WINSTON-SALEM – The joy of Sam Hartman’s return for Wake Forest was the overwhelming feeling on Tuesday, but there’s still one area of concern for the Deacons moving forward.

Oh, the penalties.

Wake Forest had seven penalties for 69 yards in last week’s season-opening 44-10 win, and those numbers only tell part of the story. They don’t include two penalties that took points off of the scoreboard – one of which occurred on a 2-point conversion attempt, the other that was an offsetting penalty that wiped out a pick-6 by Isaiah Wingfield.

Cleaning up those uncharacteristic mistakes is a main focus for Wake Forest this week.

“We’ve got to clean it up,” coach Dave Clawson said on Tuesday. “For the most part, we have not been a heavily penalized team here. We’ve been pretty disciplined.”

Penalties stick in Clawson’s craw for that reason: That oftentimes they’re undisciplined and/or lazy plays, and those are two descriptors rarely applied to any part of his program across the last nine seasons.

“It’s just not smart football … and those become selfish penalties,” Clawson said, “that you’re frustrated you didn’t get there (on a pass rush) so you’re going to take a shot. Now the defense isn’t off the field, six points come off the board. And it’s just bad football.

“My job as the head coach is to make sure those things don’t happen. And if they continue to happen, we can’t continue to play those players because it hurts the team.”

Wake’s offense looked crisp, for the most part, in Mitch Griffis’ first start at QB. The Deacons piled up 474 yards on 62 plays (7.6 yards/play) before the last two drives, when mass substitutions were made.

The flags were the frustration for Clawson.

“The sloppiness just came from too many penalties,” Clawson said. “And they were bad holds. Holds on the perimeter that I think really cost us two touchdowns and a 2-point conversion.”

The calculus on the touchdowns is that one hold wiped a touchdown off of the board – the pass to Justice Ellison on third-and-goal – and another one negated a run by Christian Turner that set the Deacons up around the 10-yard line.

Defensively, both roughing-the-passer calls were against fifth-year defensive tackle Dion Bergan Jr. on the same drive.

They were equal parts distressing for different reasons: The first was blatant and while the second was less obvious, it negated a pick-6 by Wingfield.

“The game is the game, right? The quarterback is the most protected player on the field, and he should be,” Clawson said. “Not only did they call two, but they should’ve called a third. There was another one that, in my opinion, if somebody hit our quarterback like that I’d send it in (to the league office) and say, ‘That should’ve been …’”

Adding to the defensive mix an offside call against Kobie Turner – also on the same drive – that gave VMI a first down on fourth-and-4 means the blame isn’t solely on Bergan.

Penalties against VMI bothered Clawson but they ultimately didn’t cost Wake Forest the game; the focus this week has been on making sure it’s not a repeated issue that winds up costing the Deacons a win.