Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson resigned Monday, ending an 11-year run by saying he had given ”everything I had" for the program and school.
Clawson's tenure included guiding Wake Forest to 11 wins and a trip to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game in 2021, as well as cracking the top 10 of the AP poll in 2021 and 2022 amid a run of six straight bowl appearances. But the Demon Deacons had gone just 4-8 in the past two seasons.
In a statement released by the school, Clawson said “the timing is right” after working 36 straight seasons in college football to step into a new role at Wake Forest.
“Coaching at Wake Forest has been the honor of my career,” Clawson said. ”This is a special place with extraordinary people, and I am deeply grateful for the relationships I’ve built over the last 11 years. Together, we achieved things that many thought impossible, and I step down knowing I gave everything I had for this program and university."
Clawson took over in 2014 after Jim Grobe's successful run that included winning the 2006 ACC title. And much like Grobe, Clawson found success at the elite but small private university with a formula that leaned on player retention and long-term development to compete against programs drawing four- and five-star recruits.
Clawson's Demon Deacons typically redshirt young players and bring them along slowly, allowing them to get stronger and picking up larger roles to hone their skills. By the time most of those players would crack the two-deep depth chart, the goal then would be to play disciplined football with clean execution while avoiding self-defeating mistakes.
When working its best, Wake Forest often had a prolific, tempo-controlling offense — featuring an ability to churn out developed receivers — while ranking among the nation's leaders for fewest penalty yards and turnovers. That was the case in 2021, a season that included Clawson reaching a long-term contract extension with the school on the eve of the ACC division-clinching win at Boston College.
That 11-win team, led by star quarterback Sam Hartman, lost to Pittsburgh in the ACC championship game in a season that saw the Demon Deacons start 8-0 and hit No. 10 in the poll.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
