WINSTON-SALEM – Spending most of the past five seasons unavailable because of injuries, Wake Forest tight end Michael Frogge often reminded himself of a stonecutter’s credo.

In summation: A stonecutter might hit a rock over and over again with no results to show for it before finally breaking it. But it wasn’t the last strike that broke the rock; it was every cumulative strike that led to the breakthrough. (It's a quote attributed to Jacob Riis, a photographer in the late 1800s and early 1900s)

You can see where an oft-injured athlete could related to this.

“It wasn’t that one last hit … that cracked the stone, but the 1,000 before that,” Frogge said. “So, just keep plugging away, keep my head down and knowing that if I trust the process, the process will love me back.”

The 6-5, 240-pounder got some love on Saturday.

Frogge’s 6-yard touchdown catch against Clemson in the second quarter of this past weekend’s 49-14 loss wasn’t just the fifth-year tight end’s first score — it was his first catch as a Deacon.

The Greensboro native has seemingly been injured for most of his collegiate career. He missed all of the 2022 season, his third in the program, and played sparingly last year.

But there was Frogge on Saturday, starting for the first time and playing 58 of Wake’s 62 offensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. Because Harry Lodge and Cameron Hite were both unavailable against Clemson, Frogge was thrust into a larger role.

“I think previous years, I’d get out there and I’m geeked up and kinda lose focus on what I’ve trained to do,” Frogge said. “In (Saturday’s) game, I was just trying to stay calm and remember my training, revert back to my training.

“People say you don’t rise to the occasion but you fall back to your preparation, so trying to take that literally and go play-by-play, having a short memory and staying calm out there, really.”

Frogge’s touchdown catch against the Tigers was Wake’s first touchdown by a tight end in about one year — the last one was Hite’s 15-yard game-winner against Pittsburgh last year.

Tight end was supposed to be a position of strength for this team and there’s half a season left for that to play out.

It was the first position mentioned by coach Dave Clawson after Wake’s spring game when asked if any positions had been a pleasant surprise, in terms of depth facilitated. Six games into this season, the Deacons haven’t had a game yet in which all three of their top tight ends have taken offensive snaps.

Hite started 11 games last season, playing over 600 snaps. Frogge played the second-most snaps, which was only 77, and Lodge played 14.

Lodge emerged over the spring and fall camp, starting Wake’s first four games this season. Hite started at N.C. State, but he and Lodge both played over 40 snaps against the Wolfpack.

Wake Forest only had 66 offensive snaps at N.C. State; the Deacons used more 12 personnel — one running back, two tight ends — in that game than they have in recent seasons.

“We were hoping to do more of that,” Clawson said after Saturday’s game about playing more sets with multiple tight ends. “And then all of a sudden, your two tight ends are out and it kind of limited some of the things we did a week ago that we were hoping to build on.”

Clawson added that Lodge and Hite are expected to be back for this weekend’s game at Connecticut.

The derailment happened with Hite and Lodge both missing the Clemson game; the part that’ll be answered, possibly starting this weekend at UConn, is how productive the position can be with all three of Lodge, Hite and Frogge healthy.

“Obviously, we’ve got three solid guys in the tight end room,” Frogge said. “I think the coaches are going to make the best decision to play the guys that put our team in the best position to win.

“Whatever role that gives me, I’m just going to give 110% to my role and do whatever I can to help the team win, whether that’s playing all three of us or playing the best two or whatever the case may be.”