Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson is stepping down and will move into an advisory role within the athletic department, people briefed on the decision told The Athletic on Monday.
The 57-year-old Clawson has been a head coach for all but one season since 1999, across stints at Fordham, Richmond, Bowling Green and Wake Forest. He spent the 2008 season as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator.
Potential candidates to fill the Wake Forest job could include former West Virginia coach Neal Brown, James Madison head coach Bob Chesney and Washington State head coach Jake Dickert, people briefed on the situation said.
As Wake Forest’s head coach since 2014, Clawson amassed a 67-69 record, reaching seven consecutive bowl games from 2016 to ’22. The high point of his tenure was an 11-3 record in 2021, capped by an ACC Championship Game appearance and a top-15 final ranking. It was the longest period of sustained success in program history.
But things had been on a downward turn since. The Demon Deacons just wrapped their second consecutive 4-8 season.
Before Wake Forest, Clawson spent five years at Bowling Green, winning the MAC in his last season. He went 29-20 at FCS Richmond before that, winning two conference championships with two top-10 finishes. Clawson also went 29-29 in five seasons at Fordham, going from an 0-11 season in his debut season to a conference championship in Year 4.
Wake Forest has been a limited player in the name, image and likeness market compared to many of its peers, especially in football moreso than basketball. Clawson made comments throughout the season that Wake Forest’s roster was the best it could afford.
Clawson’s teams also often relied on veteran leadership, a strategy that became harder in the transfer portal era, such as when quarterback Sam Hartman went to Notre Dame for his final season in 2023.
“You only dated him a couple of months. It can’t be love,” Clawson said of Notre Dame when Hartman finished up in South Bend. “We’re the ones that love him. We had five years with him. You rented him for a season. … When that (farewell) video played, it was like, ‘Holy cow, this is where college football is.’”
This story will be updated.
(Photo: Quinn Harris / Getty Images)
