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It was the turning point moment. On a sizzling Wake Forest graduation day in the Spring of 2015, comedian Steven Colbert took a hot verbal shot for a laugh about the lameness of the Wake Forest football team.
Colbert’s verbal jab hit a cringeworthy note. It was more tone-deaf than clever, a cheap shot that didn’t go over well with the students. There were some boos.
This verbal dart didn’t sit well with Wake’s head football coach, Dave Clawson.
“I won’t be watching his show for at least a year,” Clawson said. “You invite someone like that, and I’m sure they paid him a fairly healthy sum to be our speaker, and it was not needed and not appreciated. Our students didn’t get to roll the quad as much as we want. The bottom line is that it’s our job to change that, and we’ll get that changed, and I’m fully confident that will happen…We need to win more football games here, and I’m very confident that we’ll do it.”
I remember when I heard Clawson’s reaction, thinking this was a different kind of guy willing to stand up for himself and his players and the entire university.
It’s possible Wake Forest leaders may not have wanted him to take on Colbert, but I think we all know now Dave wouldn’t have remained silent had they asked him to. Not saying this kind of stuff. Not on matters of principles and pride, right and wrong, respect and disrespect. Not on his lawn.
Wake Forest football would not be made fun of without him stepping to the front of the podium and facing off with whoever belittled him – even if only in jest.
It was then we knew for sure there was a new sheriff in Winston-Salem who wasn’t going to be putting up with any crapola about a football team he coaches working in a profession he’s dedicated his life to and is ultra-serious about. No matter how big the celebrity.
We all know what’s been happening with his football program since Colbert sucker punched his program. Truist Field filling up like it never has on Saturdays. Bowl game trophies. Whipping NC State and Florida State. Wake Forest alumni regathering up and down the East Coast at football tailgates, tuning in to the games on TV, sending emails to each other, reading religiously the Demon Deacon Sports Nation hype.
This man has led a miraculous resurrection of the Wake Forest football program. How? In the words he used after the Colbert slight there’s a clue. “We need to win more football games here, and I’m very confident that we’ll do it.”
Very confident people achieve greatness, inspire players to achieve beyond what they thought were capable of, are accountable, and are believed in. Deep inside him back in the Spring of 2015 was a belief in his ability to build a winning football program at Wake Forest.
Confidence is contagious and Clawson’s confidence has proven to be much more than coach-speak as his confident leadership has elevated Wake Forest football to its highest and longest streak of consistent winning in the school’s history.
Classy, principled, and interpersonally smooth and genuine, he’s unafraid to speak his mind. And he competes for us, for our pride, for our alma mater, and we all love competitors no matter what the profession.
But Dave’s so much more, a learned man from a truly elite academic school called Williams College, a big fan of reading books. Wake Forest values run through his veins. I suggest you listen to his press conferences on YouTube. You won’t find a more engaging college football coach to listen to and, for that matter, you won’t come across many people in any profession more insightful, believable, and entertaining to listen to than him. It’s pure American goodness and grit.
Sure, football and winning are important to him. But he also realizes and talks about what’s most important of all and that’s the relationships that coaches, players, students, and an entire college community develop for the rest of their lives long after football seasons are over. He has a perspective on all of this – a rarity in the zany, egomaniacal, confused, and pandemonium-cluttered world we know as college football.
Everything about Wake Forest football has been turned around because of this person’s unique human qualities, work ethic, and approach to life. Although we didn’t know he would turn around Wake’s football program, in retrospect maybe we should have expected this had we paid closer attention to his reaction to the Colbert remarks seven years ago.
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Sammy Sportface, a sports blogger, galvanizes, inspires, and amuses The Baby Boomer Brotherhood. And you can learn about his vision and join this group's Facebook page here:
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