Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson will be the first to admit his school may not employ some of the same National Signing Day “bling” that was making headlines at Michigan and other campuses.
“Our sell here is mostly about substance: it’s a great academic school, it’s a beautiful campus, I think it feels like home,” Clawson said. “And it’s hard to catch that in one visit here, so if we can’t get people to come here multiple times it’s hard.”
With that in mind, the Deacons signed 20 of 22 recruits within what Clawson describes as a six-hour drive radius. Clawson noted that 21 of the incoming players were captains on their high school teams. In addition to making sure recruits get on campus and become familiar with the school and its campus, in his interview with David Glenn on National Signing Day Clawson described the process of making sure they know they’re signing high-character guys who will fit in at Wake. It involves weekly phone chats with the players, conversations with teachers and even opposing coaches.
In the end, Clawson said it resulted in a quality class, who were loyal and stayed with their commitments to Wake Forest even as other schools came calling late. Listen to the full audio below:
https://soundcloud.com/accsports-com/wake-forests-dave-clawson-1