For the better part of a decade, Clemson has been the cream of the crop in the ACC.
And when it comes to the Tigers’ run-ins with Wake Forest, those haven’t been much of a contest.
Clemson has been the Atlantic Division’s representative in the ACC title game eight times in the last 13 years, winning seven of those games and moving on to the College Football Playoff in six of those years. One has to go back even further to find the last time Wake Forest beat Clemson during the Tigers’ recent run of dominance.
It hasn’t happened since 2008, a year before Clemson made its first trip to the ACC championship game under Dabo Swinney. Since then, the Tigers’ average margin of victory against Wake Forest is 27 points. Only once during that time – a 31-28 win in 2011 – has the game been decided by fewer than two possessions.
Yet despite Clemson’s three-touchdown win in last year’s meeting – and Las Vegas having them as a 7-point road favorite this week – the Tigers are taking a hunter’s mentality into Saturday’s renewal of the series at Truist Field (noon, ABC). The way Swinney and his program see it, the Demon Deacons are the team everyone in the division is still chasing after Wake Forest snapped Clemson’s six-year streak of division titles a season ago.
“They hold the belt. Atlantic Division champs,” defensive end K.J. Henry said. “They are the team to beat. If you want to take it from them, it’s going through Winston Salem. That’s for everybody on this side of the conference.”
With veteran quarterback Sam Hartman back leading the offense after undergoing surgery last month to remove a blood clot, Wake Forest certainly has the look of a division contender once again. The Demon Deacons are second in the ACC in scoring at 42 points per game, a point ahead of their pace last season when they finished fourth nationally in that category.
Wake Forest also owns the league’s second-best passing attack at more than 303 yards per game. Hartman has thrown seven touchdowns in the two games he’s played and has one of the ACC’s more difficult matchup problems at his disposal on the outside in 6-foot-5 wideout A.T. Perry, who’s averaging 18.5 yards per reception.
“We respect what they’ve done and the way they’ve built that program, so there’s absolutely no complacency on our part,” co-defensive coordinator Mickey Conn said. “We are full throttle ahead.”
Clemson held Wake Forest to 27 points in last year’s matchup in large part because of the pressure it created up front. The Tigers took Hartman and the Demon Deacons’ other quarterbacks out of their rhythm by getting to them for eight sacks. In all, Clemson racked up 10 tackles for loss in the three-touchdown victory.
Clemson is expected to have star defensive tackle Bryan Bresee (death in family) back for Saturday’s game, but exactly how intact the rest of the Tigers’ ailing defensive front will be remains to be seen. Defensive tackle Tyler Davis (undisclosed injury) has missed the last two games while defensive end Xavier Thomas (foot) has yet to play this season after sustaining his injury during preseason camp. Backup lineman Tre Williams (knee) was also held out.
Defensive backs Andrew Mukuba (elbow), Nate Wiggins (hip flexor) and Sheridan Jones (stinger) also missed part if not all of last week’s game with injuries. While Swinney spoke in generalities this week about the status of his team’s health, he said he’s expecting some of those players to be back this weekend and hopeful on others.
Offensively, D.J. Uiagalelei is taking some early season momentum into the matchup. Clemson’s quarterback has a 65% completion rate – 10 percentage points higher than his percentage from last season – and has accounted for three times as many touchdowns (6) as turnovers (2).
The ground game, led by Will Shipley’s 7 yards per carry, is also coming off its best game after piling up a season-high 280 yards on the ground a week ago. The offense will need more of that against a Wake Forest defense that, with a plus-5 turnover margin to this point, will try to help the Demon Deacons get just their fourth win at home over Clemson since 1993.
What’s happened in the past, though, isn’t the Tigers’ primary concern. While Swinney noted his team can’t win the division in late September, another win over Wake Forest would go a long way toward helping the Tigers regain their perch with games against the likes of N.C. State and Florida State still on the schedule.
“You can stay in control, and we prefer that,” Swinney said.
That puts Clemson’s focus squarely on taking care of business in Winston-Salem this time around.
“There’s no way around it,” Henry said. “Regardless of the success we had with them last year, they were in the ACC championship, not us. And that’s because we didn’t handle our business throughout the year.
“It’s definitely a get-it-back mindset. We’re ready to go up there and wreak havoc. We’re excited, and we’re determined for sure.”
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