What They Are Saying: Cal

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Following their second bye week of the season, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons return home to Allegacy Stadium this week to take on the California Golden Bears on Friday, Nov. 8, with kickoff scheduled for 8 p.m. The game will also be streamed live on the 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
"We beat Stanford, and it was very similar to UConn. We had a chance to put it away, but we let them hang in there. For the 18th time, as I told our team in the first meeting, we're going to have a lot of one-score games. I'm proud of our guys; we found a way to win, but I still think we haven't played a full 60-minute game yet. Now, we're going to transition quickly. In transitioning to Cal, we have to play better. This football team, it's not hyperbole to say they are just two missed field goals and a questionable call in a red-zone drive away from being undefeated. In the games they've won, they've done so decisively. They had a really impressive performance against Oregon State. What's even more impressive to me is when a team loses a bunch of games in a row and then figures out how to turn it around; that's a sign of a good coach and a good program. Justin (Wilcox) is a really good coach defensively. They have the number two defense in the conference and the number one scoring defense, giving up only 17 points a game. Their rush defense is allowing under 100 yards a game on the ground, and they're incredible at taking the ball away. They've forced 18 turnovers, ranking fourth in the country in turnover margin. Across the board, they're just good players. They have a Notre Dame transfer playing nose guard; Aidan (Keanaaina), he's 6'3", 320 pounds, and does a great job of keeping people off the linebackers. (Xavier) Carlton, their defensive end, has seven sacks. He's 6'6", 275 pounds and is an excellent pass rusher. Their linebacker, Teddye Buchanan, is a transfer from UC Davis and has 77 tackles. On film, this secondary might be the best we've faced. They are really, really good. Every week, we present to our team the top four players on offense and defense, and literally, there was a discussion about their secondary; we could have chosen any one of their four guys. They play press coverage, and people don't get open against them. They're multiple on defense and give you a bunch of different looks. They are sound, really well-coached, and very talented. I would rank them defensively right up there with Ole Miss and Clemson. Offensively, they are an improving team. They're a little younger on that side of the ball, starting nine seniors and one junior, but quarterback (Fernando) Mendoza is a good player at 6'5", 225 pounds. He completes about 70% of his passes and takes care of the football; he has only thrown three picks this year. Tailback Jaydn Ott has been banged up a bit, but entering the season, they were excited about his return. He was a draft pick last year, rushed for over 1300 yards, and was first-team All-PAC-12 in 2023; he's a difference-maker for them. Their tight end is their leading receiver, and they have another tight end, number 10, who reminds me of the guy at NC State. He's listed as a tight end, but if they suspect you're in man coverage, they'll split him out wide. If you put a linebacker on him, they're going to throw him the ball; he's a matchup problem. Their receivers are good, and their offensive line has 121 career starts, though many aren't at Cal. They've got some transfers in there and a really good center from Coastal Carolina. It's a good football team. You can always look at the extremes of it; right now, we could be sitting here at 6-2, or we could be at 1-7. In the ACC this year, there are a bunch of teams in the middle. We're all about the same, and whatever team is most excited to be there and executes best is going to win. This should be a very competitive game, and we're excited to be on the ACC Network in prime time against a really good Cal football team."

