Wake Forest has a glaring problem when it comes to covering kickoffs. “Obviously our kickoff coverage is atrocious. If we could just cover kicks, that would not have even been a close game,” Coach Dave Clawson said. “It happened in the Louisville game, and it reared its ugly head again.”
The Deacons surrendered two kickoff return touchdowns against Duke, and have given up three this season. Those aren’t the only kickoffs that have hurt — Louisville also brought one back to 15, while Boston College and Virginia Tech, just to name a couple more, swung momentum their ways with kick returns to midfield against Wake Forest.
On 71 kickoffs this season, opponents have only taken 16 touchbacks. “Obviously we have to do a better job of coaching that, and we’re not kicking it real well, and we’re not covering it real well,” Clawson said.