When you watch the film, we certainly did good things. The highlight of the day was our defensive effort against the run and holding them to 40 yards. I thought for the most part we covered them well. [UConn] was the team averaging 450 yards and we held to about 300. In my mind, that game never should have come down to a three point game in the fourth quarter. That's a game that we should have won by 17 or 21 points. Our lack of production in the red zone. We had the ball in the red zone six times and only had two touchdowns. We missed a field goal and we threw a pick before the half, we just left so many points on the board. When you out gain a team by close to a hundred yards, have the ball 10 more minutes in them, run 11 more plays, make six more first downs, it should not be a three point game, it should be a 17-point game. On Monday, again, we always congratulate our players and we're going to enjoy wins. However, that thing almost became a loss because of things that we didn't do to close out the game. For example, with six minutes left, we were up 10 points and we allowed an 88 yard drive. The defense had a chance to put it away, then the offense got the ball back and went three and out. They had a chance to put it away. If we don't close games and put ourselves at risk, we're going to have some of these other games that we don't end up on the right end of a one score game. At our first team meeting, I sat here and every player and staff member was here. I said, 'I'm going to be surprised this year if we don't have at least eight one-score games'. Our ability to execute a two-minute drive on offense or stop a two-minute drive on defense is really going to determine whether we're an eight-win team or a four-win team. I just kind of gave a range of wins – I don't know if those were the exact numbers I used – and that's proven true. Right now we've lost to the two top-10 teams, we have two one-score losses, and we have two one-score wins. If you look at our schedule, I would anticipate we'll have at least two, three, four, maybe five one-score games down the stretch. We've got to find ways to win them. I'm glad we found a way to win them, but in my mind, that never, ever should have been a one score game. We had a chance to close a team on the road and we didn't do it. I'm glad we found a way, but it should have been a more relaxing fourth quarter than it was. Moving on to Stanford. I've got to know Troy (Taylor) a little bit through ACC meetings. Guys that can win at lower levels for the most part, figure out a way to win at higher levels. He's building a program right now. There's been games over his two years there that they've played at a really high level, like their win against Colorado, and they were down 29. They had their win at Syracuse earlier in the year and they gave TCU a heck of a battle. They've got some good football players on both sides of the football and defense. They're older, they have 10 juniors and seniors. They've got some very dynamic defensive ends. We really like the linebacker Tristan Sinclair and the nickel Collin Wright we think is a really good player and they're an older veteran team. On offense, they're younger but they're talented. We're not sure what quarterback we're going to see. The older guy Ashton Daniels has really good feet and can run the ball. The receiver, Elic Ayomanor, could play anywhere in the country, he's 6-foot-2 210 pounds. He's an elite receiver and Troy's a really good offensive coach. He's the head coach, but he is also the offensive coordinator, I believe he coaches the quarterbacks. He's a very aggressive play caller. They'll go for it on fourth down, they've gone for it 24-25 times this year. For the first time in my time here, we're traveling to California and playing Stanford. For us to get a fourth win and to go out there and get that before the bye week is really important if we want to finish the way we want to finish. I'm sure in their mind this is a huge game as well. I look at Stanford as a good team with a hard schedule. Right now in college football, the way these conferences are now with so many teams, part of your season's success a little bit depends on your luck of the draw with the schedule. There's teams that are off to incredible starts and they're playing good football with their strength of schedule. There's other teams like Stanford, they've played Clemson. You look at their defensive numbers and they've played three of the best offenses in the country between Clemson, Syracuse and SMU. Sometimes your record is a function of what your schedule is. This is a good solid football team that it's going to be a very, very competitive game and we're going to have to play well."
On if this will be his first time coaching in California
"I believe so. I was told I was 15-1 in New England and I had no idea. I didn't know I had made 16 trips to New England in my head coaching career."
