The tradition of ACC continues with another visit from Wake Forest, feel the excitement emanating from this article. At one point, this looked like an interesting matchup as Sam Hartman faces his old team but the recent struggles by both the Irish and Demon Deacons put a bit of a downer on this Senior Day weekend.
Despite the question marks surrounding Notre Dame’s offense (Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson made some not-so-subtle remarks about losing Hartman to NIL and he has to be laughing a bit now, despite his own team’s struggles) the Irish still come in as hefty favorites against an opponent that has lost 6 out of its last 7 games and is in last place in the ACC standings.
Wake Forest (+24.5) at Notre Dame
Notre Dame Stadium
South Bend, Indiana
Date: Saturday, November 18, 2023
Time: 3:30 PM ET
TV: NBC/Peacock
Series: 5-0-0 Notre Dame
Now finishing up his 10th season, it’s been a major struggle for Clawson in Winston-Salem this year. Exempting the Covid year (4-5 in 2020) he’s managed to finish above .500 for 7 straight years but the current 4-6 record has Wake Forest on pace for its worst season since 2015 which was Clawson’s 2nd year on campus.
Wake Forest’s Offense
It’s been a pretty terrible season for Wake Forest’s offense who come into the weekend only ranked ahead of Pittsburgh among ACC teams in the FEI rankings. Now, there’s not that much talk about offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero as personnel losses and a lack of transfer market activity have stunted the Demon Deacons.
They were moving on without 6th round NFL pick A.T. Perry (2,662 yards and 28 touchdowns in his career) and received tough news when top returning receiver Donovan Green (1,473 yards and 10 touchdowns in his career) had his season ended on the first day of fall camp with a knee injury.
The Deacons used redshirt sophomore quarterback Mitch Griffis (5-11, 193) for most of this season but will be turning officially to 5th-year senior Michael Kern (6-2, 192) for his 1st career start inside Notre Dame Stadium on Saturday. Kern saw significant playing time last week against NC State finishing with 14 of 26 completions for 137 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception.
Kern will be the 3rd QB to start a game for Wake this year.Â
Despite the losses, this is a pretty strong wide receiver corps when the quarterback can get them the ball. Both junior Jahmal Banks (6-4, 205) and 5th-year senior Taylor Morin (5-10, 180) offer a ton of production from the outside and slot, respectively. They’re coming off 9 touchdowns apiece in 2022 and have combined for 80 receptions, 1,000 yards, and 5 touchdowns this season.
Redshirt junior Ke’Shawn Williams (5-10, 190) has also been very productive coming in with 1,319 yards and 5 touchdowns in his career. Wake doesn’t appear to use much depth at receiver although sophomore Wesley Grimes (6-2, 187) has been doing good things with 17 catches for 308 yards and 2 touchdowns.
New starter at tight end 5th-year senior Cameron Hite (6-3, 243) hasn’t been much of a factor in the passing game since the opener against Elon. Since then, he’s caught 8 passes for 67 yards and 1 touchdown.
Last year’s co-starter running back Christian Turner transferred to Indiana while backup Quinton Cooley also left for Liberty. Senior tailback Justice Ellison (5-10, 209) has run for 1,800 yards and 14 scores in his career but has been sharing reps with sophomore Demond Claiborne (5-9, 200) who leads the team with 586 yards and 5 touchdowns on the ground.
On the offensive line, 5th-year senior right tackle DeVonte Gordon (6-5, 310) is in his 3rd year of starting while 6th-year senior Michael Jurgens (6-4, 311) made 34 starts at center but has been playing at left guard for 2023.
Wake was hoping for backup redshirt sophomore Nick Sharpe (6-2, 330) to step into a starting role but an ankle injury shut down his season. They’ll face Notre Dame with 7th-year senior(!) Spencer Clapp (6-6, 300) in his first year of starting at left tackle. New starters for 2023 at center and right guard include redshirt sophomores Luke Petitbon (6-2, 294) and Matt Gulbin (6-4, 313).
Wake Forest’s Defense
Defensive coordinator Brad Lambert came back to Wake Forest last year following a previous spell at the school from 2001-10. He’s done a decent job and it’s been needed in 2023 as the Deacons are barely scoring 20 points per game.
The defense came into 2023 only bringing back 1 starter from their front 7 and that player–5th-year senior linebacker Chase Jones–has been out the whole year with a concussion. As such, this is a pretty shallow depth chart for the Demon Deacons.
This group will still get after it with 65 tackles for loss (tied for 31st nationally) on the season. They are led by redshirt junior defensive end Jasheen Davis (6-3, 259) with 15 tackles for loss (tied for the most in the ACC) and 7.5 sacks (4th in the ACC). On the other edge, redshirt junior Kendron Wayman (6-4, 255) has notched a pair of sacks.
On the interior, 5th-year senior Kevin Pointer (6-1, 282) transferred in from UL-Monroe ahead of the 2021 season and is having a nice year with 32 tackles and 8.5 tackles for loss. He’s starting alongside 5th-year senior Justin Williams (6-2, 282) with a more modest 2 tackles for loss and no sacks. Adding depth, junior Bryce Ganious (6-2, 281) transferred in from Villanova this off-season and has made 22 tackles and 2.5 TFL.
