WINSTON-SALEM – Wake Forest’s first fall camp practice came with news of a couple of young defensive players the Deacons will be without.

Cornerback Zamari Stevenson suffered a season-ending injury over the summer and incoming linebacker Jaquez Keyes decided to leave the program, coach Dave Clawson said after Wake’s first practice on Monday morning.

“He just had one of those non-contact things in the offseason program, his foot got stuck in the turf a little bit,” Clawson said of Stevenson.

Stevenson played sparingly as a freshman last season — he was the only first-year player on the defense who didn’t redshirt. Clawson pointed out the silver lining is that with hindsight, the Deacons should’ve redshirted Stevenson last season — he only played 24 defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus — and now he’ll get a redshirt season as he recovers from this injury.

Wake Forest added Keyes to its Class of 2023 late in the process after he decommitted from Wisconsin. His departure means the only linebacker of the class is Aiden Hall, who enrolled in January.

Clawson said Keyes came to him in June and said he wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue with college football. He stuck with the program through the first session of summer classes and still wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue.

“When he said it at the beginning of the second session, we said, ‘If it’s hard now, it’s only going to get harder,’” Clawson said. “Maybe he’ll decide down the line he wants to play college football again, but right now, he shared with us that he just wasn’t sure he was up for this.

“We wish him well. Good kid, did nothing wrong, wasn’t kicked off the team, nothing disciplinary. Just wasn’t sure he wanted to do this.”