Wake Forest Tries To Clean Up the Mess Left By the Hurricanes
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As Wake Forest tries to clean up the mess left by the Hurricanes after the Miami loss, it has its hands full also preparing for a very good Louisville team.
It was a positive to show the fortitude to mount a comeback in the second half. But there is also the part about getting down by three scores early, and the self-inflicted wounds that both caused the large deficit and thwarted the comeback. Head coach Jake Dickert talked about how to fix what went wrong while also having to prep to face 16th-ranked Louisville on the road this weekend.
Wake Forest Tries To Clean Up the Mess Left By the Hurricanes
After thanking the staff at Allegacy Financial Stadium, “from the parking lot to the security to the vendors,” at his weekly press conference on Monday, Dickert went into a post-mortem on Friday night’s 33-20 loss to Miami. “The first step is to own it,” he said. “As the head coach of the program, we own the failures and the mistakes we saw out there.”
High on that list was 13 penalties for 122 yards. Wake Forest is now next-to-last in the country in penalties. They are averaging nine penalties and 95 penalty yards per game. “It’s definitely frustrating,” Dickert said. He took special note of two holding penalties that negated huge punt returns while the Deacs were making their comeback. “Those are 20 yards in penalties. But you’re talking about 100 yards of actual yardage. You’re looking at starting at the five [of Miami] versus starting back on your 10, and it leads to a safety.”
Dickert said after the game Friday night that he had questions on some of the penalties and would be sending those film clips into the conference office for review and explanations. He got the feedback, and there was no walking back those two holding calls on special teams. Dickert said the players have to make better decisions.
He also talked about the 17 hits that quarterback Gio Lopez took. The fourth-year quarterback has been banged up the last two weeks with what he has previously described as football pain in his hip and other places. He was clearly hobbled late in the game Friday night. “Priority #1 offensively is protecting the quarterback. We obviously didn’t do that at a high enough rate.”
Part of the issue was Wake being behind by so much, so early. The Deacs abandoned some of the run game in favor of having to move the ball in bigger chunks. That was reflected in Wake Forest having a net of only 22 rushing yards on Friday night. And the Miami defense sent more blitzes to tee off on Lopez.
Still, Dickert was pleased with what he got out of Lopez against Miami, limping and all. “I have never been more impressed maybe with a quarterback performance than I was with Gio,” Dickert said. “That doesn’t mean it was perfect. But I’m talking gritty, gutty, making the plays, demanding the ball in his hands,” he added, calling it a performance to build on.
Addressing More Money Morass
With Wake Forest Athletic Director John Currie meeting with the media before the game Friday night and addressing the wild and random reporting of where Wake is in terms of spending on football, it was inevitable that Dickert would also be asked to respond.
Last week, The Athletic provided a recap of months of research on athletic department spending on football throughout the country. The results supported previous reporting by Last Word that Wake Forest is in the bottom third of the ACC.
The athletic department administration has previously fed information to ESPN that refuted that, but the numbers have been validated. On Friday, Currie would not discuss specific dollar figures, but simply said that he was confident that the school is competitive in its financial commitment.
Dickert has been specific in his responses to questions from Last Word that Wake is in the bottom third of the conference. He has also noted that they are working on plans (specifics not provided) to address the financial situation.
On Monday, he was asked if he had thoughts on the details provided by The Athletic. Dickert said he found the article interesting and wondered if there really was a football program with a $50 million roster.
The report in The Athletic gave ranges for the schools, with Wake’s hitting in the $16-$20 million range. “At the end of the day, we’re below what was reported there,” Dickert said.
Between that number and the glossy prospectus provided by the athletic department via ESPN, Dickert has a new and unexpected challenge to deal with: player agents. “We got a bunch of calls from agents saying we didn’t accurately report our numbers.” If Wake has/had more money at the high end of the Athletic report’s range, or at the ESPN “top half of the conference” range, those agents of current Wake players would want to know why the school could not give their client more money than what they got.
“It’s just facts. I’ve been very accurately (sic) in how I described it.” Dickert has repeatedly acknowledged the aforementioned plans to grow the revenue stream in the future. “I have a belief in our plan and am excited about the future and how we’re going to go about fixing it.”
Next
Wake heads to Louisville on Friday afternoon for a noon Saturday game against the Cardinals. We will have more in-depth reporting on that match-up later this week.
Main Image: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images
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