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Wake finalizing deal with Jay Sawvel to become new DC

honestly seems on paper like a better hire than robb smith to me. i like it.
 
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Yeah. Sawvel is trending up. Smith had a down year.

This really looks like a home run pickup.
 
Bubble Boy said:
Didn't Grobe hire Syracuse's DC to be just a position coach a few years after the Orange Bowl year? Steve Russ I believe it was. Of course, I think he had worked with Grobe at Ohio and/or Air Force several years before, so there was some familiarity between the two.
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Good memory. According to Wikipedia, he was the DC/LB coach for one year before he came to Wake as the FB/TE coach. He's the AHC/DC/DB coach at Air Force now. He and Steed are the former Wake coaches on Grobe's staff. Former Terp HC Ron Vanderlinden is the ILB coach.
 
DeaconSig said:
I would imagine this is the best resume of a coordinator we have hired in some time. I think Calhoun ended up being a great coordinator, but my recollection was he was at Ohio with Grobe. I can't think of anybody else we brought in directly from a coordinator position at another P5 school going back to Caldwell.
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I think you've gotta go back to Bill Dooley's first staff. Some real good big time coaching talent. OL Coach Jordan had been the OL at SMU during their "Pony Express" days. When we had success we couldn't retain them.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
Seriously. Any word on why Fleck preferred Smith over Sawvel?
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Fleck and Smith worked together at Rutgers in 2011. Fleck went to the Bucs in Schiano's 1st year and Smith went to the Bucs in Schiano's 2nd year after Fleck went to WMU. I don't think Fleck retained anybody from Claeys' staff.
 
The article says he is known as a strong recruiter. Is this the guy who that had been described on the DC thread as a questionable, to potentially weak, recruiter?
 
tbpnwe said:
Interesting going from Big 10 large school to small ACC for same position.

I think that speaks highly of Clawson.
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From second or third best football conference to best. Step up! :thumbsup:
 
Tobacco Road said:
The article says he is known as a strong recruiter. Is this the guy who that had been described on the DC thread as a questionable, to potentially weak, recruiter?
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Jay Sawvel has the reputation as the strong recruiter.

Robb Smith is known as the football version of Jeff [Redacted].
 
PhDeac said:
Fleck and Smith worked together at Rutgers in 2011. Fleck went to the Bucs in Schiano's 1st year and Smith went to the Bucs in Schiano's 2nd year after Fleck went to WMU. I don't think Fleck retained anybody from Claeys' staff.
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Doesn't make the Smith pick seem like the snub of Sawvel some are making it out to be. From my cursory understanding, Sawvel seems like the much better hire. Happy with the way it worked out.
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
Doesn't make the Smith pick seem like the snub of Sawvel some are making it out to be. From my cursory understanding, Sawvel seems like the much better hire. Happy with the way it worked out.
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Yeah, me too. But you never can tell how these things work out in the end. All you can do is try to avoid guys with objective evidence of weakness or worse. Especially if you really can't afford to take a chance on a "diamond in the rough".
 
tbpnwe said:
Interesting going from Big 10 large school to small ACC for same position.

I think that speaks highly of Clawson.
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If not for the money, More job security?
 
Yeah. He didn't have a job at all.
 
Wake released a statement from Clawson naming Sawvel the new DC. It's posted on Wake Forest sports.
 
Clawson's quote is" "Jay’s background has been running a very similar defensive scheme to what we have run at Wake Forest."

Reading that to mean we are not changing our defensive scheme, but rather Sawvel will be using (learning?) the 4-2-5. I figured that to be the case, but sort of fascinating it is confirmed in the first of only two quotable sentences from Clawson in the entire press release.
 
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