My Take: A most unlikely hero emerges … just what Deacons needed

WINSTON-SALEM – The right player to lead Wake Forest out of a rocky three-game stretch was the guy who played three positions last year.

Noted: Santino Marucci played quarterback, running back and safety — apparently not linebacker.

“Quarterback, running back and safety,” said Wake’s winning quarterback on Saturday, “not tight end, not linebacker, not O-line, D-line.”

He’s Wake’s quarterback now, having thrown the game-winning 15-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Hite with 7 seconds left to beat Pittsburgh 21-17 on Saturday.

You’ll see parallels wherever you want to see them, so this is a slippery slope. But would you argue against Marucci’s three-year whirlwind of a career, which never included a significant snap before he trotted out for Wake’s first drive, being anything but a perfect preparation of the emotional swings of the last 3½ minutes?

Would you argue against the way Wake’s chances of beating Pitt looked dead in the water — kind of like the season as a whole — after Marucci’s interception in the final two minutes?

“Over those three years, it was a rollercoaster,” Marucci said. “There were ups, downs, loop-de-loops, everything. It’s been nothing short of memorable, though. Just leading up to what happened, I’m so grateful for this opportunity and what this team has done.”

This wasn’t a replica of Wake’s comeback win at N.C. State in 2018 because, as coach Dave Clawson pointed out after referencing it, Jamie Newman had been at quarterback for three years (though there were spring practices halfway through his career that was confirmation he wouldn’t move to tight end).

Marucci is the guy who got moved to another position. And then to the other side of the ball. And then back to QB only after two quarterbacks left the program.

“Santino was back-peddling, playing safety a year ago,” Clawson said. “We went into this and we said, ‘Let’s put this on the O-line, let’s put this on the backs, let’s give him some quick screens, maybe some play-action bootlegs.’

“And then at the end of the game, we had to let him play.”

How many more times that formula can work over the next five weeks is a problem to be solved, well, in the next five weeks.

What mattered in this game was Wake Forest found a rallying point in its third-string QB.

“He’s had some ups and downs in his career, obviously, but that guy has come to work every day,” Hite said. “He had a great week of practice and preparation and the guys rallied around him. He had a great game.”

Wake’s quarterback stability over Clawson’s tenure has been remarkable. It’s broken down as: Four years of mostly John Wolford, a little Kendall Hinton, one Kyle Kearns injury start; two years split between Sam Hartman and Newman; and three years of Hartman, minus one medical issue that put Mitch Griffis into last year’s opener.

Year 10 was supposed to be a smooth transition to Griffis and it’s been anything but. He’s struggled as much as the rest of the offense around him has struggled. The cumulative beating he’s taken lately meant that not only was he unavailable for Wake Forest against Pitt, he wasn’t anywhere to be found on the sidelines.

We’ve got no idea if Marucci is a long-term answer. That equation only gets solved with more experience, and given the way this season has gone, though, there’s no long-term thinking at hand.

In a roundabout way, Wake Forest comes out of this home game needing to answer the same questions it left the previous home game — loss to Georgia Tech — with. The Deacons need to find out if they need to find a quarterback in the transfer portal before next season, or if they’re better served building around what they’ve got.

On the post-season to-do list for yours truly: How much stock should I ever put into practices?