Wake brought in 5th-year senior linebacker Jacob Roberts (6-1, 233) after a stellar career at North Carolina A&T and he’s flourished with a team-leading 70 tackles, 10 TFL, and 6 sacks. Next to him, redshirt sophomore Dylan Hazen (6-1, 228) plays a ton with 65 tackles and 7 tackles for loss, plus fellow redshirt sophomore Quincy Bryant (6-0, 224) plays often with 32 tackles this season.
Roberts carried HBCU pride to Wake Forest.Â
This is an experienced secondary for the Deacons. Redshirt junior Caelen Carson (6-0, 195) is in his 2nd-year of starting and has broken up 15 passes since the start of 2022. Redshirt sophomore DaShawn Jones (6-0, 181) has moved up from a backup role and picked off 3 passes this year.
Nickel corner Evan Slocum (5-11, 191) has been starting since 2022 while both safeties return in 5th-year senior Chelen Garnes (5-11, 207, transferred in from Navy prior to 2021) and redshirt junior Malik Mustapha (5-11, 207, transferred in from Richmond prior to 2021) offering a veteran presence at the back.
Prediction
Trust me, I didn’t want to do this preview this weekend. This might be the least talked about Notre Dame game since the November 18, 2017 home game against Navy (coming off an ugly loss to Miami). I usually check out Irish Envy’s gameday threads to pick up any interesting information throughout the week and as of this writing there hasn’t been a single update in there for the last 82 hours.
Wake Forest, not a real sexy opponent!
| STAT | ND | WAKE |
|---|---|---|
| FEI | 12 | 74 |
| FEI O | 25 | 94 |
| FEI D | 9 | 46 |
This is the downside to college football. Notre Dame is 7-3 and if we took a poll right now I’m sure a significant amount of fans would rather fast forward to 2024. There will always be talk about what a program ‘deserves’ given the circumstances of the Irish right now but the 12-team playoff might at least inject some more life into these types of seasons coming up in the future.
Today, well this is a game that we just have to get through.
3 Keys to Victory
#1 Make Kern’s Life Miserable
We’ll get to the offense in a second. This should be a game where Notre Dame starts fast on defense and probably should be able to put Wake Forest in a hole early. Putting Kern in at quarterback for his first career start against this defense is certainly a choice for Dave Clawson, but he insists it would’ve happened already if Kern hadn’t injured his shoulder earlier in the season.
Well, good luck.
It’s been that kind of year for Clawson.Â
#2 Shake Off the Sentimentality
Due to the negative 6 million hype for this game and the Senior Day festivities I’m sure it’ll be a subdued and quiet crowd lacking in intensity. At least the weather is predicted to be a brisk low 50’s and sunny which should provide some quality fall scenery.
With Hartman facing his former team, a place where he spent 5 seasons, I would hope the emotions are under control and the Irish are ready to play from the first snap. I’m fearing a classic late-season fall sleepy start, but we’ll see.
#3 Passing Competence
Are we asking too much?
With Wake Forest’s lack of size and nickel-based defense this feels like a game where Notre Dame is going to insist on running the football. Heck, maybe it’ll work really well and we’ll all be happy Saturday night.
We should point out that Notre Dame’s offensive line is in flux. Veteran center Zeke Correll is questionable while in concussion protocol and right guard Rocco Spindler is done for the year following recent knee surgery. We should see Billy Schrauth pick up his 1st career start at guard while 5th-year senior Andrew Kristofic has been nursing a high ankle sprain from the Clemson game and if he can’t go redshirt freshman Ashton Craig should be making his 1st career start at center. I
t’s not exactly ideal against a frisky defense.
I think things will be fine but there’s a definite path forward where Notre Dame is ridiculously conservative on offense, can’t convert a bunch of 3rd & long situations with Hartman’s lack of connection and confidence to the pass catchers, while the Irish are sweating this one out in the 4th quarter.
How about a wholly unsatisfying win?
^That’s 95% of all ND wins, is it not?
Hard to believe ND is only 5-0 against Wake – Feels like they’ve played every year since the ACC deal began, and more specifically, feels like all home games are Senior Day.
The random home-and-home series in 2011-12 that immediately preceded the ACC deal didn’t help, but yes, we seem to play them a lot.
ND has been good at home this year. Contrary to how many recall, ND is usually very good on Senior day when not playing top opponents. Is Parker coaching for his job this week and next or is that already settled ? This Wake defense could frustrate ND but their offense shouldn’t. Short fields and turnovers camouflage another average offensive performance. ND 37- 3.
Nothing Parker does against Wake or Stanford should impact his job security. We’ve already seen him put up good numbers against mediocre defenses.
But, realistically, yes, if he drops 40 in back to back weeks, I could sadly see him being our OC next year.
Cheering for the sweet spot result where it remains undeniable that Parker must go but it’s not so bad that it deters portal transfers for next year. Maybe two straight 35-0 wins with four defensive/ST touchdowns per game for the next two games.
If Parker is still the playcaller at ND two weeks from Monday the offseason vibes are going to be so bad.
My guess is that we’ll smash Wake Forest like 45-10 and then struggle mightily at Stanford. That’s just based on ~ v i b e s ~ though.
Way off
The first time I ever saw ND football in person was in 2011 when the lads came down to Winston Salem and 9 year old me’s life was changed forever so this matchup always has a nice spot in my heart
At the end of the day though this is a pretty dull matchup but we only have 2 more Irish gamedays after this so let’s savor it!
Still a shot at 10 wins with a fun bowl win so let’s roll