Demon Deacons look to vent on despised Louisville team
Looking to snap its second two-game losing streak of the season, Wake Forest should have no problem being motivated for Saturday’s game at Louisville.
The Demon Deacons are 3-4 and they’ve fallen to 0-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. This matchup with Louisville (2-5, 0-4) involves the only other team in the league without a conference victory.
“This is not where I thought we’d be, but it is what it is and you have to make the best of it,” Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said.
The Demon Deacons have been hammered by injuries and the depth chart has taken a different shape than expected. The defense has been hit particularly hard.
Because of that, practice has been limited in some areas, particularly without a full set of healthy linebackers.
The other way to look at this is that the Demon Deacons have provided playing time for numerous of the less experienced players. It’s just too bad that they’ve been exposed at times against the likes of Notre Dame, Clemson and Florida State.
“All of these young kids getting reps are going to start getting better,” Clawson said.
This game against Louisville is one the Demon Deacons desperately want to win and it goes beyond the situation involving this year’s team.
Wake Forest and Louisville have a limited history, but it’s an interesting one if nothing else.
They first met to end the 2006 season, with Louisville winning in the Orange Bowl.
But developments from the 2016 game are still lingering. At that game in Louisville, a Wake Forest staffer found game plans that apparently had been in the hands of the Louisville coaching staff. That led to an extended investigation — WakeyLeaks it was dubbed — that uncovered that a Wake Forest radio analyst (and former assistant coach) had shared inside information with several opposing teams. He was dismissed from his role.
But bitter feelings continue to exist from the Wake Forest side. The Demon Deacons lost that 2016 game, though they gained revenge with a home victory last year.