On it being something new and if the players have been looking forward to it
"For some of our players, they're excited to go out there. For some of them, they're very excited to go out to the West coast and see California for the first time. I'm really thankful that we have a bye afterwards. [Rutgers HC] Greg Schiano is a friend of mine. I really respect Greg Schiano as a football coach and after playing UCLA at home, they've got to go to USC and play on a Friday. I mean, that's crazy. Who possibly comes up with a schedule like that and says this is good for student athletes? I have this week — it's a normal week. We had a noon game at UConn, we got back fairly early. We'll fly out Thursday, we have a bye week afterwards, I'm good with it. You look at some of these schedules and we know why they're doing it, but there is an impact it's going to have on student athletes, their sleep, their mental health and their academics. Those discussions certainly aren't at the forefront when they discuss these things. We're fortunate we take one trip out there, that's great – I'm good with it. I feel for Stanford and Cal that have to come out here probably three times a year, it's going to take a toll on them."
On the decision to leave a day early (Thursday)
"I made that decision early in the year because another thing to consider with our schedule is you don't know when you're playing, sometimes until six days before, usually 12-13 days before. The logistics of getting out to California have to be planned in the summer, you have to get the plane early. My concern was if we ended up having a 7:30 p.m. or an 8:00 p.m. west coast kickoff time, you have to plan for that in case it is that way. I would want to get out there early and adjust to the time change. If I had known three or four months ago that it was a noon game, which is 3:30 p.m. EST, we maybe would go out there Friday, but you just don't know. My thought was let's go out there Thursday so we can adjust to the time change. Then we can get rid of the jet lag just in case it is a later game."
On if they will practice in Winston-Salem Thursday before flying out
"We practice here Thursday and then we'll fly out there. We get out there around five o'clock and we're doing all the research with sleep experts and you try to get them used to West Coast time the first night. It's probably less critical with a 12:30 p.m. PST kickoff than it would've been with a night kickoff."
On the need to put teams away in the fourth quarter
"There was that sinking feeling in my gut when we didn't get the touchdown. We kicked the field goal and I thought, 'here we go again'. In the Virginia game, we didn't put them away and we lost the game and in the Connecticut game we didn't put them away. The Louisiana game was different, we never had a lead in that game. I thought in the NC State game we did to them what Virginia did to us and what UConn almost did to us. We've taught our players every game, you have to go in every game expecting it to be a 60 minute, four quarter, one score game. Now at some point I'd appreciate it if it wouldn't be that way. I mean the old coach is going to be an early grave if we keep doing this. I told them if they really loved me that we'd find a way to win one of these games by 21 points so that I can smile in the fourth quarter. But that's not the nature of our league in our schedule. Even the group of five teams we've played this year have been good teams, Louisiana's 6-1 now and Connecticut was a good football team. They blew out Florida Atlantic, and Buffalo was having a good year and they blew them out. That's a good football team, they're very talented if you look at all the transfers that they had from Power five schools. Those guys played at those Power five schools, that was a very good roster and we knew that going in."
On the importance of not leaving the corners on islands
"You have to mix calls, you got to mix calls. During my first season, it was pretty easy to call defenses. We had Kevin Johnson and Bud Noel. We could play lockdown press quarters. All the variety came from what movement our blitz was running inside and now we don't have that luxury. That's on me. It's my job to recruit the players and have guys ready and all that. But, this is the hand we're dealt and so we have to change up looks. I will say this, Jamare Glasker is becoming a really good corner. He's playing at a high level. When the year started, I didn't know if we had one guy that could lock down and Jamare is playing really, really good football. I thought that was a heck of a play he had in the last play of the game to seal the win."
On the postgame handshake and conversation with UConn head coach Jim Mora
"First of all, after the game, he was extremely professional. I told him how much respect I had for the job he's done there and how quickly he's turned that team from last year to this year. He could not have been any nicer, any more professional. He knows I have nothing to do with the call. There's calls in games that sometimes go your way and sometimes don't. There's a bunch of calls in that game that I thought should have been called against us that didn't get called. Then maybe if we get those calls, it never comes down to that. If you watch the play, their kid grabbed our kid's face mask right before, so that could have been a pass interference. It also could have been a face mask because that face mask kind of drug Jamare to the play if you really freeze frame that. We will agree to disagree on that one, but he's a competitor and he wants to win. When you lose games like that, it hurts. Afterwards he was nothing but a complete professional and complimentary of us. I told him what a great job I thought he was doing and it didn't even come up. In my interaction with him, he was first class."
