Wake Forest comes out of spring game with clearer picture
Deacons have taken strides in some areas, with need for growth in others before fall camp starts
WINSTON-SALEM – The good news was that Wake Forest had four touchdown passes in its spring game on Saturday.
The bad news — because everything in the spring is a zero-sum matter — is how open the receivers were against the Deacons’ defense.
“I’ve been here long enough that I’m going to sound like a broken record in a spring game,” coach Dave Clawson said, “because everything that you get excited about and every good play you make, the flip side is on the other side of the ball.”
Three of the four touchdown passes were to wide-open receivers; Hank Bachmeier to Horatio Fields on a 46-yard post on the first possession of the game, and freshman Jeremy Hecklinski to Jaydn Girard (80 yards) and Ian Ver Steeg (20 yards).
“It’s great to see Hank hit Horatio on a post route early for a touchdown,” Clawson said. “And then, because you get to look at replay, you’re watching the thing on the sideline, you’re saying, ‘How did the corner let the guy inside so easily?’
“It was good to see some of our guys on the outside make guys miss. We had some good plays on hitches. The flip side is you missed tackles at the corner position that allowed those big plays.”
The White Team was Wake’s first-team offense and second-team defense; the Black Team was the second-team offense and first-team defense. It allowed the first-teams and second-teams to match up against each other.
On the White Team, Bachmeier went 3-for-3 for 69 yards, all of them going to Fields, on the first drive of the game.
Aside from that series, Bachmeier was 10-for-18 for 95 yards in the rest of the first half. He finished 24-for-40 for 310 yards and was the only QB for that team. He had a 28-yard pass to Walker Merrill in which the Tennessee transfer made a leaping contested catch, and Taylor Morin hauled in a 33-yard strike on the first play of a drive that then stalled at midfield.
Clawson remarked that he was “shocked” to see how quickly Bachmeier has picked up Wake’s offense, while pointing out how unrealistic it would’ve been to think he’d be at the level of a fourth-year John Wolford (2017) or fifth-year Sam Hartman (2022).
Bachmeier was intercepted by Demarcus Rankin, putting the Black Team 26 yards away from a touchdown. That was Hecklinski’s second possession, and he threw a 12-yard dart to freshman Jeremiah Melvin to get a first down, and then flipped a toss to the flats for running back Mason Andrade to score on a 6-yard catch and run on third-and-2.
“The area that we have to make the biggest stride is probably in the secondary,” Clawson said. “I think you saw some really good things in terms of guys stepping into the box and making open-field plays, but I just think amount of explosives that we gave up — and again, part of that is good offense.
“But any time there’s good offense, you have to say hey, on defense, you have to find a way to make that play or tackle.”
Hecklinski was 12-for-21 for 204 yards to go with those three scores. Andrade was the only running back for the Black Team, carrying 15 times for 43 yards and catching two passes for 18 yards and the touchdown.
EXTRA POINTS: Redshirt freshman defensive lineman Tyler Walton was injured in the first half, receiving medical attention to his left leg. … The first-team offensive line, from left to right, for the first series was: DeVonte Gordon-Matt Gulbin-Luke Petitbon-Nick Sharpe-Erik Russell. … The only interception other than Rankin’s was one in the second half by walk-on defensive back Mark Rogalski, on a deflected pass by Charlie Gilliam.