Chip West named cornerbacks coach

Wake Forest announced the hiring of Chip West as its cornerbacks coach on Thursday morning.

West was reported to Wake's target to replace Paul Williams, who left after three seasons at Wake Forest for Stanford, two weeks ago. Syracuse hired his replacement (Travis Fisher) more than a week ago.

Now the Deacons finally have West confirmed.

It's a move that makes sense from a familiarity standpoint. Before spending the last three seasons at Syracuse, West worked with Wake Forest defensive coordinator Brad Lambert at Charlotte in 2018, and then went with Lambert to Marshall in 2019 (Lambert was head coach at Charlotte and defensive coordinator at Marshall).

Keeping things in the realm of familiarity, West worked for one season under coach Dave Clawson at Fordham back in 2003.

"Wake Forest is a great institution and I have had a lot of respect for Coach Clawson and the program he has built both as a fellow coach within the ACC and as a former assistant on his staff at Fordham," West said through a news release. "Along with my working experience and relationship with Brad Lambert, I look forward to getting to the Winston-Salem and Wake Forest community to begin impacting our players' lives in a positive way and to create great relationships with them and their families."

West's other ACC experience comes from being at Virginia from 2010-15. Additional stops have included Howard, Old Dominion, James Madison, Colgate and West Virginia.

"We are fortunate to get a football coach with Chip's experience and knowledge of coaching in the Atlantic Coast Conference to join our staff," Clawson said through a news release. "... Chip is an excellent recruiter and will bring another veteran presence to our staff."