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Notre Dame Football

Clawson Has Demon Deacons Pointed Up

August 1, 2018
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After a pair of 3-9 seasons with just one win each year in the ACC to begin his stint at Wake Forest, head coach Dave Clawson has the program pointed in the right direction following a 7-6 campaign in 2016 and an 8-5 year in 2017 that featured Military and Belk bowl wins, respectively.

“It's been very rewarding,” Clawson said from the ACC Kickoff last week. “It's a lot more enjoyable being up here after consecutive winning seasons and consecutive bowl wins and the thing that I'm most excited about is I really believe that we've built a foundation that we can sustain success.

“I think if you look at the history of Wake Forest football, there's been flashes of success, but I think that we've built something that we can sustain, created a regional and a national narrative that Wake Forest is a place that people aren't surprised when we go to bowl games.”

Wins over Boston College, Louisville, Syracuse and NC State helped the Demon Deacons to a third-place finish in the ACC’s Atlantic Division.

“I think right now internally the expectation is we want to be a perennial bowl team,” said Clawson. “We want to compete for championships, and we want the regional and the national media to view our program that way.

“Having said that, progress in this league is not easy. I mean, this division and this conference is really good football, and I think the big thing last year, not only did we get back to a bowl and win eight games, but we beat some really good football teams. I don't feel like our season in any way was a fluke. We had one of the most difficult schedules in the country last year, and we want to build off it, though. I don't think anybody on our staff, in our locker room is satisfied with what we did, and we think there's a greater ceiling to what we can accomplish, and we're excited to prove that.”

But it won’t be easy with their starting quarterback watching for the first three games leading up to the Sept. 22nd matchup against Notre Dame in South Bend.

After seeing a ton of action as a true freshman, including a pair of starts, Kendall Hinton’s sophomore season was cut short by a knee injury three games in. He played sparingly in 2017 with John Wolford grabbing a tight hold on the starting position. But Hinton was to be counted on for 2018 and still will be once he returns from the suspension for violation of team rules that was issued last month.

“Kendall is a very dynamic, elusive athlete,” Clawson said. “Obviously, Kendall put himself a little bit behind the 8-ball being suspended for the first three games, and we're just going to have to work our way through that. That's why you recruit, and that's why you build depth.”

Redshirt sophomore Jamie Newman, who has seen very limited action, and true freshman Sam Hartman, who has obviously seen no action, will battle it out for reps in the first three games against Tulane, Towson and Boston College.

“But Kendall is a gifted football player,” Clawson continued. “What his role is going to be, it's hard to say, because until week 4 -- what we think we are now and what we become by week 4 can be two different things. Again, we've just got to be fluid with it, and we'll see where it evolves.”

Clawson said he was “disappointed” by the situation Hinton put himself in.

“But you use those as opportunities for growth, and it is what it is,” the coach added. “You can't have rules for convenience. We have rules and policies, and the team knows what they are, and whether you're the starting quarterback or the eighth-string kicker, there's got to be consistency in the application of it.

“We just need him to bounce back. We need him to do things right. I have great confidence he will, and I'm sure at some point Kendall will have a very positive effect on our football team this year.”

Getting sophomore receiver Greg Dortch back will certainly help Hinton and the Demon Deacons. As a redshirt freshman last year, Dortch caught 53 balls for 722 yards and nine touchdowns in just eight games. He missed the final five games, starting with the loss in South Bend, after puncturing his small intestine reaching for the end zone against Louisville.

“He was off to a great start last year, and that was an unfortunate injury,” Clawson said. “I've never seen that happen before, that a guy gets injured on the pylon. But he looks good.”

Dortch lit up the Cardinals for 167 yards and four touchdowns on 10 receptions prior to the injury (on the play pictured above).

“He's healthy, and obviously he's a big part of our offense, so we need Greg to be Greg Dortch,” Clawson continued. “We need him to be elusive, and certainly he can be a huge role on special teams for us. But a lot of what we do on offense goes through the slot position, and we feel we have a pretty good one there.”

2018 will mark Clawson’s 19th season as a head coach dating back to his time at Fordham, Richmond and Bowling Green before Wake Forest.

“I learn something new every year, I really do and I think that's the fun thing about the job,” he said. “We never get set in stone and do things the same way. This game evolves, and I think if you don't evolve as a head coach -- I'm a much different head coach now than I was 19 years ago in 1999.

“I probably don't drive as fast, but I probably stay in the lane a little better than I did back then. But still, it's really rewarding. It's a lot of fun.”

 
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