Who has left? Who is joining the Deacons? And where should there still be some concern?Â
If you have transfer portal whiplash from the last five months of following Wake Forest’s football team, you’re not alone.
The roster churn when a new coach takes over a program has accelerated because of changes to college athletics’ landscape. Immediate eligibility for transfers of any kind means an entire roster can be overhauled in the span of a few months.
To an extent, that’s happened at Wake Forest. Out went Dave Clawson on Dec. 16; in stepped Jake Dickert on Dec. 18.
Most of the personnel turnover occurred in the few weeks after the coaching transition in December and January — but not all of it. Near the end of Wake’s 15 spring practices, announcements started of players entering the portal. The portal window opened April 16 and closed April 25.
Coinciding announcements of players committing to Wake Forest have followed in the past couple of weeks.
There will be three parts to this story; the first is a summation of players who left Wake Forest in the past month:
Years of eligibility remaining: Four.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: 3 — handoffs for Hecklinski at the end of Wake’s loss at Miami, his only game experience last season.
New program: Iowa — where former offensive coordinator Warren Ruggiero has been hired to an analyst position.
QB Tyler Mizzell
Years of eligibility remaining: Three.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: 2 — snaps in Mizzell’s two seasons at Wake Forest.
New program: TBD.
WR Jaydn Girard
Years of eligibility remaining: Two.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: 1 — catch as a Deacon, that went for 25 yards against Mississippi last season.
New program: TBD.
Years of eligibility remaining: Four.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: N/A — he enrolled in January and is headed elsewhere.
New program: TBD — has tweeted offers from Coastal Carolina, Prairie View A&M and Idaho State since entering the portal.
OL AJ Hasson
Years of eligibility remaining: Four.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: N/A — he transferred into the program after redshirting at Washington State last year, and is now back in the portal.
New program: TBD.
Years of eligibility remaining: Three.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: 48 — snaps played by Marable, 42 of which were last season. He had two tackles, one each against Mississippi and Clemson.
New program: Boston College.
DT Ameir Glenn
Years of eligibility remaining: Four.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: 0 — played that many snaps for the Deacons last season, his only one in Winston-Salem.
New program: TBD — has tweeted offers from Towson and Samford since entering the portal.
Years of eligibility remaining: Four.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: 0 — like Glenn, he did not see game action last season as a freshman.
New program: TBD.
Years of eligibility remaining: Four.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: N/A — like Glass, he was a January enrollee who’s headed elsewhere.
New program: TBD.
DB Sam Neely
Years of eligibility remaining: Four.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: 0 — same as Hines and Glenn; didn’t take snaps as a freshman last season.
New program: Stanford.
Years of eligibility remaining: Four.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: 0 — and same as the three others mentioned above; no snaps as a freshman last season.
New program: TBD.
Years of eligibility remaining: Three.
By the numbers at Wake Forest: 41 of 57 — kickoffs that went for touchbacks in the past two seasons.
New program: Liberty.
The skinny: Hecklinski is the headliner here — as explained in the story about his departure.
Wake’s previous coaching staff saw him as the quarterback of the future. After a regular-season loss to Duke capped a second straight 4-8 season, Clawson’s staff was ready to pivot to Hecklinski and bring in a veteran to compete with him for the starting gig.
That plan lasted about two weeks until Clawson’s resignation. Dickert brought in Robby Ashford (South Carolina) and Deshawn Purdie (Charlotte) from the transfer portal; Hecklinski’s exit means a three-man race to be Wake’s starter against Kennesaw State on Aug. 29 is down to a two-man battle.
Hecklinski committed to Iowa last week. The Hawkeyes’ presumptive starter is Mark Gronowski, who played 55 career games at South Dakota State and won the Walter Payton Award in 2023 (goes to the top FCS player in the country). Iowa also brought in Hank Brown from Auburn.
Among the other exiting players, it’s notable that two of them — Marable and Neely — will be staying in the ACC.
Most of Black’s kickoffs (45 of them) came in the 2023 season.
