What Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said about Notre Dame after Irish win

Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson spoke with reporters after Notre Dame’s 45-7 victory over his Demon Deacons on Saturday. Here is everything Clawson said about Notre Dame and the game in general.

Opening statement

“Well, first off, credit to Notre Dame. I think our guys played really hard, gave a hell of a shot in the first half. Obviously, the opening turnover in the second half and their quick score kind of changed the whole dynamic of the game. Notre Dame is just a really, really talented and a physical football team. Sometimes you have those games if you did A, B and C, maybe you find a way to win it. Right now they’re a much better football team than us.

“I think our guys played hard. I can’t fault the effort. We got one more week to play as a team, and I’ve been really impressed with the way these guys have stuck together and continue to practice hard and give effort. And just today, we got beat by a much, much better football team.”

On Notre Dame quarterback Sam Hartman

“Yeah, he’s a really good player. That’s why Notre Dame went and got him. So they’re a program that has the ability to go do that, and they got themselves a good quarterback and it’s one of the reasons they’re having success this year. So he’s a good player. Once the game started, I wasn’t even thinking that’s Sam Hartman. He was just No. 10 for the other team. But he played extremely well, and we saw him do that for us for a number of years.”

On Wake Forest’s short yardage woes

“I just don’t think we’re coming off the ball of the way we should. That part of it is bad. In 2021, we were really good in short yardage. We took a step last year and this year, I don’t know what the stats are on it, but we’re awful in short yardage. So to me, it looks like we’re just a little bit high. People are getting their pads under us, and that’s one of those things that we really got to look at as a staff in the off season of what we’re doing and how we’re doing it because you got to be able to get a yard. And the amount of times this year that we haven’t been able to convert a short yardage situation is unacceptable. I agree, completely agree, that it’s just something we’ve been really poor at this year, and I’m really disappointed. Third and one, you run it twice, you should be able to get a yard against anybody you play.”

On kicking attempting a field goal that was ultimately blocked late in the first half

“Well, I think it was just fourth and three is right on the borderline of going for it. And fourth and three really isn’t a short yardage situation. We define short yardage as a yard to a yard and a half and it was just one of those games that you wanted to hang in it. And at the end of the second quarter, it was 14-7, and I thought if we could kick a field goal and make it 14-10 and then you start in the second half with the football, it’s a one-score football game. And this was one of those games that you just wanted to hang in it for as long as you could.

“And like I said, I felt even at halftime, 17-7, I felt like we played well, we were playing hard, and our MO this year is we turn the ball over. And so we turned it over again. One play later, it’s a 24-7 game, and that changes the rest of the football game.”

On Wake Forest’s one touchdown drive vs. Notre Dame

“Well, we caught a couple of trick plays, and I thought it loosened up the defense a little bit. That’s the best defense that we’ve played all year in terms of their talent level. That is, again, across the board, that’s the most talented defense that we’ve played against.

“And you look at your matchups and you look at the personnel, and you go into a game and say, “If you just go out there and run your base stuff, you’re probably not going to move the ball too much.” And so we felt we had to have a couple of trick plays, and the one hit from Jahmal [Banks] to [Ke’Shawn Williams], and then we had the other one with [Williams], which we were trying to set up a throw-back screen, and then he made a nice little play on it. We called a couple of other plays today that we have never called before, and some of them got us first downs, some of them didn’t work, but we did feel like we had to expand the playbook a little bit given the nature of the opponent.”

On bowl game potential as a 5-7 team based on APR

“I think there’s a lot of things less that we don’t control, so I really don’t know how many bowl-eligible teams there are. I know our APR here is really good. And if we get to five, there’s the possibility. But by not winning today or not winning the last few weeks, it would’ve been great if we could have got five and go to Syracuse to get six. So I’m not ruling that out. I just think there’s so many different things that we don’t control for that to happen that we’re going to go up there and try to beat Syracuse.

“But unlike if you have five wins that you say you go up there, you get six, you know you’re going to a bowl. With where we are right now, I think we just need to focus on the next week and keeping these guys together and try to go up to Syracuse and find a way to win a football game. And if we can go up and win it and we can get number five and that’s the end of the season, at least we finish on a strong note. And if things break our way, then they break our way and we’ll take that as it comes.”

On Wake Forest quarterback Michael Kern

“I thought he stabilized us. It’s really hard. They have a really good front. I thought they overwhelmed us at times. I’ll have to watch the film, but I thought he played well. But there were times I don’t know how much time he had and if guys were open. And again, to me it seems like the pocket collapsed really quickly on him. And again, just at times, I thought we got overwhelmed a little bit up front, but maybe I’ll watch the film and see that that wasn’t the case.”

More on the Notre Dame field goal block

“Well, I just told you it was fourth and three, and it was 14-7, so we were trying to make it 14-10 and go into the half down four points.

“And part of the decision is we haven’t been good on fourth downs this year. Our conversion rate on those downs is really low, and you get down there, and you don’t want to come away without points. And obviously, the execution of the kick was poor. Matthew Dennis has really struggled the last few weeks. The extra point was low, the field goal was really low. He’s just right now not hitting the ball pure. He’s hitting it thick, he’s hitting it low, and the kick never got off the ground, and it was blocked fairly low.

“So it’s just a lot of things we’re not doing real well right now. And I didn’t think kicking field goals would be one of them after last year and the first half of this year. Sometimes when it rains, it pours, and we’re just breaking down in a lot of different areas.

“But again, I can’t fault the effort of our players. I thought they played really hard and that’s all I can ask for. And again, we just, today, we played a much better football team than us. So hats off to Notre Dame. They’ve done a great job assembling a really talented roster. And quite frankly, I’m surprised they’ve lost three games. I think that’s one of the best teams that we’ve played.”

On Notre Dame’s onside kick

“It’s our job to prepare for that stuff, and the shame of it is we practiced that exact same onside kick in practice on Thursday. They had done that on film before when their special teams coordinator was at another school, and we practiced that exact same special teams kick in the exact same spot, and our front side tackle left early.

“So again, we just, at this point in the season, we’re playing some younger guys that haven’t played a lot of football, and they get on this stage and in the heat of the moment, they just need to play more. And they’re not trying to do that. They’re trying to get back and block their guy and kick off return, and he opened up early. I’m sure they saw him open up early the time before and had that opportunity, but that was the exact onside kick that we practiced against and in practice, we recovered it, but I guess it doesn’t matter if you get to the game and you can’t carry it over. It doesn’t matter what you did in practice, and obviously that’s a little bit of a recurring theme for us this year.”