CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson initially feared the NCAA’s transfer portal’s impact on his rebuilding project, robbing him of fifth-year seniors. Turns out the new rule may have validated his progress.
“We are still a developmental program,” Clawson said at the ACC Kickoff media days. “We feel we’re certainly recruiting better, but a lot of our success has come from redshirting. People talk about the transfer portal, how it’s ruining college football, and it’s awful.”
But “awful” only if said valuable players leave. What if they stay?
“We had nine players this year that were fifth-year seniors that could have graduated and transferred anywhere in the country and been instantly eligible,” Clawson added. “All nine of those guys — Justin (Strnad) included — chose to return to Wake Forest and finish their career.”
This has been the first football off-season since the transfer portal was instituted in October 2018. The NCAA has been frequently modifying its transfer rules to appear less draconian in response to public criticism.
The transfer portal allows a player that wants to leave his school for a new one to enter his name in a database known as the transfer portal rather than rely on word-of-mouth or middle men. Once he informs his school’s compliance school of his desire to transfer, the school is obligated to enter his name in the database.
That allows other schools that see a match with a position of need are free to contact the player.
Four seasons ago, when Wake Forest was coming off a second straight 3-9 season in 2014 and 2015, Clawson’s worst fears might have been realized. But now that the program is coming off a third straight bowl season as he enters his sixth season, the lack of transfers has validated his rebuilding plan.
His developing players are happy with their win total and cohesive locker room four and five seasons later.
The two players Clawson brought with him were Strnad, a fifth-year senior, and running back Cade Carney, a true senior. Strnad is a third-year starter at middle linebacker that earned honorable mention All-ACC last season. Carney is a fourth-year starter that ran for 1,005 yards last season.
Carney was a 3-star recruit that had offers from Georgia Tech, N.C. State and North Carolina in the ACC, but Strnad is more typical of Wake Forest’s recruits during Clawson’s first two or three seasons.
He was only a 2-star prospect as a 6-foot-2, 186-pound safety from Palm Harbor (Fla.) East Lake. Now, he’s a 6-3, 235-pound middle linebacker entering his second year as a starter. He led the team in tackles last season with 105 and earned honorable mention All-ACC honors in 2018.
“It flew by,” Strnad of his career rising to a starter. “It feels like last year I was a redshirt, 190-pound freshman linebacker. It’s cool to see over the years the teammates I’ve had, the relationships I’ve built with some of the kids on this team. I’m excited for this season, to end it the right way.”
Strnad is joined on the depth chart with five other fifth-year senior projected starters: wide receiver Claude Steven, left tackle Justin Herron, right guard Nathan Gilliam, right tackle Jake Benzinger, tight end Jack Freudenthal and cornerback Amari Henderson.
Team culture is a good preventive measure to discourage transfers.
“I think now the best programs are player-run,” Clawson said. “When you first come into a school, the coaches try to put in their philosophies, their standards, their culture. But then after a while, either the players grab a hold of that and continue it or it doesn’t quite catch on and those programs fizzle out.
“In order for us to keep improving and to keep being the program that we want to be and want to become, it needs to become more and more player-led. That becomes easier the longer we’re there.”
Clawson expects to be around longer. Last spring he signed an eight-year extension through 2026 as a result of three straight winning seasons 7-6, 8-5 and 7-6 with bowl game wins all three seasons.
“One of my really hard decisions this year is who do I bring to this event,” he said of his “problems” in Winston-Salem now that the program is winning. “Cade and Justin are great representatives, but I have 10 other players that would get up here and do a great job.
“That’s a good problem. I think in the past, it was very easy who to pick because there might only be two or three players that could do this type of job. Now we’ve got 10 or 15 of them that I’d be proud having here to represent our program.”
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