Wake Forest knows it faces a tough challenge against Tigers

The Tigers and Deacs had a double OT shootout last year in Winston-Salem, a 51-45 Clemson win.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Oct 05 07:00:06 GMT-04:00 2023

Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson says that Clemson fans love their Tigers, making Death Valley an intimidating place to play.

Clemson (3-2, 1-2), a 20.5-point favorite, plays host to Wake Forest (3-1, 0-1) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. on the ACC Network. The Demon Deacons committed five turnovers and lost 30-16 to Georgia Tech two weeks ago and had an open date last week.

This week doesn’t get easier with a trip to Death Valley.

“Memorial Stadium is always a great environment. It’s loud. Those fans love their Tigers,” Clawson said this week. “For us, it’s a great challenge but also an awesome opportunity. Our guys look forward to going down there and playing in front of a big crowd and get tested. These are the games that make you better.

“Saturday was family and football, had a chance to watch the Clemson/Syracuse game and the Notre Dame/Duke game. Sunday, we got right back at it. Now we’re getting prepared to play a really talented Clemson team.”

Clawson said Clemson is getting better offensively.

“Dabo’s teams are always talented, they’re well-coached, they play hard. Offensively, over 35 points a game, over 450 yards, they’re very well balanced with 270 in the air and 185 on the ground,” he said. “I think the quarterback (Cade) Klubnik is playing at a really high level. He’s taking care of the football extremely well; I think they’ve gone 137 passes without throwing an interception. Both of the backs are outstanding, both (Will) Shipley and (Phil) Mafah. Really good players. What’s most impressive about them is all of their yards after contact. I think with both of those guys two-thirds of their yards are after contact, so if you try to throw a shoulder into them or arm tackle, it’s going to be a long day.

“Beaux Collins is a good receiver, Tyler Brown a young receiver for them, is playing really well. (Adam) Randall and (Brannon) Spector, those are guys we’ve faced. The tight end (Jake Briningstool) 9 is a good player, they’re very experienced up front. This will be a very good challenge.”

Clemson is ninth nationally in total defense.

“Defensively, only 267 yards a game. Only 83 yards a game on the ground. Their defensive line is always elite,” Clawson said. “That’s always a four and five-star all-star team up front. They’ve got three really good linebackers. Barrett Carter, they’re doing a lot of the same things with him as they did with Trenton Simpson a year ago, he’s a really good player. The other linebackers (Jeremiah) Trotter and (Wade) Woodaz are good players as well. They’re good in the secondary as they always are.”

Clawson said Clemson is still very dangerous, especially with two losses.

“Duke played really well against them in game one, and Clemson self-destructed. That Florida State game could’ve gone either way,” he said. “This is still, there’s not one guy on their roster who wanted to come to Wake Forest. We wanted all those guys. There are even guys on here that we offered, and they committed to us, but the second Clemson offered us, they left. This is our challenge when we play these guys every year.

“They’ve been at the top of the recruiting charts every year. Xavier Thomas, Tyler Davis, Barrett Carter, these guys are pros. They’re a really talented team. Every time we play these guys, the whole has got to be bigger than the sum of theirs. And that’s the challenge. These are the games that force you to be better, and there’s a very small margin of error. Last year we were right on that line. We didn’t get it done. This year is a new opportunity. It’s not because they’ve dipped, we have to execute and play better.”