Wake Forest's John Wolford Joins Elite Company

John Wolford and the Wake Forest offense are putting up some serious numbers.

Wake Forest quarterback John Wolford has been outstanding this season, particularly over the past three weeks. For the season Wolford has completed 65% of his passes for 2,354 yards, 20 touchdowns, and just 3 interceptions, with a QB rating of 162.8. In addition to his terrific passing numbers, he’s also run the ball 105 times for 536 yards (5.10 yards/carry) and 10 touchdowns. ESPN’s David Hale helped put the senior’s numbers in perspective.

Pretty decent company here: Heisman Trophy winner, 1st-team All-American, NFL Rookie of the Year, and John Wolford.

More great company here for Wolford- Heisman Trophy winner, national champion, Super Bowl champion, #2 overall draft pick, Heisman Trophy winner/national champion/#1 NFL Draft Pick.

Wolford’s first career stat line (12/22/97) was far more similar to your younger brother’s birthdate than the stat line of a quarterback in a high-powered offense. Three years later and Wolford is putting up gaudy numbers. The senior from Jacksonville had 25 completions for 363 yards and 3 touchdowns against Syracuse, while also rushing for 136 yards and 3 more scores. Over his past 3 games he’s accumulated for 1,357 yards, 15 touchdowns, and just 1 turnover. That’ll do.

Wake Forest’s improvement as an offense and as a team since the 2014 season is exceptional. The 2014 offense was unspeakably bad, and really the past two years have still left a lot to be desired. That has changed in 2017, however, as Wake Forest is now winning games because of the offense. Gone are the days of only winning ACC games 3-0 or 6-3 in double-overtime. Wake Forest was down 17 points at Syracuse, and went on to win by 21 points. The Deacs put up a program-record 734 yards of offense and also put 64 points on the scoreboard.

Wolford has gotten the majority of the headlines, though he deserves more national attention, but the offensive production has been a #process that’s years in the making. Clawson made a strong emphasis to recruit offensive linemen during his 2014 recruiting class and redshirt them. That class consisted of Justin Herron, Patrick Osterhage, Ryan Anderson, and Phil Haynes (technically graduated early and joined that year). Clawson followed that class up in 2015 by landing Nathan Gilliam and Jake Benzinger. All of those players have played a pivotal role this season.

The latter recruiting classes focused on skill position players like Scotty Washington, Greg Dortch, Tabari Hines, Cade Carney, and Matt Colburn. Clawson and his staff were very fortunate to inherit Cam Serigne. Those players have turned into very reliable players who can make big plays and make defenders miss.

Wake Forest football is now playing an exciting brand of football, and it is a delight to watch. There were question marks entering the season whether the Deacs could return to a bowl game due to the difficult schedule, but we didn’t realize how improved our team would be from a season ago. Key players like Brad Watson were lost, but Clawson’s early recruiting classes have grown up together and are producing results.

The Deacons are already bowl eligible, but have two extremely winnable home games remaining and could make this one of the best seasons in school history. I hope to see many of you at BB&T Field on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. when the Deacs host the Wolfpack. It represents a great opportunity for the Deacs to earn a top 25 win and continue building on what’s already been a successful year.