Wake Forest played Vanderbilt seven times in Jim Grobe’s 13 years as coach.

But the end of a four-year series in 2013 coincided with the transition to Dave Clawson as Wake’s coach and now for the first time in nine seasons, a Clawson-led Deacons team will face the Commodores.

Wake Forest heads to Nashville, Tenn., this weekend with a chance to score a road win against an SEC team, and a chance to reach 2-0 for the fifth time in the last six seasons.

Here are five things to know about Vanderbilt ahead of Saturday’s game:

You have to talk about Mike Wright if you’re going to talk about Vanderbilt and its 2-0 start.

The third-year quarterback is off to a blazing start. The passing numbers are good – 31 of 50, 391 yards, six touchdowns and zero interceptions.

The rushing numbers – 24 carries, 247 yards, four touchdowns – to go along with precision passing is the scary part.

“Their quarterback … is excellent,” Clawson said. “He’s been accurate, he has not thrown a pick, and he has breakaway speed. I’m sure he would be on a lot of track teams.”

Wright emerged as Vanderbilt’s starter in the second half of last season, with the Commodores mired in a 2-10 season that was a rough debut season for coach Clark Lea. With Wright at the helm to begin this season, Vanderbilt has beaten Hawaii and Elon to match last season’s win total.

Vanderbilt had 21 fewer points and 177 fewer yards from its season opener to its second game … and still scored 42 points and had 424 yards of offense last week against Elon.

What that says about Hawaii, well, it doesn’t bode well for the Rainbow Warriors.

But the fact remains that a Vanderbilt team that was shut out twice last season and scored in single digits two other times has 105 points and 1,025 yards in its first two games this year.

Let’s not get carried away here, scoring against Hawaii and Elon doesn’t mean the Commodores’ offense is going to light up everybody this season – but it will provide an interesting early test for Wake’s recalibrated defense.

Wake Forest and Vanderbilt will naturally cross paths in recruiting battles as private, academic-minded schools in Power 5 conferences in the South.

One of Vanderbilt’s starting defensive backs fits the billing of both.

Jaylen Mahoney committed to Wake Forest in June of 2018, but decommitted and landed at Vanderbilt a few months later.

“We wanted him. He was committed here, we thought he was a high-level player and he was committed and decommitted a little later in the process,” Clawson said. “He’s played everywhere, started at corner, nickel, safety. He’s had 25 career starts, he’s a high-end player.”

Mahoney was third in tackles (53) and had two sacks and two interceptions last season. He’s had seven tackles in the first two games this season.

While Vanderbilt’s offense has looked impressive in two games, its defense gave up 31 points and 495 yards to Elon last week.

The alma mater is good but it’s not like Scott Riddle is still throwing passes to Terrell Hudgins.

Elon quarterback Matt McKay – a one-time N.C. State QB – passed for 333 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for another 52 yards and two touchdowns. Two receivers – Jackson Parham and Chandler Brayboy – went over 100 yards, with 143 and 105, respectively.

If Elon players can do that against Vanderbilt, it’s worth pondering how gaudy things can get in Sam Hartman’s return for the Deacons.

The first one is the most-obvious one: Lea, in his second season at Vanderbilt, is six years removed from being linebackers coach at Wake Forest. He joined the staff in Mike Elko’s final season at Wake Forest and left with Elko when he went to Notre Dame, and then Lea took over as the Irish’s defensive coordinator when Elko departed for Texas A&M.

“You can see they’re a very improved football team,” Clawson said. “I know Clark extremely well … He is extremely smart, he’s a very strategic thinker and I’m sure he will maximize Vanderbilt football.”

That’s not the extent of the connections.

Vanderbilt’s strength and conditioning coach is Brandon Hourigan, who was at Wake Forest for seven years before leaving in Jan. 2021. On his staff is former Deacons rover Demetrius Kemp.

Ben Cauthen was Wake’s video coordinator for seven seasons before departing to become Lea’s chief of staff in 2021.

Not a Wake Forest connection, but there’s another Clawson shout-out here: Justin Lustig is Vanderbilt’s associate head coach/special teams coordinator/tight ends coach. If the name is familiar, it’s because Lustig was previously at Syracuse – where Clawson annually referred to Lustig as the best special teams coach in the country, in his estimation.