2023 College Football Preview- Wake Forest

Welcome to the Ultimate College Football Preview for 2023. Every team in FBS Football will be covered in this daily blog release. All of your favorite teams from the ACC, AAC, Big 12, Big 10, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, PAC 12, SEC, Sun Belt & even every Independent. Think of these daily college football previews as a cheat sheet going into next year.

2022 Recap:

For most teams that are perennially the middle of their conference a 8-5 year with a bowl win would be considered a pretty damn good year. You would think their college football preview would be all joyous. The expectations were much higher in Winston Salem going into 2022. They had most of their talent back from a 11-3, first place in the Atlantic division of the ACC and won a bowl game. Sam Hartman was in Heisman conversations and the offense was going to be unbelievable and it was finishing 18th in points per game. The defense, however, was bad finishing in the bottom third of college football for points allowed. To be fair the only teams they lost to were from the Carolina’s and Kentucky.

Head Coach:

Dave Clawson in my opinion is the perfect coach for Wake Forest and the results back that up. He has been at Wake since 2014 and has had the Demon Deacons usually in the middle of the pack of the ACC since his first two years. Covid year doesn’t count. Then 2021 they had the right guy at QB and the schedule was favorable for them to make a run to the top of the ACC. That should be the goal at Wake, make bowls every year, then every 3 or 4 years make a run to the top. Historically they are not that team, but are in a hotbed for recruiting. Clawson is building a winning culture in Winton Salem. If every 3 or 4 years he can land a Sam Hartman type QB, they will be more than a successful football program.

Key Players:

As I have mentioned, they had one of the nation’s best QB’ s last year. Hartman is gone, transferred to Notre Dame. This year it is up to Red Shirt Sophomore Mitch Griffis. In limited time while Hartman was hurt last year, Griffis was very good in his place. He had a 70.7 % completion percentage for 348 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 1 interception. He was a three star dual threat QB coming out of high school. Under Clawson’s system I think he can be a very good QB in the ACC. Good news for the young QB is he has 4 great, experienced playmakers in Donovan Greene, Taylor Morin, KeShawn Williams & Jahmal Banks coming back. Combined last year, this quartet had 165 catches for 2,406 yards and 25 touchdowns. That great production coming back. The defense can only really get better and are lead by Senior LB Chase who had 74 tackles, 6 TFL’s and 2 sacks. Lots of young hungry faces should improve the defense from last year.

2023 Prediction:

Looking at the Demon Deacons schedule, I expect them to go 3-0 in the non-conference. Then in conference play I can see 6-3 or 5-4 that is with also playing conference “team” Notre Dame. That is a great 9-3 or 8-4 regular season. This year is a building year, all the weapons are eligible to come back for 2024!