Why Dave Clawson of Wake Forest Football is a top-20 head coach

When analyzing his outrageous accomplishments (especially at Wake Forest), Dave Clawson should easily be seen as a top-20 head coach in CFB today.

Since the dawn of time, some college football programs have just appeared to be doomed to fail, and Wake Forest football has always been one of those programs.

The Demon Deacons hold the worst all-time winning percentage of all Power 5 teams (.419), and to squeak into even the smallest bowl game is considered a sizable achievement by their historical standards. Former Wake Forest football head coach Jim Grobe took jabs at this description during his time with the Deacs, but the change never truly commenced until Dave Clawson came to town.

Clawson had worked his way up to the Power 5 level after seeing success at every head coaching job he had gotten his hands on. Each program–Fordham, Richmond, and Bowling Green, respectively–had seen at least one conference title while under his command, and that was enough for the Demon Deacons to take a chance on him.

Clawson has excelled at Wake Forest

Clawson succeeded Grobe for the 2014-15 season, and Wake Forest football did just about as bad as one would expect, finishing with a ghastly 3-9 record. The following year saw virtually no change, as the Deacs dwelled at 3-9 again.

It was the third season, however, where Clawson’s impact began to take form. In 2016, Wake Forest won half of their regular-season games, entering the postseason at 6-6. Upon doing so, they met and beat the 10-win Temple Owls in the Military Bowl.

That victory gave Wake its first positive season and bowl win since 2008, and that quickly became the bar that Clawson was aiming to hit. The next three seasons saw final records donning either seven or eight wins, and with them came two more bowl trophies.

After a shortened 2020 season that saw an average Deacs squad hindered by the COVID-19 pandemic, Clawson led what was by far his strongest team yet.

In 2021, the Demon Deacons amassed a surreal 10-2 record to finish the regular season and win the ACC’s Atlantic division. Following both a conference title game defeat and yet another bowl victory, Wake entered this current offseason at 11-3 (tied for the program’s best record to date).

For Clawson to work his way up to being a Power 5 head coach about 15 years removed from his first time ever at a team’s helm is an impressive journey by itself. However, to take Wake Forest, a perennial ACC bottom-dweller, and turn it into a consistent postseason program–and, most recently, an 11-win division champ–in under a decade puts him in an elite tier of unbelievable.

He may not get as much praise as he deserves, but Dave Clawson’s career path leading up to now is certainly admirable enough to declare him a top-20 head coach in college football today.