As things get back to routine on the Wake Forest campus with the start of classes, there is also a major transformation going on with the football players on campus. The changes at Wake Forest are unprecedented as we start the Spring semester at school.
The window is closed for all but grad transfers. And now that school has started, the makeover of Wake personnel is close to complete.
Changes At Wake Forest Football
What makes this all brand new is not the change in coach from Dave Clawson to Jake Dickert. That happens everywhere. But it came at a time of football free agency, otherwise known as the transfer portal. And it came at a time when most likely there were some short-term exceptions developed in order to create a class of 21 transfers coming into Wake. Clawson had 23 total over the previous six years of the transfer portal system.
The latest addition for Wake is quarterback Deshawn Purdie who is moving north from UNC Charlotte. Purdie comes with a temporary asterisk. He announced his intentions on Friday, five days into the new semester. So, his transfer to Wake has made the rounds throughout social media…just not with any official status from Wake Forest. Wednesday is the add/drop deadline for classes for the Spring semester. Purdie has to have his full slate of classes for the semester by then.
The addition of Purdie makes it two quarterbacks incoming (Robby Ashford is moving over from South Carolina) via the portal. There are three in the departing category. Hank Bachmeier and Michael Kern are out of eligibility and Charlie Gilliam is transferring to Samford. Ashford has one season of eligibility left. Purdie has three. They join redshirt freshmen Jeremy Hecklinski and Nick Rubino, redshirt sophomore Tyler Mizzell, and incoming freshmen Elijah Oehlke and Steele Pizzella from the high school signing class for 2025.
Dickert said last week there will be a quarterback competition in the Spring camp. He will have a full complement of quarterbacks. Pizzella and Oehlke are both early enrollees for the Spring semester.
Who’s On Campus?
Out of the high school signee class of 21 players, nine are early enrollees for the Spring semester and are expected to be available when Spring camp starts in March. Pending the finalizing of Purdie’s class schedule, all 21 transfers will have immediate eligibility.
The incoming players at both levels also represent something that has become commonplace in the landscape of college football but is new to Wake Forest. Players follow their coach. Out of the transfer class of 21 players, seven were with Dickert At Washington State. At least eight of the portal transfers have at least two years of eligibility left. Even two of the high school players had signed with WSU before changing directions with their coach and moving to the other side of the country. Pizzella is from Southern California, and receiver Jack Foley is from Bend Oregon. They signed with Washington State, but with the change in coaches, they were granted releases from Pullman and are following Dickert to Winston-Salem.
Between the high school class and the portal class, Dickert’s biggest gains will be at the positions where Wake Forest lost the most in terms of sheer numbers. There is a total of seven new defensive linemen, six offensive linemen, and seven wide receivers who are expected to be ready for Spring camp.
The high school recruiting class, signed mostly by Clawson, is ranked 61st in the country by the 247Sports Composite. The portal class, put together completely by Dickert, is ranked 28th in the country.
In the last week, Dickert has also added two more assistant coaches. Chevis Jackson is the new cornerbacks coach. He was most recently the cornerbacks coach for the Miami Hurricanes. Dan Enos is the new quarterbacks coach. Enos was an assistant at Florida last season. He has more than 30 years of experience as an assistant, including at Alabama, Michigan, Maryland, Arkansas, and Miami.
Dates and schedules for Spring camp are still pending.
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