For Wake Forest, time to work on itself led to tangible improvement, win over Virginia

The postponement of Wake Forest’s game against Notre Dame last month created a three-week void of ACC opponents in the Demon Deacons’ schedule — and with it, a chance to address issues from the first three games.

An opportunity to spend three weeks on self-correction, with the only barometer a noncompetitive game against Campbell.

One game in and the improvements are tangible — and they led to a win that serves as an immediate reward of sorts.

“That was a really, really big win for our program and our season,” coach Dave Clawson said.

There was already a feeling from Clawson after Saturday’s 40-23 win against Virginia that the result was one his program had to have.

“This football team has to be an ascending team, but when you’re young, you need these nuggets and these wins to keep them going,” Clawson said. “Tuesday practice would’ve been tough 1-3, and so this was a really big win for momentum, to keep our season going and to give our guys a shot of confidence.”

The improvements were evident all over the field.

Wake Forest’s biggest offensive problem through three games was that its inexperienced wide receivers weren’t making one-on-one plays downfield. Offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero said, quite simply, “We’re very sloppy out there right now.”

The first touchdown against Virginia was a 40-yard throw from Sam Hartman to A.T. Perry.

“It’s huge, right? It builds confidence,” Hartman said. “I knew it was there all along, we just — an inch here, an inch there and obviously we still missed some down the field and we’ve gotta work on that.”

Hartman and the receivers didn’t miss much against the Cavaliers; of his 16 completions, five went for at least 30 yards. The unseen development was that slot receivers Jaquarii Roberson, who had a career-high 126 yards, and Taylor Morin were deployed as downfield targets – Roberson had catches of 49 and 37 yards, while Morin hauled in a 32-yard grab.

“It doesn’t really matter if you’re outside or inside, you know when the ball is up, the 50-50 balls, you’ve got to make a play,” Roberson said. “Me and Taylor, we’re basically outside receivers on the one-on-one balls. You’ve gotta catch the 50-50 balls every time.”

Defensive struggles were more of the all-encompassing sort in the first three games, and it’s not like giving up 27 first downs and 420 yards to a team missing its starting quarterback is a crowning achievement.

But with a second-half performance of only allowing three points and stifling Virginia’s three-pronged approach with quarterbacks, it’s something to build on for a defense that had been gashed by the other two ACC offenses it had faced.

“I’m especially proud of our defense in the second half,” Clawson said. “We’ve struggled on that side of the ball, I thought we made some improvements against Campbell.

“But to play the way we did against an ACC team in the second half and only give up three points, really proud of those guys.”

The special teams play that mattered most was the sky kick that was recovered by Kenneth Dicks III in the fourth quarter.

What shouldn’t be forgotten, though, is redshirt freshman punter Ivan Mora’s improvement from the last time he was in a game — Sept. 19 at N.C. State — to Saturday.

Against the Wolfpack, Mora had a 5-yard punt and two others that failed to go more than 35 yards. Twenty-seven days later against Virginia, Mora had five punts – all of them between 42-52 yards.

“Hopefully this gives us a little bit of momentum. But it was a good win and we’ll enjoy it, then get to work on Virginia Tech (on Sunday),” Clawson said.

This story was originally published October 17, 2020 at 7:56 PM.