On being 4-4 at this time last year and if it feels different this year
"I talked about this last year during the bye week with our team. I asked, 'What was our record last year after eight games?' And of course, considering the current generation, their idea of history is something that happened two weeks ago. Nobody had any idea what our record was last year after eight games. I told them, 'Guys, we were 4-4 last year after eight games.' This feels different. Last year, it felt like we were a 4-4 team that was descending, while this feels like a 4-4 team that is ascending. We had a really good October. However, if you look at how we finish schedule-wise, there aren't too many experts picking the Deacs to go 4-0. There are some really tough football games we have in November, and all these teams are playing well. It starts with Cal; obviously, Carolina, Miami, and Duke are all doing well. Carolina has turned their season around. Miami is undefeated, and Duke is having a great season. We just have to get to five wins before we can think about six. Getting to five is going to be a challenge this week with Cal. This is our ninth game, and I would certainly rank them among the top three or four teams we've played. If you look at their NC State game and compare it to ours, these are all likely to be one-score games. I hope so. I hope this becomes a close fourth-quarter game, and I'd like to see us take the step of playing a complete 60-minute football game. I still don't feel like we've done that. We've done enough to stay in games but haven't consistently found a way to win. In some of these recent games, mainly the last two, if we had played a full 60 minutes, they wouldn't have come down to a call or an interception. So, what I'm really looking for is more consistency on both sides of the football."
On if the team listens to him too well in terms of keeping the games decided by one-score
"If you look at our football team this year, I felt good about the front returning. I knew we would be challenged in the secondary. Because of that, if we did get leads and a team had to throw to come back on us, that might be problematic. It was earlier in the season, but that unit has gotten a lot better. I knew we'd struggle with that early on because it was essentially almost a whole new secondary. I give those guys a lot of credit. I don't know if you noticed who we started with at corner, we got to Stanford already down Capone and Trayvon West. The night before the game, Jamare Glasker got a fever, and if you have a fever, you can't play. Then I was told he was better and good to go, but the morning of the game, he had a fever again. We thought we had CD (Kelly) back; he practiced all week, but when he went out there, he was limping around. So, with only five minutes' notice, Zamari (Stevenson), you're starting at corner, and he had been playing nickel. Jaxon (Mull) basically had to play the whole game."
On how his younger players held up against Stanford
"They really did. I was so proud of them, I really was. I took a deep breath when I saw the Stanford coaches looking down at us, wondering, 'Where are your starters?' Those guys held up really well. They stayed on top of routes. Zamari played well, Jaxon played well. Even Juju (William Tackie) got in there and made a play. I was really proud of those guys. But again, I've coached for 36 years. I know the seasons when you go in and say, 'Let's just hope we don't screw this up.' I've gone into seasons and years thinking, 'You know what? We have a shot, but it's going to be a very thin margin of error, and we're going to live on that edge all year.' I knew this season would be one of those years.
On what he knows about the team that he didn't a couple months ago
"Number one, we have a quarterback. That was the big question mark for us the whole year. As much as I told you in spring football and fall camp that they looked great, I know you guys were rolling your eyes, thinking, 'Yeah, we've heard that before.' What Hank has done is stabilize our offense, no quarterback is perfect, but some of the plays he's made with his feet and his competitiveness have really helped. I believed that Demond Claiborne had a chance to be one of the best backs we've ever had here, and that's proven to be true. I would love it if at some point we could get Donavon Greene healthy. If we had had a healthy Donavon Greene all year, I believe he could have contributed at least one more win than what we currently have. Hopefully, we'll get him back during the stretch. I expected our offensive line to be good, and we're running the ball much better. Defensively, the transfer that has really made a difference for us—you don't know what transfers you're going to get until you have them—is Branson Combs. He's been a great fit; he's really productive, and we're a much better defense when he's on the field. I hope I answered your question. I expected our O-line to be solid, and they have been. Demond could be special, and he is. Some of our younger receivers, like Deuce, Micah, and Horatio, are playing for the first time. Taylor Morin has had a great year. Our defensive front has been solid, and Branson has solidified the linebacker position. Nick Andersen has had a great season for us, showing excellent body control and open-field tackling. I was very concerned about our corner position from the start; it hurt us in September, but it improved in October, and we need those guys to continue performing well in November."
On Taylor Morin producing on special teams
"We hired a new special teams analyst, Chris Monfiletto, and he basically runs that unit for us. You have to give him some credit; he has done a phenomenal job with that unit. This is the best we've been at punt return in my 11 years here, and a lot of it has to do with Taylor, but the coaching of that unit, led by Chris, has been outstanding. He puts together really good game plans, does a great job of teaching, and has gotten buy-in from the players. Taylor is averaging over 17 yards per return, and that's why he came back—he wanted to prove he was an elite punt returner. The other thing is that Taylor, because of injuries, is playing outside receiver again. Last week, we gave a couple of our outside receivers chances to make contested catches, and the one who did was the shortest of the group, which shows you his experience. The week before at Connecticut, he caught a snag route that went for 40 yards. So, it would be great to have everyone healthy, but Taylor has certainly stepped up for us in a big way, especially as a punt returner."
On having the bye week to reset after the west coast trip
"It was really important after the trip out west. I don't know how these teams are doing that trip four times. We didn't feel recovered until Tuesday or Wednesday, that trip was hard. Going out there is easy because you get the extra three hours, but after a football game, it's basically a red-eye flight back, and nobody really sleeps. Your whole body clock is messed up for two or three days. I really do feel for those teams. Any time you come back from a West Coast trip, I hope we always have a bye week afterward because I couldn't imagine having to turn around and play again. Going out there early probably benefited the staff and radio crew as much as it did our football team."
On how they're addressing the portal in terms of potential of guys leaving after this season, with still four games left and some being contacted already
"As I mentioned in our last press conference, we have a number of players who have already been contacted by other schools. That's the reality of college football right now. During the bye week, we held meetings with every player on the team—not me personally, but we had a staff member lead those discussions—to get a feel for how they liked it here, whether they would like to come back, what they are looking for in terms of a role, and what their expectations are. We wanted them to know that we're not ignoring this just because other schools may be making offers. We are going to implement revenue sharing here, and that is coming, but we don't want to start those discussions until the season is over. I didn't want the players to think that we're not addressing it at all. We also didn't want to get into too much detail, as that might become further distracting. The approach was to let the players know we aren't ignoring the situation. The second the season is over, we'll meet with every single player individually to explain what we are able to do and what we are not able to do. Then they'll have a few days to decide whether they want to enter the portal or not. I believe there should be a way in college football to keep the season sacred. It's concerning that our players are being contacted by other schools when our season is only halfway over. This isn't what they work all year for; however, I understand if you're 18-20 years old and some of these money figures are being thrown at them, you can't blame them for wanting to listen and find out more about it. I say this often: keep the main thing the main thing. The better you play, and the better we play, your value will only increase, whether that's at Wake Forest or somewhere else. We are committed to this, and we haven't had a player say, 'Four games, I'm done.' I'm proud of that. Many schools are facing that issue, but nobody at Wake Forest has done that. We're committed to finishing this season the right way, and if they have opportunities to go to other places and make significantly more money, there's nothing we can do about that right now. That's something they can pursue in a month. I'm not naive enough to think that it isn't a distraction; we just try to keep it to a minimum.
On how he believes the ACC should be represented in the College Football Playoff
"I was much more excited about these announcements four years ago, three years ago, and two years ago when we were in those polls. That's where I want to be. I want to be looking at that poll, wanting to know where Wake Forest stands, not where the other ACC schools are. I hope we can get two schools into the playoffs; there's a path for that to happen. I remember in 2021 and 2022, I looked forward to those shows because I knew the name Wake Forest would pop up. It's hard for me to watch those announcements right now knowing that we're not even in that conversation. That bothers me. My goal for our program is that once you get there, you don't want to be left out again. Right now, we're not there, and that bothers me every single day."

