Wake Forest’s football game against Miami postponed due to coronavirus protocols

Wake Forest still won’t be ready to play football next weekend.

The Demon Deacons’ home game against Miami on Dec. 5 has been postponed, the ACC announced Saturday evening.

Athletic director John Currie said Wake Forest made the decision to shut down football activities until at least Wednesday because of “a handful of additional positive tests” in the program. With how limited Wake Forest has been in recent weeks for practice time, the decision was made a week before the game that it would be postponed.

The Demon Deacons practiced Thursday, which Currie indicated was their first practice since Nov. 17.

“If you look at the volume of cases, it’s not like we all of a sudden had 30 positive guys,” Currie said. “I’ve read about some other teams out there that are like, 75% of their guys have already had COVID. We’re not anywhere close to that.

“But you get a handful, and then you get contact tracing and guess what? That affects roommates or position groups or whatever it is. And then you couple that … with the injuries which have accumulated at this point, just like they have in any particular year, and you’re in a tough spot.”

In the buildup to the season and during the first few months, Currie and coach Dave Clawson were complimentary of Wake Forest’s players for adhering to safety and social distancing protocols. Currie denied that the positive tests are a reflection that the players have not followed those protocols as closely in recent weeks.

“I believe that this is really a reflection on where we are as a state and as a county,” Currie said. “You know, we’ve got greater community spread than we’ve had, at any point, since a long, long time ago. … I can’t quote all the numbers.

“I believe that we’re just – it finally got to us. I don’t believe it’s our guys not doing good things. I believe it’s a process of man, our guys did so good for so long but sooner or later, that thing comes in through the cracks and gets you.”

The rest of the Demon Deacons’ schedule

The game was postponed – not canceled – even though the rest of Wake Forest’s schedule has already been filled with makeup games. Wake Forest is slated to play No. 2 Notre Dame on Dec. 12 (rescheduled from Sept.) and at Louisville on Dec. 19 (rescheduled from Dec. 5).

“I believe that our team is going to play football again,” Currie said. “I would love to play the University of Miami. They currently have a game with somebody else on December the 12th. And we have a game with Notre Dame on December the 12th.”

Miami’s game on Dec. 12 is against North Carolina, which beat Wake Forest 59-53 in the Demon Deacons’ most-recent game on Nov. 14.

Asked whether he had any notion or it was at all prevalent in his mind that Wake Forest has played its last football game of the season, Currie said “zero.”

“If that becomes an outcome, then we’ll worry about that then. But I’m not worried about that right now,” Currie said, elaborating. “What I’m worried about right now is safety of our student-athletes, and then supporting our student-athletes.

“And we’ve got a bunch of seniors on this team that they’re down to the kind of the last rung of opportunities to play football.”

This story was originally published November 28, 2020 at 6:14 PM.