WINSTON-SALEM – The offense still had black jerseys on, the defense had white jerseys, and Wake Forest’s quarterbacks were wearing green ones.

Not as a late celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, to be clear.

There is a lot of newness around Wake Forest’s football program, so it was important to lean on a few things that are still the same — jersey colors being the first recognizable part inside McCreary Field House on Tuesday morning.

“Different. Just from the start of practice to the end of practice,” running back Demond Claiborne said of the energy level in coach Jake Dickert’s first spring practice. “The coaches (are) very involved, very high energy, just wanting us to be excited for what’s next.

“Just the way they approach that and instill into us as players, it definitely makes showing up a lot easier.”

What’s next are another 14 spring practices as the Deacons grow into Dickert’s tenure. He was hired in December to replace Dave Clawson, coming to Winston-Salem from Washington State.

Among the differences is the noise level — not only did Tuesday morning’s practice seem louder, music played over the speakers for the entirety of practice.

“That’s how we practice,” Dickert said. “And there will be periods when it’ll be deafening loud in here. When we get in red zone, when we get in third down. I like to practice in a fashion that replicates games.”

“Change can always be a good thing,” linebacker Quincy Bryant said. “The guys that have been here for a long time, I think we’ve all enjoyed it. Good switch-up for us.”

Another part of newness here: Tuesday’s practice was all in the indoor facility — other than a few special teamers who ventured outside to kick off of grass.

The Deacons will eventually get outside. Dickert has his reasons — not because he’s a West Coast guy and wanted to stay warm — for keeping things confined to the indoor facility.

“Just the functionality for the quickness of transition,” Dickert said. “I just wanted a nice, crisp first two days. We’ll be outside Saturday and beyond.”

It seemed crisp, at least to the untrained eye. And as crisp a practice as you can have with players wearing helmets, shell-type shoulder pads, and shorts.

There was some feistiness to it, too. Most notably when wide receiver Jeremiah Melvin and cornerback Jaxon Mull went to the ground fighting for an interception, wrestling for control of the ball for several seconds, before Mull won possession of it.

“There was a little bit of that. I mean, that’s football,” Dickert said. “Competing is a core value of ours and sometimes you’ve gotta control the emotional states of it and you’ve gotta be able to snap back quickly and respond to those types of moments.

“But I love the competitive edge that I thought we played with on Day One.”

Dickert has taken over a program that was ranked in the College Football Playoff poll in each of the 2021 and ’22 seasons, the last two of a seven-year stretch of bowl berths.

Back-to-back 4-8 seasons and Clawson’s resignation with tones of exasperation about the state of college football — and athletics — created the need for a fresh and new energy, though.

“You know, I love the old coaching staff. Coach Clawson and those guys, I love those guys,” Claiborne said. “But it’s just different and it’s a change that’s well needed around here and I’m super excited for what the future holds for the Demon Deacons.”

Here were a few notes and observations from Wake Forest’s first practice of the spring:

- Wake Forest has nine mid-year enrollees, a mix of them having signed with the previous coaching staff and others who transitioned from signing with Washington State to Wake Forest.

“The first thing we did at that team break was congratulate all those mid-year freshmen that took their first practice,” Dickert said. “They’re no longer newbies.”

- Belaboring the point: Wake Forest is changing. So, its offense is going to be different. None of A.T. Perry, Scotty Washington or Sage Surratt are walking through the doors — and if they did, they’d be used differently than they were in the previous offense.

And yet, you can’t help but look at the size of some wide receivers and think, “There’s a guy who looks like he can high point a ball and win a 1-on-1.”

Those would be: Sterling Berkhalter (6-3, 203), Micah Mays Jr. (6-2, 196), Reginald Vick Jr. (6-3, 198), Jeremiah Melvin (6-4, 195) and Jack Foley (6-4, 205). Berkhalter (Cincinnati) and Vick (Virginia Union) are transfers; Mays and Melvin are returning players; and Foley is a freshman.

- It’s a fool’s errand to evaluate quarterback play after one spring practice. Really, after any amount of spring practices, given it’s 15 practices spread across five weeks with vanilla and basic concepts.

So, basically: Wake Forest has seven quarterbacks on its roster and three of them — Robby Ashford, Jeremy Hecklinski and Deshawn Purdie, in alphabetical order — could wind up as Wake’s starter against Kennesaw State on Aug. 29.

One note: Freshman Steele Pizzella appeared to have a good first collegiate practice.

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