Junior Offensive Lineman Luke Petitbon
On the bye week
"Coach Clawson and the whole sports medicine staff did a great job of setting up the bye week to prepare us and get us ready the best we can for this coming week. They did a really good job at that. Guys are feeling fresh. Talking to a lot of guys at practice they're saying that this is the best their legs have felt for a Monday practice all season. They did a great job preparing us for this week. We talk about being the freshest team every week and that the way we did our bye week sets us up to achieve that goal."

On wanting to keep playing following back-to-back road games
"I mean, we did have some momentum going, which was nice. But, a lot of the guys in the team would say the same thing that no matter how much momentum you have, sometimes when you play five games in a row and your bodies kind of feel like I can't keep doing this, a bye week is nice. Even though we have momentum, it's not like we can't keep the momentum going into this week and it was nice to get a reset on both you mental and physical health"

On playing on Friday
"I don't know the last time we played on Friday, but I'm sure it will feel weird. Playing on Friday might bring back some nostalgia and good memories from back in the day, so that will be cool."

On the red zone offense
"I feel like a lot of it isn't even necessarily x's and o's. That recently we've gotten out of the red zone and we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties and stuff like that, especially last week against Stanford. The bye week was a good chance to look back at those plays and see what we can do to avoid penalties like that in the red zone. Penalties were a big thing and we've been attacking it. We'll be excited to get out there and hopefully put the red zone issues to bed."
On how different it feels from last year heading into November
"Last year, we started off beating three kind of alright teams, and then after that we kind of hit a roadblock and kind of fell off. It felt like last year at times that we weren't really an ascending football team, but that this year, from the way we played in October, we've been an ascending football team, which is a good feeling. All the guys on the team know that we've been getting better every week. There's this feeling that we're not even at our maximum potential yet. Going into November with a lot of games that are important, like the Big Four and games to help us get bowl eligible, it feels good to be an ascending football team."

On California
"When you watch their film, especially up front, they're big and they're strong. They got a bunch of old, seasoned, big defensive lineman that do a good job of doing their job. I respect them from what I've watched. They do a good job playing the run and that when you watch them play, they don't look like a team that would be 0-4 in the ACC, they look like one of the better teams in the conference. They'll probably be one of the better d-lines and defenses we play all year. It's a great challenge and I have all the respect in the world for those guys."

