Clawson: 'It was time' to step aside and make Wake Forest football coach 'somebody else's job'

Updated Dec. 17, 2024 1:19 p.m. ET

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Emotions bubbled up repeatedly for Dave Clawson, leaving him choking back tears as he explained why it was the right time for him to step down as Wake Forest's coach. They came as he talked about his players, his coaching staff, the high points of a successful 11-year run here and the ever-present demands on his family.

And yet, there was at least one thing Clawson wouldn't miss: running a program amid a time of landscape-altering changes in college athletics.

“You can't do something successfully, and it's not fair to the players or the institution if you're doing something that your whole heart and soul isn't into,” Clawson said at a news conference a day after the school announced his resignation.

“I did not want to do this, in my perfect world I'd be having this press conference in three or four years. But I just looked at kind of where the industry is right now, and I just felt like it was time.”

And so, the 57-year-old Clawson took a similar route as another Atlantic Coast Conference coach of similar age — Virginia's Tony Bennett in men's basketball — in stepping away from the sport years before a projected retirement window.

It was roughly two months earlier that the 55-year-old Bennett, who won a national championship with the Cavaliers in 2019, declared himself “a square peg in a round hole” in a tearful farewell. That came amid a time 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 — a combination that has led to roster upheaval across college sports.

It's no coincidence that there were some familiar vibes in Clawson's message Tuesday.

Asked about the parallel to Bennett's exit, Clawson recalled a “very frank discussion" he had with the former Virginia coach outside an elevator last year during league meetings as they reflected on a “more transactional” time in college coaching.

“I think players getting paid and compensated, I’m all for it,” Clawson said. “Just the system, that every single player on your team is a free agent. And we’ve probably had four or five players leave Wake Forest in the past two years that were one semester away from graduating because another school gave them another $25,000 or $50,000. And that breaks my heart.”

“That isn't the reason I got into this,” Clawson added. “So a lot of the things Tony said certainly resonated with me.”

By Tuesday, Clawson said he felt as if it was “somebody else’s job” as he shifts into an advisory role to athletic director John Currie.

“I tried to embrace it, I tried to fight through it,” Clawson said. “I tried to get in the mindset with it. I could do it, I just don’t want to do it. It’s really where I am. It’s not the way I’m wired. It’s not how I build programs. It’s not why I got into coaching.”

Clawson's 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. The school boasts one of the smallest undergraduate enrollments in the Bowl Subdivision ranks (5,471 as of 2023-24), and the program had thrived under Clawson by retaining and developing players over years rather than landing four- and five-star recruits.

It all came together in 2021, an 11-win season that included Clawson reaching a long-term contract extension with the school on the eve of the ACC division-clinching win at Boston College.

“There'a lots of moments to celebrate in life and sometimes those moments of celebration are bittersweet,” said Currie, who also choked up multiple times during the news conference.

In some ways, Clawson sounded ready to move forward. He said he had briefly mulled stepping away after last season and now was eager to be "a better husband, a better father, hopefully a better friend” now removed from a job with 16-hour workdays.

Yet he also admitted it was “a little scary” not being a coach for the first time in decades. That was why, beyond saying he wouldn't coach next season, he offered no certainties about his future. Instead, he quipped that his new advisory role offered the allure that he wouldn't have to wear ties, and he doubled down by wearing a gray suit and a tie-less open-collar look for his news conference.

“I'm not going to be here every day,” Clawson said he told Currie. "I want this to be high-impact, low volume.

“I really hope I can find something outside of coaching that I find fulfilling, meaningful, purposeful. I hope that's the case. But I'm a coach, I've done this for 36 years and there's so many parts about the job that I love. But I need some time away to kind of refresh and refocus, and figure out what's next.”

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