Believe it or not the start of the 2020 Clemson football season is 12 days away.
The Tigers will kickoff the season at Wake Forest on Sept. 12. This time next week, will be game week in Tigertown as Clemson looks to defend its grip on the ACC. The Tigers will be looking for their sixth straight conference championship in 2020.
What do we know about the Demon Deacons?
What we do know is they will not have quarterback Jamie Newman, he is now at Georgia. They also lost star wide receiver Sage Surratt, who decided to opt out of the 2020 season due to his concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic.
With Surratt gone, the Deacons return just two starters on offense.
Wake Forest is not totally helpless though. Sam Hartman will be the starting quarterback again. He had a run as the starter during his freshman season in 2018 and is more than capable of leading the team. Hartman was fourth in the ACC in total offense during his freshman year before breaking his leg in the ninth game of the season.
Wide receiver Jaquarii Roberson is an experienced player, as is running back Christian Beal-Smith and tight end Brandon Chapman. So, they do have weapons and playmakers with experience.
Defensively, the Demon Deacons have one of the conference’s best defensive ends in Carlos Basham. He was an All-ACC selection last year and finished the year ranked second in the ACC in sacks and tackles behind the line of scrimmage.
Overall, the defense returns nine starters on a unit that ranked 60th in the country last year in defensive efficiency. They also forced opposing offenses to go three-and-out 37 percent of the time in 2019, which ranked fourth in the ACC and 22nd nationally.
The biggest concern for Wake Forest is making up for the missing time it suffered in the spring and the summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic. How much work they were able to get in and Dave Clawson’s ability to coach up players in these restricted times will go a long way in determining how much depth the Deacons have, and if they can compete with Clemson when the Tigers visit Winston-Salem in 12 days to kickoff the 2020 season.
Last year, Clemson beat Wake Forest 52-3 in Death Valley. In fact, Clemson has beat Wake by a combined score of 115-6 in the last two seasons. Also, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is 11-0 all-time against the Demon Deacons.
Clemson leads the all-time series 67-17-1. The 67 wins over Wake Forest is second all-time to South Carolina, who the Tigers have beat 71 times.
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