On if there's a different level of focus with his team right now on the road
"If you look at our road record right now, it's better than our home record. It's one of those things every year you look back on. When we first got here and we were struggling, we never won on the road. Then there was a big emphasis on being a great road team and lock in. Then we won on the road and we didn't win at home. There's no question when you're on the road, there's less distractions. Guys aren't worried about tickets as much or what are you doing after the game, they're there to play football. The other thing to consider is you don't travel the whole team, everybody on the trip is going to play. In a home game, we dress 115-120 guys and a third of them aren't going to get in the game unless we're up or down 30 points. Being on the road is a part of it, but another part of college football is having your home crowd and having your students involved. My favorite wins that we've had here for the most part are at home. Again, they're all good wins. I don't feel our losses at home had anything to do with being home or a lack of focus. We're getting better on defense. UConn was a team that averaged 450 yards and at the end of the day we stayed in our gaps and only missed five tackles the whole game. Usually if you miss under 10, you're going to win. I thought Evan Slocum played his best game he's ever played here as a safety. A healthy Branson Combs was a difference maker for us. We also did some stupid things, like Branson's personal foul led to three points, Demond's little shimmy gave them the ball at midfield and led to a touchdown. We did some things to hurt ourselves in that game."
On if he saw Tony Bennett's press conference and his reaction to it
"Yeah, I did."
On if the positives still outweigh the negatives coaching football
"I mean I'm still coaching. I don't know Tony well but I know their athletic director Carla Williams very well and the world of her. She's smart, personable, and gets it. Tony's daughter went to Wake Forest and at ACC meetings I had a quick conversation with Tony. This is my 36th year coaching college football and the part of the job that I truly enjoy being with the players, being on the practice field, the relationships, the interactions, helping them get through hard times. There's no question that's becoming a smaller percentage. As coaches, we all deal with this scale of before it was like 90% enjoyment, 10% things that you didn't enjoy doing. With some people there becomes a tipping point of when all the stuff you don't enjoy doing outweighs the things you do enjoy doing. For some people that's when they decide that they've had enough. For me, the scale still tips, but there's still a lot more of it I enjoy than I don't. I would say that scale is a lot more even than it was 5-10 years ago. For example, just last week we were going to play our seventh game of the year. We're halfway through the season and our players are already getting poached. Their high school coaches are getting calls, their agents are getting calls and asking them: 'Are you happy? Is he thinking about going to the portal? If he does, what will it take to get him?' Even at 30, 40, 50 years old, those things are distracting. We had a player last week that got offered half a million dollars by another school. Can't the season be sacred? I understand with antitrust laws and all these different things that they're not employees and so you can't really regulate those things. However, you work all year for the season that we're not even halfway through it and we've got 19-21 year-old young men that are getting presented with these life-changing money opportunities. How do you keep them focused on the season?"
On the transfer window never really closing
"No, and what happens is that there's teams we play that say, 'hey, that guy's a good player, what year is he? Does anybody know him? Does anyone on the team know him? Let's call his high school coach. Is he happy there?' What 20-year-old is happy every day of the week, right? If he gets the call on the wrong day where his girlfriend said something mean to him, or he got a bad grade in the paper, he's going to be like, 'yeah, I'm not happy and this is what I need.'You got it. The best ones are the ones that tell you. If they tell you about it, you know they're telling you because they want to stay. The ones that don't tell you, I have no idea who those are. Again, it's the job, but that would be the part of the job on the scale that I don't enjoy. They have the freedom to go on the portal. They can get paid through name, image, likeness licensing fees. Can we not just keep the season sacred? In the NFL, if you do that, you get fined and lose draft picks and lose money. You can't do that in any other sport and in college athletics and it's really, it's two, it's college football and college basketball because we're the two revenue producers and that's where the money is. But I mean you're recruiting these guys 365 and at some point if you're going to be a good coach to them and make them better, you got to at times coach 'em hard. I mean I had a player last year that blew off a class. At Wake Forest you go to class, you go, our policy in the football team is you go to class, it's mandatory.