Redshirt Junior Linebacker Dylan Hazen
On California
"I mean, they're just as good as any other team we've played. They should be in the top half of the ACC. The last three or four games that they've lost they've only lost by a total of nine points. They lost by a point to Miami, a few points to two other teams, they missed a field goal. In terms of skill, they're up there in the top half of the ACC and we have to treat them just like we're treating teams like NC State or even Clemson. They're still a really good team and on Friday we're going to match up very evenly with them."

On the margin for error in the ACC this season
"There's not a whole lot of disparity in the ACC right now. The margin for error is definitely little and every single game is going to be a fourth quarter battle. You have to battle it out. It's like a last round knockout type fight. It's gritty, it's bloody, but it's fun though."

On how he feels heading into Friday's game
" I mean, we have confidence. We won three out of four in October. To have that momentum going into November is good. We are in the same spot as last year, but this year just feels different. The environment around us this year is different. Everyone's more confident. I feel like, going into these next four games, hopefully you win two of them or maybe win all four of them. But, it's a one week season, so we're just focusing on Cal this week and having those wins under our belt and having that momentum going into November is going to help a lot with not only our confidence, but also how we execute, how we believe in each other, and our total chemistry as a whole. It's a lot easier to keep winning when you've already won rather than trying to turn the tide around a little bit."

On the defense's improvement throughout the season
"Experience plays a part. They've been in those roles more. On the back end we have a little bit of a younger crowd, but I feel like they've started to create their own identity. They create their own personality a little bit, so that's helped them out a lot. Up front, with us continuing to put pressure on the quarterback, trying to disrupt him, and creating that havoc, we've gotten better. Coach Lambo has been trying to hit at that. I feel like as a group effort, as we're playing on, we're coming closer and becoming more confident and I feel like that's aligning us to play more clean football and execute better and execute faster. That's kind of helping us perform at the standard that we believe we should have been at all year."

On playing on Friday night
"I love playing on Friday nights. I just love playing night games in general. The atmosphere at night games is amazing."

Junior Running Back Demond Claiborne
On being told he couldn't go back in vs Stanford
"It was tough. After the game I was upset for a little bit, but Coach Hunt has a great way of coming up to me and told me, 'There were games Michael Jordan had to play more defense than he scored'. That kind of helped me put things into perspective because not being on the field and not being the guy that makes that play definitely sucks. But we got the win, and that's all that matters. Now we're focused on Cal, which is a great team. If you look at their schedule, they lose close football games and they have a tough defense that stops the run. We have a big challenge in front of us, but I'm not really stretching it, just taking it day by day. Once Friday comes around, we'll just play ball."

On what goes through his mind facing a tough defense like Cal
"I'm super excited for a game like this. Going into a lot of other games, we thought we weren't going to be able to run the ball and Coach Hunt told us it was going to be hard. In every way it has been hard, but you know me, I'm not really stressed out or worried. I'm just wanting to go out there and play ball and have fun but this is a great defense. I want to say they're the No. 2 defense in the ACC, so this is a great team. If you look at their record, they lose close football games and that's something we've gotten better at executing on, that is winning those close football games. We just need to continue to stay on the path that we're on, and we want to win in November."

On the nostalgia that playing on Friday night brings
"I have some memories, definitely. We kicked off at 7:30 p.m. in high school, so 30 minutes later really isn't too bad. I'm definitely excited for that and ready to go out there. I try not to live too much on my high school stuff anymore but the opportunity to play on a Friday night doesn't come forever so getting the opportunity to do that this week is something I'm looking forward to."

On keeping the focus in this era of college athletics
"I've never been a guy that really listens to that kind of stuff. When I come to work, I come to work. Last week, we had meetings with our coaches about plans for next year and certain things like that. Like I told [the coaches] in my meeting, my biggest focus right now is winning in November and being successful in these next couple of games. When that decision time comes in December, I will definitely make one then but as of right now I'm happy where I'm at, I'm having a great year, and I'm being successful. As long as I continue to stay healthy and continue to strive to be the best player on the field and being the best player I can be, next year I wouldn't be surprised to run it back with the Deacs. This game is so cool because now players have the power to keep coaches on their toes. You never want to make a quick decision, but I love it here. I'm excited where I'm at and I'm excited to continue to grow with these guys and be who I can be."

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Nick Andersen

Demond Claiborne

Branson Combs

Jamare Glasker

Donavon Greene

Dylan Hazen

Taylor Morin

Luke Petitbon

Wake Forest Athletics