Dave Clawson Interview

We're now being joined by the head coach of the Demon Deacons, Dave Claussen, kind enough to spend some time with us here on a Wednesday afternoon. There's a lot for us to get to, coach, but before we get to any of the football related stuff, it is a few days past your birthday. I know it's a tradition at practice for you to play talking heads and whatever music you like at practice, so what did that rotation of songs look like a few days ago? Well, it was on a Sunday, so I wasn't able to play any music that day. I'll make sure I get talking heads out there at some point, though.

I'm not going to miss that one. So let's get through some of these housekeeping notes. I understand you had an ACC coaches conference call earlier today, and I'm just interested, but everything's so inverted this year in terms of how different things are compared to what we're used to.

What kind of things are on the agenda when you guys get together amongst each other? Well, today I was on a subcommittee call that is with three, there's three coaches, there's four or five ADs. Michael Strickland from the ACC office joins us.

And just during this time period, every day it seems there's a new issue that we have to deal with, trying to plan ahead, anticipate what issues may be. And it's been really positive just getting together and sharing how we're dealing with different issues on campuses, and we're all trying hard to be able to play football this year, so we all have a common goal, and it's been a very collaborative effort. Seyd Sarat opted out earlier today. We know how great of a player he is.

I'm a Balitnikov voter, and even though he got hurt, I voted for him to be a finalist, considering how dominant he was when he was out on the field. This isn't something we're used to seeing guys opting out before the start of a season, so how would you characterize those conversations you had with you and Sage? I mean, we listen, we listen to concerns, we offer advice, but like we told every player, that you need to feel comfortable, you need to feel for whatever reason that if you're not comfortable playing, that you need to make a choice that you're comfortable with.

So all we can do during this time period is support what the players want to do. And Sage has been a great player in our program, he's been great off the field, he's a super ambassador, he's an excellent student, he's done everything in our program the right way, he's first class. We're certainly going to miss him, but we also understand that these are different times, and so we'll miss him, but we support him, he'll always be a Demon Deacon, and we'll always be here for him. Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network was with us earlier in the summer, and he called Sage a borderline first round pick, and he said the same about Boogie Basham, who is another guy that we expect a tremendous season from for your Demon Deacons. Have you had similar conversations with him?

Is he all in? Yeah, we met with these players last year, and Boogie's been at every practice, and he's practicing great. I think there's two approaches to it, I think Boogie is looking at this as a way, his goal is to be one of the top 10 picks. We hope he can get to that, for that to happen he'll probably need to play, and I think he has a lot of confidence he can get there.

Everybody's got to make a decision that they're comfortable with, that they feel is best for them, and because one person makes one decision, it doesn't mean that's the best decision for everybody. So again, we listen, we certainly will share information, and then they decide what they feel they should do. Right now Boogie is still practicing with us, and we're expecting him to play. Last week, Todd McShea put out a way-too-soon mock draft, and he has Boogie going 16th, he has Sage Serrat going 24th. If there are two Wake Forest football players in the first round, it'll be the first time that's ever happened, so you are recruiting quite the amount of talent coming into Winston-Salem. We are being joined by Dave Closs and Wake Forest head football coach. When does your focus shift from conditioning and the what-ifs surrounding the season to preparing for the Clemson Tigers on September the 12th?

We're focused now. We're getting our team ready as if the season is going to start on September 12th, because we play right now the number one team in the country. So we've always had a routine to our camp in terms of our installation schedule, how we get situational football installed, and then usually about 10 days to 11 days before the game, we'll completely turn our attention to Clemson and start our game planning mode and preparing for their offense, defense, special teams. Right now, we're still in evaluation mode of trying to figure out who are the starters, who are the backups, who are in special teams, who's on the bus, and who's the roster that we can count on. And the challenge of COVID is that we haven't had our players here since March, and we've only had them here now a couple of weeks, and so we're still trying to get our players in football shape. You just don't miss five months, and then five weeks later you're ready to go.

So we've still got some time. We've made it a gradual build to make sure that once we get into game week that our players are as conditioned as they can be, and they're ready for the rigors of an ACC football schedule. The one thing I really respect about you, coach, anytime you're talking to us on the radio or in a press conference, you're very thoughtful, it's clear, you do a lot of reading, you pay attention to what's going on in the sport and even outside of it. When I listen to the ACC's top medical advisor, Cameron Wolfe, I feel a lot better about games being played.

When I read what the NBA funded last weekend with the saliva test that we hope is a big breakthrough, that makes me feel pretty good as well. As the coach of an FBS Power 5 program, what gives you comfort you're going to be playing 23 days from now? I think that we listen to our medical experts, we listen to our team doctor, we listen to the ACC people, and right now they're telling us that what we're doing, if our players can wear masks and social distance and not bring COVID within our locker room, that we can safely play football.

And I'm a football coach. I'm not a doctor. I don't study infectious disease.

I certainly have read a little bit about the virus, but I'm far from an expert at it. And just like any medical condition or injury on our football team, I need to defer to the medical experts. And right now our medical experts are telling us it's safe to continue and practice and prepare for the season. And if they ever tell us it's not, then it's not, and we won't challenge that or push that.

So in situations like this, I think it's very important that you stay in your lane. We're preparing our football team under the guidance and advice of our medical personnel here at Wake Forest and the ACC, and we're complying with their recommendations, and we're instituting all the protocols that they say we should follow. Now, if we're unable to follow them, that's on us.

But again, at any point they feel, hey, we've tried to do all these things, and now we've learned something new, and now it's not safe to play, then we'll fall in line there as well. Last thing for Wake head football coach Dave Claussen here on Sports Hub Tryon. We haven't had a chance to catch up with you since Steve Forbes was hired. I know you were somewhat involved in that search, offering feedback whenever it was asked for. Do you have any memories of Coach Forbes dating back to the crossover you guys spent in Knoxville together?

Not at all. I don't even know if I met him when I was there. There's not a big history with Coach and I, but we've gotten to know each other as well as you can in a COVID world that our offices are kind of blocked off from each other right now. And we have such protocols in terms of getting into places, but I've talked to him on the phone a number of times and been on Zoom calls with him and certainly excited to get to know him better. And he's got great enthusiasm, a lot of energy, and I look forward to watching his teams play. Once again, happy belated birthday, Dave Claussen. Appreciate you spending the time with us in the Triad, and I hope we can catch up sometime soon and be talking about actual football on the field. Sounds good. Thanks, Josh.