"That's why our team GPA is 3.26. That's why our graduation rate is the second highest in the country. I had a player tell me when I told him he had to go to class, he goes, 'well, if you're going to treat me that way, just send me the compliance now so I can go to the portal.' Now, if you want to go, that's not going to change here. As long as I'm the head coach, you're going to go to class, but we're doing this for your interest to help you get a degree that's going to last you for 40 years. This is part of my job. I accept that responsibility, but I love coaching football. I love being with our players. I love developing relationships. There's just a whole new dynamic to this that never existed before."
On keeping players focused on the season instead of the transfer portal
"I just say, guys, we still have five games left. Let's keep the main thing, the main thing and whatever success you have this year or whatever success we have this year will only make your situation better. At the end of the day, if you want to leave Wake Forest, that's an option you have. We will do anything we can that we're allowed to and capable of to keep you here. I mean, these are good kids and they're good people and they do care about our program. But if you're 20 years old and someone's calling you and says if you go in the portal, you're going to get half a million dollars. Nobody's ever offered that to me. If I was 19-20 years old, nobody would. That's why I was at Williams College in division three. Our coach would tell us all the time, the only time you're here is there is no division four.
"So these guys have options and opportunities to make money that most of us never had. I'm certainly not going to be critical of them. Our goal is to educate them and we've had a lot of instances where players leave and they are promised A, B, and C and they don't even get A, let alone B and C. That's why they can't be offered a contract before they go on the portal, and once they go on the portal, in the words of Tony Bennett, who I have great respect for, college athletics is just not in a healthy space right now."
Redshirt Senior Defensive Lineman Kevin Pointer
On the turnaround from UConn to Stanford
"Coach has a plan for us to leave on Thursday. He said that most of the teams that went out to Stanford and had success out there went out Thursday early. We're going to get adjusted to the time and we're just getting prepared and ready to face Stanford."
On playing away from home
"I guess it's something that's working, going away from home. Honestly, we're just a little bit more locked in going into away games. We're just trying to focus and lock in and make sure we come back with a win."
On bonding with the team during road trips
"Yeah. It is. We are on those long bus rides and plane rides with each other just getting to know each other better and different stuff like watching film together. I feel like it really helps being together more than you usually do in a normal week. In the week we watch film together, but not as much as we do when we get on the bus or on the plane. It's cool to just talk through things and get more prepared mentally on those trips."
On traveling to California
"It's going to be my first time. I'm excited to be in California, but I'm ready to get this win. The hotel that we are staying at is pretty nice, so I'm looking forward to that. We're right across from the 49ers stadium, so it's going to be fun to see how the atmosphere is out there and different stuff and just seeing a different state that I've never been to. It's going to be pretty good."
On preparing for Stanford and their two quarterbacks
"With this situation, it's like you're preparing for two different styles of quarterbacks. It is kind of a little tough. We don't know if we're going to get 14 who runs the ball like Lamar Jackson at times, or if we're going to get the pro-style quarterback they like to throw bombs. We are practicing for both and we'll see what goes on when the game comes."
Redshirt Sophomore Running Back Tate Carney
On going out to California for the first time
"I'm really excited for it. I'd say for the better half of our team it's probably the first time they'll ever be out there on the west coast."
On winning on the road
"There's a magic sauce. It's just that everybody is finally paying attention to the right details and it just so happens to be on the road. We're trying to win at home and we're going to get one these days."
On the focus levels when the team goes on the road
"Maybe there's that 'it's us against everybody else' kind of feeling that brings you closer together on the road, especially when you have other people hollering at you. It makes it a little bit more fun fighting for your brothers."
On the troubles finishing in the red zone against UConn
"It was just little things from all the positions. You know, we're so close and one person makes a mistake. I know I made a mistake on one third down and let up a sack that killed that drive. Fixing those little mistakes is what we got to do to get back to being good in the red zone. That we can be a great red zone team, but we've got to go out there and prove it."
Players Mentioned
RB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
DB
/ Football
DL
/ Football
DB
/ FootballWake Forest Head Coach Jake Dickert Weekly Press Conference (10/20/2025)
Monday, October 20
Wake Forest Postgame Press Conference vs. Virginia Tech (Oct. 4, 2025)
Monday, October 20
Coach Jake Dickert Postgame Press Conference vs. NC State (Sept. 11, 2025)
Monday, October 20
Coach Dickert Postgame Press Conference vs. Western Carolina (Sept. 6, 2025)
Monday, October 20