The “or” remains between Hank Bachmeier and Michael Kern on the Deacons’ depth chart, but Bachmeier will start against Virginia
WINSTON-SALEM – The “or” on Wake Forest’s depth chart separating quarterbacks exists in perpetuity.
Hank Bachmeier will start Saturday night’s game against Virginia, coach Dave Clawson said in his weekly press conference Tuesday afternoon.
“Hank’s going to start this game,” Clawson said. “We’re still repping Hank and Michael (Kern) with the ones. We don’t necessarily have a predetermined plan, but we’d like to get Michael in there.”
What was close competition throughout fall camp was extended into last week’s season opener. Kern started — the third start of his career, following the last two games of last season — and was 5-for-8 for 57 yards.
The first possession was a three-and-out; the second ended with a touchdown run by Demond Claiborne; the third stalled after one first down and a dropped deep ball by Walker Merrill.
Bachmeier’s first drive featured one first down and a punt, and then his next five possessions ended with points — four of those, touchdowns. Three of the touchdowns came out of his right hand — a screen that Donavon Greene turned into a 24-yard touchdown, along with frozen-roped short touchdown passes to Horatio Fields and Deuce Alexander in the third quarter.
The final line for Bachmeier was 18-for-28, 263 yards and those three scores. He didn’t turn the ball over and was sacked once.
While that was enough to make Bachmeier the starter for Wake’s second game — and ACC opener, in which the Deacons are a slight favorite — it’s not enough for Clawson to declare the QB competition finished.
“I’m not ready to declare this over, but Hank played really well,” Clawson said. “When he was in there, I thought we got into a rhythm and had those two drives at the end of the (first) half, and then we scored on every drive of the second half.
“We’re going to need two quarterbacks. But we made a decision based on last game that we’re going to go with Hank, a little bit in terms of how he moved the team. Don’t necessarily think Michael played poorly, but things maybe broke a little better for Hank and he took advantage of it.”
