Notre Dame Football: Previewing a week 2 matchup with Wake Forest
Notre Dame football is slated to take on the Wake Forest Demon Deacons in week 2 of its ACC schedule.
Notre Dame football’s week two opponent has an interesting story. It’s not often that a starting quarterback in the Power 5 transfers for a quarterback competition with another Power 5 team, but that’s exactly what happened to Wake Forest. Jamie Newman transferred to Georgia, where he’ll compete with USC transfer JT Daniels. Of course, Newman didn’t know Daniels would be walking through the door, but here we are.
Losing Newman was a tough break for Wake Forest, who historically struggles as a program. With only two conference championships in their history and a historic winning percentage of .414, losing such a successful starter hurts. Of course, Dave Clawson has done an excellent job for the Demon Deacons, but it’s still an embarrassment for the program.
The first time Notre Dame and Wake Forest met was 2011, and the Irish haven’t lost to the Deacons in five meetings. Of course, one of those wins was vacated, but it still counts.
2019 Wake Forest
Clawson took Wake Forest to their fourth straight bowl game in 2019. This is the first time in program history that they’ve made four straight bowl games, though they did lose this past season’s Pinstripe Bowl. The bowl loss came after a strong start to the season, but one that sputtered at the end of the season, as Wake Forest four of their last five.
Last season, that was largely based upon Newman’s mastery of the Wake Forest’s spread offense. It’s an offense that features numerous read option concepts, and is noted for how long the quarterback keeps the ball at the mesh point in those reads.
They struck a balance on offense, finishing with 288.3 yards per game passing. That’s more than teams whose quarterbacks have names like Sam Howell, Bryce Perkins, Justin Fields, Justin Herbert, and some guy named Ian Book. The rushing game, while a less impressive 50th in the country, still managed to gain 175.7 yards per game.
Led by linebacker — and now Denver Bronco — Justin Strnad, Wake Forest was the 76th best scoring defense in 2019. That’s fairly middle of the pack. This can be explained by the unremarkable 416.5 yards allowed per game. However, the secondary was abysmal. At 101st in the country, they let up 252.8 yards per game.
2020 Wake Forest
Despite losing Newman to transfer, Wake Forest doesn’t need to go looking for a replacement at quarterback. Sam Hartman, who was a freshman starter to begin 2018, will take over as the starter once again. Hartman had lost the job to Newman, when he broke his leg. On his career, Hartman is a 55.7% passer, with a 2-1 TD to INT ratio.
Hartman will have the benefit of throwing to Sage Surratt. Surratt had over 1,000 receiving yards, despite only playing 9 games last season. He’s a legitimate All-American candidate. Unfortunately for the Demon Deacons, they have almost no returning production behind Surratt at receiver.
To go along with that lack of returning production at receiver, they’ll lose almost all of 2019’s rushing production. They’ll hope for Kenneth Walker III to step up here, but Wake Forest is going to be inexperienced on offense, and needs their defense to step up.
Just like Duke, Wake Forest is going to live and die by its pass rush. That’s where they’re experienced, and without an effective pass rush, they’ll be leaving to first year starter’s at corner on islands. Ryan Smenda Jr. and Ja’Cquez Williams are solid at linebacker, though they really don’t have serviceable back-ups if health becomes an issue.
Next. What flipping Will Schweitzer does for Notre Dame recruiting. dark
Prediction
The inexperienced Wake Forest offense is going to being whipped by Clark Lea’s defense, and Book should be able to pick a young secondary apart. Notre Dame wins 31-13.