Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM NOV. 18, 2023 35 GAME PREVIEW: WAKE FOREST 1. Quarterback Roller Coaster This isn't Sam Hartman's Wake Forest anymore. In the first year without Hartman manning the controls at quarterback, the Demon Deacons have leaned on three different signal-callers with games on the line. The results have all been pain- fully similar. Mitch Griffis has been the No. 1 guy, but he was benched in the middle of a 30-13 loss to Virginia Tech Oct. 14. Redshirt junior Michael Kern took over for him and was not much better. Redshirt sophomore Santino Marucci actually started in Wake's 21-17 victory over Pitt Oct. 21. He was just 12-of-21 passing for 151 yards with 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions in a game Pitt gave away in the end. Griffis did put it together in the 24-21 loss at Duke on Nov. 2. He was 16-of-19 passing for 241 yards and also ran for 55 yards and 2 touch- downs. He will likely remain the starter. Overall, Wake's quarterbacks had completed 132 of 228 throws (57.9 percent) for 1,610 yards with 10 touchdowns and 8 interceptions through Week 9. The Demon Deacons had the nation's No. 101 passing offense at that point. 2. Problems With Passing Defense It's not much better for Wake Forest when op- ponents put the ball in the air. The Demon Dea- cons had the country's No. 114 passing defense through Week 9, averaging 256.5 yards allowed via the pass per game. Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Florida State all posted 300-yard passing per- formances against Wake in consecutive weeks. Those teams combined for 7 touchdown passes and 0 interceptions, too. Wake Forest had the nation's No. 82 pass ef- ficiency defense through Week 9 with a figure of 137.18. For reference, Notre Dame ranked No. 3 at 96.34 at the same point in the season. The Notre Dame passing offense has gone quite stale at times this season. But on senior day against his former team, Sam Hartman should be able to put up memorable numbers against a De- mon Deacons passing defense that hasn't shown many signs of being able to slow anybody down. 3. Settling For Field Goals A first glance at kicker Matthew Dennis' stat line, 14 of 16 on field goals through Week 9, would lead you to believe he's having a sensa- tional year. It's no joke to have a season-long field goal percentage of 87.5. Only four kickers in Notre Dame history have matched or exceeded that mark in a single season. Here's the, well, kicker — more than half of Dennis' connections have been from 20 to 29 yards. He's 8 of 8 within that range. Wake Forest had the No. 4 field goal percent- age in the red zone in the country through Week 9. The Demon Deacons kicked more field goals (13) than they scored touchdowns (12) after crossing over the 20-yard line at that point in the season. Notre Dame's overall opponent red zone scoring percentage of .640 ranked second nationally through Week 9. The Fighting Irish are stingy in the red area. That doesn't bode well for a Wake team that can't punch it into the end zone when it gets there. — Tyler Horka Redshirt sophomore quarterback Mitch Griffis has had a tough time taking over as the starter for the Demon Deacons after Sam Hartman left for Notre Dame. PHOTO COURTESY WAKE FOREST ATHLETICS Three Things To Know About Wake Forest