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Wake's Forest's 3-0 victory over Boston College was anything but pretty. Wake Forest had just five first downs and 142 yards of total offense. Still, for a program that is in its second season under head coach Dave Clawson, it was an excellent result. Even if it did end in a walk-off-pile-up.
Via @ESPNStatsInfo WF won despite recording 5 1st downs. That's the fewest by any FBS team in a win in at least the last 20 seasons.
— Andrea Adelson (@aadelsonESPN) October 10, 2015
Wake Forest is still at the point where if it wins, it's not going to be a thing of beauty. Wake is currently starting three redshirt freshmen on the offensive line, and was going against a phenomenal defense today. Some will take their shots at Wake Forest for winning a game 3-0, but this program should never apologize for winning.
"It feels awesome. We've been in so many of these tight games all year and we found a way to win it," Clawson said.
— Deacons Illustrated (@WakeRivals) October 10, 2015
This was, after all, Wake Forest's first ACC road win since 2012, and the Deacs entered the game as a 9.5. point underdog. The Deacs are now 3-3, and already have as many wins as they did all of last season. Instead of just moral victories (like an excellent performance last week against Florida State), Dave Clawson and his staff can now point to tangible results. This was just further proof of the strong direction that the program is headed.
There were several horrific plays in this game: Tabari Hines not letting the punt go and running backwards, the Colburn fumble, the 15-yard unsporstmanlike conduct penalty on Clawson, the pass interference on Devin Gaulden. Now's not the time to talk about those. Wake Forest won an ACC road game. I truly don't care about any of that. Winning is such an emotional joy, and given how few times I've felt this feeling over the past several years, I'm going to embrace it.
This game was exciting. Yes, it was excrutiating and nerve-racking to watch, but Wake is fun to root for again. The defense was exceptional. Alex Kinal, my vocabulary isn't good enough to appropriately describe Alex Kinal's contribution to Wake's team.
I love the fact that this team will compete every Saturday. That's not how it had been the pass couple of years. The last two losses (Indiana and Florida State) were tough losses, but also encouraging based on the team's improvement. Today, Wake Forest sealed the deal. Because they continued to play until the very end, and stayed on that pile, they emerged victorious. Had they did mailed it in, then Boston College simply overpowers Wake Forest's defensive line and wins the game right there. But that didn't happen.
Enjoy this one, Wake Forest fans. You all deserve it. Go Deacs!