Winston Salem, North Carolina– BB&T field was the site for an interstate showdown between an undefeated Wake (4-0,0-0), squad, and a disciplined Elon (2-2,0-0), program. Both these teams and coaches have a mutual respect for one another. Coach Dave Clawson of Wake didn’t take this game lightly, coming in the Phoenix were locked in at #22 in the FCS rankings.
The Deacs came in confident and focused, the offense looked sharp and the defense was extremely active, they set the tone with physicality in the trenches.
Jamie Newman and this offense set the tone with two touchdowns through the air in the first quarter, Newman capped off the first scoring drive with a four yard pass to redshirt senior Scotty Washington, the entire drive went eight plays for 45 yards, it lasted two minutes and 14 seconds total. Later in the first Newman connected with redshirt freshman Jaquarii Robertson for a 34 yard bomb, Wake got out to a respectable 14-0 lead. Elon went on to answer back, the Phoenix field general Davis Cheek whom Wake Forest has praised this week connected on a beautiful 40 yard long ball to sophomore wideout Avery Jones.
Unfortunately for the Phoenix this would be their only score of the contest, from this point on it was all Wake Forest. Overall the Deacs looked bigger, faster, and executed better on both ends. Newman finished 27/35 for 351 yards and five touchdowns on the day in three quarters, he sat the fourth and cheered his teammates on. Newman currently leads the ACC in all major passing categories, and he’s shown no signs of slowing up. One particular play that left me wide eyed was a 31 yard dime to Washington, the touch and placement on the ball was magnificent, the ball was placed on the outside shoulder of Washington with just enough air under it to put the defender out of place. Washington came up with a solid catch but Newman put the rock exactly where it needed to be.
Newman looked calm and poised in the pocket, along with Washington’s nine catches for 141 yards and two touchdowns, redshirt sophomore Sage Surratt snagged eight passes for 112 yards, and two touchdowns of his own. The pair of Washington and Surratt have dominated the ACC teams of the week at receiver to this point, these guys have been one of the top receiving duos in the nation.
Freshman running back Kenneth Walker scored the lone rushing touchdown for the Deacs, he carried the ball nine times for 95 yards most of which came in clean up time. Although Walker did most of his damage against Elon’s reserves, he showed exciting flashes for the future, he led all rushers for Wake, and averaged 10.1 yards a carry. Walker has the speed to take it the distance anytime he touches the rock, to me personally he displayed impressive power and stellar balance absorbing contact and finishing off tough runs for extra yards.
The Skinny– The ACC Atlantic division is vastly better than the Coastal division, Clemson still remains supreme but Wake could prove to be their toughest opponent in conference play. This years team possess the most talent and depth we’ve seen on a Wake squad in quite some time, this group doesn’t make many mistakes and they’re extremely well coached.
Coach Clawson’s thoughts: “I liked the way we handled the second half, defensively we settled down, the offense made big plays and we got a chance to get some of our two’s and some of our three’s in. Now we head into ACC play.” Said Clawson.
Wake will kickoff ACC play at Boston College (3-1,0-0), next week.
The Skinny– Elon came into this game riding a two-game winning streak, they boast one of the best signal callers in the FCS in Cheek, a kid Wake Forest actually recruited out of high school. The Phoenix will look forward to getting star wideout junior Kortez Weeks back for the rest of the year, these two have formed quite the duo in limited time. Next up Elon will host the number two team in the FCS and conference foe James Madison, a team led by Elon’s former Coach Curt Cignetti. The emotions in this matchup could be high.
Coach Tony Trisciani (Elon)- “We played a lot of guys out here today, we had a lot of guys burnt out too we got worn down a little bit, they run a lot of plays so we were able to get some guys valuable experience. Like every game we’re going to go back and grade the film and we’re going to coach off the film. Our guys get to play against some great competition today so it’s good, I mean when you play a team like Wake Forest it prepares you for what’s next and we’ll be a better team for it.
