WINSTON-SALEM – There’s always a little downtime for Wake Forest’s quarterbacks during practices. It’s not like they’re involved with punt coverages.

When that time for Sam Hartman on Wednesday morning, he jogged across the grass practice field and hopped in front of the cameras, joining ACC Network’s Kelsey Riggs, Mark Richt and Eddie Royal.

The network’s “ACC Road Trip” series came to Winston-Salem for a look at the Deacons on Wednesday morning, grabbing mid-practice interviews with Hartman, wide receiver A.T. Perry and coach Dave Clawson.

After practice, the panel was available for interviews about their impressions of the reigning Atlantic Division champs.

“To me, Coach Clawson is a perfect for this place,” Richt said. “I think Wake Forest University knows it, I think they love and appreciate what he’s done.

“But to do what he’s done at a school that historically has struggled in the sport of football, it’s amazing.”

Last season’s 11 wins marked the second season in school history with double-digit wins. With a mostly reloaded offense and reason for optimism that the defense will have some improved consistency, the consensus opinion of the trio was that Wake Forest will again contend for the Atlantic Division crown.

That’s a sign of the changing – slowly, perhaps, but shifting nonetheless – perception of Wake Forest, which figures to start the season as an AP Top 25 team.

Riggs has been with the ACC Network since 2019 but had not yet been to Wake’s campus. As part of the program, which airs for the first time at 7 p.m. Wednesday and will shown four more times Wednesday night and five times Thursday morning, Riggs toured the construction site of the McCreary Football Complex – which will bring a new locker room and training room, among other amenities.

“This is the first time I’ve seen the facilities, seen everything, got the tour through what’s going to be the new facilities. I’m impressed,” Riggs said. “Before, all I had seen was the football stadium.

“It’s a credit to Dave Clawson and what he’s built here and all of the success that he’s had, and then the expectations that they have for this program.”

Royal, the former Virginia Tech receiver, remembered briefly swinging through Wake Forest when he was looking at colleges. The Class of 2004 recruit took note of how different things are – and how his feelings on the school would’ve been different.

“I don’t remember any of this,” Royal said, looking out onto Wake’s two-field outdoor practice area. “I would’ve walked away impressed. (Clawson) has made the correct changes and he’s done it the right way.”

Here were my observations during Wake Forest’s third practice of fall camp:

Equipment: Helmets and shoulder pads, with shorts.

Makes things a little easier to evaluate when guys have some real pads on.

Was today won by the offense, defense or neither: Offense.

This went back and forth but it just felt like the offense had a few more big plays. Honestly, the difference might have been third-team performance – Wesley Grimes had two long touchdown catches, one of them on a blown coverage.

There wasn’t a shortage of nice plays by defensive players – Isaiah Wingfield had a good sliding interception, Kevin Pointer had an interception toward the end of practice (I think), Pointer also blew up a run, Kobie Turner notched a sack, AJ Williams almost had an interception but settled for a PBU.

It just felt like the offense’s big plays outnumbered the defense’s. Christian Turner had a big run early, Demond Claiborne had a nice run, A.T. Perry was a highlight reel, Sam Hartman hit several receivers in stride for long plays down the seam.

Catch of the day: A.T. Perry.

This was the opposite of Tuesday: Instead of too few choices for catch of the day, there were too many.

Jahmal Banks had the best catch in WR/DB 1-on-1s; Gavin Ellis had a twisting, jumping catch over the middle; Banks had another one, a great one-handed cradle while falling out of bounds; Wingfield’s interception would’ve been yesterday’s winner.

But Perry made a catch near the end of practice that A) showed the full prowess of his catch radius and B) he’s probably the only receiver at Wake Forest who could make this play.

Hartman threw over the middle, about 30 yards downfield, behind Perry, who reached behind his body with his right hand, corralled the ball to his body while twisting back away from Hartman, and tucked the ball before falling.

It’s early, but that likely stands as the catch of camp for at least a little while.

Quote of the day: “I don’t know, and for me it’s really irrelevant, what’s happened in the past.” – Defensive coordinator Brad Lambert.

(stay tuned in the coming days for stories off of this exclusive interview)

Freshman/newcomer of the day: Wesley Grimes, freshman wide receiver.

I’ve hinted at it a few times but let’s dive in now:

Grimes was excellent today.

I didn’t have Grimes with one drop and had him catching four passes during 7-on-7 or full-team periods, including two that were touchdowns. I also had him drawing an obvious pass interference penalty against fellow freshman Andre Hodge.

If you read yesterday’s report, you know the second practice of Grimes’ Wake Forest career was notable for the wrong reasons. He bounced back quickly.

The most-encouraging thing from Wednesday was probably that the first real work he did saw him struggle, in 1-on-1s. So not only did he struggle yesterday, he hit a speed bump early in practice, and then turned things around.

Positional observations: A few things to note …

- Quincy Bryant took some snaps as the Buck linebacker alongside Ryan Smenda Jr. with the first-team defense. He didn’t seem to miss any assignments or look overwhelmed, though that’s difficult for me to diagnose live.

It’s no secret Wake Forest needs linebacker depth and Bryant appears to have an early track on providing it.

- Spencer Clapp took some snaps as the first-team left tackle, with DeVonte Gordon moving to right tackle, in the middle portion of practice. Je’Vionte’ Nash was back with the first team by the end of practice, though he was difficult to locate for a few periods.

Beef Boy shuffling is always tough to keep track of because Nick Tabacca likes to mix and match throughout the spring. It’s why Wake Forest develops depth at the position and new starters are prepared, but it hardly does observers any favors.

Also: I joked with Clapp after practice that I’m just going to write his position as “Beef Boy” from now on because of how many different positions on Wake’s offensive line he’s had. He really has become the [insert your baseball team’s favorite utility infielder] of that position group.

- JJ Roberts grabbed some reps as a first-team cornerback late in practice.

- Kobie Turner was elevated to taking some first-team snaps at defensive tackle alongside Dion Bergan Jr. That’s probably the most-expected development of these three, as Dave Cohen figures out his rotation with interior linemen and as Turner further cements himself as a key part of the defense after transferring from Richmond.

News of the day: Ahh, I don’t know, there wasn’t really anything too notable that I haven’t mentioned already.

I will say, to bring it back to the top of this report, that I had a chance to chat with Kelsey Riggs and Eddie Royal (Mark Richt had briefly stepped away) before the interview and they seemed very genuine, down to earth, just … good people.

Not that I would’ve expected the opposite of them, but in this industry you can run into some people more on the TV side of things who aren’t interested in giving you the time of day. So it’s worth noting when you run into people who aren’t like that.