Wake Forest's Dave Clawson steps down as football coach after 11 seasons

Wake Forest's Dave Clawson won big at the private university with one of the smallest enrollments in the Bowl Subdivision ranks. Now it's up to someone else to try to do the same.

Clawson resigned Monday, ending an 11-year run with an unexpected announcement that he had given ”everything I had" for the program and school.

His tenure included guiding Wake Forest to 11 wins and a trip to the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game in 2021, as well as cracking the top 10 of the AP poll in 2021 and 2022 amid a run of six straight bowl appearances. But the Demon Deacons had gone just 4-8 in the past two seasons as the formula that had helped them sustain success became trickier to manage in today's era of free player movement through the transfer portal and players being able to cash in on their athletic fame through name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities.

In a statement released by the school, the 57-year-old coach said “the timing is right” after working 36 straight seasons in college football to step into a new advisory role to athletic director John Currie with an undergraduate enrollment of 5,471 students as of the 2023-24 academic year.