Wake Forest announces ACC Kickoff attendees

Wake Forest will bring four football players to Charlotte for ACC Kickoff later this month.

None of them will be a quarterback.

Running back Demond Claiborne, offensive lineman Devin Kylany, nickel Davaughn Patterson and safety Nick Andersen will represent the Deacons at the league’s preseason media event. They’ll join new coach Jake Dickert, who took over for Dave Clawson in December.

The event will be from July 22-24. Wake Forest will participate on the middle day, July 23 — it’s the same day as Florida State, Louisville, Georgia Tech, Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Of those teams, only Georgia Tech (Sept. 27) and FSU (Nov. 1) are on the Deacons’ schedule this season.

Claiborne will be a focal point of Wake’s new offense. The senior running back had 1,049 yards and 11 touchdowns last season, along with 254 yards and two touchdowns on 23 catches. Keeping him at Wake Forest amid the flood to the transfer portal during the coaching transition was Dickert’s first win as Wake’s coach.

Kylany is the only transfer who will represent the Deacons at ACC Kickoff. He was Washington State’s starter at center last season and followed Dickert over through the move.

Patterson is the youngest Deacon who will be in Charlotte. The redshirt sophomore had a breakout season last year with 74 tackles and three passes defended. He’s a 6-foot, 217-pounder who looks to be a good fit at the nickel position.

Andersen is entering his sixth and final season with the Deacons. The former walk-on who burst onto the scene in 2020 led the ACC with 10.2 tackles per game last year; second was Pitt’s Donovan McMillon (8.8 per game).

Wake Forest is one of four ACC teams (17 total) that won’t bring a quarterback to the event, along with Stanford, Pitt and Boston College. One team with a quarterback battle, California, is bringing both potential starters — transfer Devin Brown and freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.

But the Deacons opted to bring proven players instead of either Robby Ashford (South Carolina) or Deshawn Purdie (Charlotte), both of whom joined the program as transfers and will compete for the starting QB role in August.

Wake Forest is coming off a 4-8 season in which the Deacons lost their last four games. Each of the last two seasons ended at 4-8, and Wake Forest has lost 20 of its last 24 games against power-conference teams (dating back to the halfway mark of the 2022 season).