Way-Too-Early Look: Wake Forest Demon Deacons

Head Coach: After reaching a program record fifth-straight bowl game in 2020 and winning the Deacs' eighth Big 4 Championship in 2019, Dave Clawson is realizing the vision of what he set out to create.

Clawson has also engineered an offense that has rewritten the record books at Wake Forest. The Deacons have set over 300 school records including marks for points scored, points per game, total offensive yards, first downs and passing yards over the past four seasons.

Clawson co-owns the school record for bowl victories, has climbed to the third-most wins in school history, and has led Wake Forest to a five-year period (2016-20) of success that had been unmatched since the 1940s.

Demon Deacons on offense: Warren Ruggiero begins his eighth season as Wake Forest’s offensive coordinator and quarterback coach after previously serving in the same role under head coach Dave Clawson at Bowling Green.

Over the last four seasons, Ruggiero has directed one of the most prolific offenses in college football. Ruggiero has coordinated a Demon Deacon offense that has set or tied over 300 offensive records in the past four seasons. The Deacons’ accomplishments over the last four years have included posting four of the top five total offense seasons in school history. Since the start of the 2017 season, Wake Forest’s 103 touchdown passes are the third most ACC team and the most of any four-year period in school history.

2017-2019 produced the three highest scoring seasons in school history with each club surpassing 400 points. Wake Forest’s 1,300 points scored during the last three years is the highest-scoring three-year period in Deacon history.

While the Deacs did not reach the 400-point barrier in 2020 due to playing in just nine game, Wake Forest added another offensive record to Ruggiero's tenure. The Demon Deacons averaged 36.0 points per game, edging out the 2017 record of 35.3 points per game.

Demon Deacons on defense: Lyle Hemphill enters his fifth season on the Wake Forest football staff after spending the previous six seasons at Stony Brook. Hemphill, who worked primarily with safeties his first two seasons on campus, added defensive coordinator duties at Wake Forest during the 2018 season.

Since joining the Wake Forest staff prior to the 2017 season, Hemphill has made an immediate impact as the defensive coordinator while helping groom safeties for the NFL.

Over the past two seasons, Hemphill has helped turn the defense into one of the best ballhawking groups in the country as Wake Forest is one of just five FBS schools with 13 or more interceptions in 2019 and 2020. In 2017 working primarily with safeties, he helped develop 2018 second-round pick Jessie Bates. The Cincinnati Bengals safety was an All-ACC selection and finished third in program history with 195 interception return yards.

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