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Wake Forest Football: Three areas of concern the defense must fix

By Brandon Croce

NEW ORLEANS, LA - AUGUST 30: Darnell Mooney #3 of the Tulane Green Wave catches the ball as Ja'Sir Taylor #24 of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons defends during the second half on August 30, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS, LA - AUGUST 30: Darnell Mooney #3 of the Tulane Green Wave catches the ball as Ja'Sir Taylor #24 of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons defends during the second half on August 30, 2018 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /
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WINSTON SALEM, NC – SEPTEMBER 22: Jafar Armstrong #8 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish runs away from Luke Masterson #12 of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons during their game at BB&T Field on September 22, 2018 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
WINSTON SALEM, NC – SEPTEMBER 22: Jafar Armstrong #8 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish runs away from Luke Masterson #12 of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons during their game at BB&T Field on September 22, 2018 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

The Wake Forest football team fired their defensive coordinator over the weekend. The focus will need to be on improving this defense and these are the three biggest areas of concern.

The Wake Forest football team was coming off an embarrassing 56-27 loss to Notre Dame over the weekend. It was the team’s second straight loss on the season and the defense struggled to slow the Fighting Irish offense down as they racked up over 500 total yards.

On Sunday, head coach Dave Clawson decided it was time to go in a new direction and fired defensive coordinator Jay Sawvel.

This was something that seemed inevitable as the defense was not showing much improvement over the four games this season. It seemed almost as if they were regressing. The points allowed went from 17 points in their season opener against Tulane to the 56 allowed by Notre Dame.

Opposing offenses were racking up huge yardage totals as well and the Demon Deacons allow the 17th most yards per game (484) and the 10th most passing yards (313.8) in the FBS.

While the quality of the opponent certainly could have played a factor there was plenty of mistakes that were being made that certainly could have been improved.

While Clawson did not name an immediate successor, these are the three areas the coaching staff should focus on improving in the coming weeks.

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