Last season Clemson handled Wake Forest 37-13 and shut down their offense at Truist Field in Winston-Salem. N.C.
This season the Demon Deacons boast one of the most prolific offenses in college football and they hope to carry that momentum into Memorial Stadium on Saturday.
Wake Forest is led by sophomore quarterback Sam Hartman who caught fire early this season and put his team in the driver’s seat of the ACC’s Atlantic Division.
But Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables thinks while Hartman has developed in 2021, he possessed the same skills in 2020.
“Has nobody been watching Wake Forest?,” Venables asked on Monday. “They’ve been really good, and he’s been really good. He’s the same guy, he is just really good again. I’m not trying to be funny, haven’t they been good? They were right there last year.”
Hartman ranks fifth nationally in both touchdowns and quarterback rating with 30 and an 84.3 respectively. He is also tied for the eighth most yards of any quarterback in the FBS with 3,163 yards.
This year the Demon Deacons rank second nationally in scoring offense with 44.7 points per game, they rank seventh nationally in yards per game averaging 498.4 and eighth nationally in plays per game with 79.8.
“He’s developed, matured, has a lost of moxie and great instincts and he has a great presence,” Venables said. “He really understands the offense and the structure of defenses and how they are going to attack, so he makes a lot of really good decisions so those are the proverbial layups so he isn’t putting it in harm’s way and now the offense can be fluid.”
Venables recalled the first time he saw Hartman play in the 2017 Shrine Bowl representing the Sandlappers in the game after a stellar career at Oceanside Collegiate Academy.
Hartman quarterbacked the defensive coordinator’s son Jake Venables’ team in the annual game and the quarterback impressed Venables from the first time he watched him.
“He’s just more of the same to me, that’s what Sam is,” Venables said. “He played in the Shrine Bowl with one of my sons years ago and that’s what he did there too. He did it in high school and he’s been a baller for a long time.”
Clemson hosts Hartman and the Demon Deacons on Saturday at noon at Memorial Stadium.
