Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson is resigning after 11 seasons with the Demon Deacons, the school announced on Monday, ending one of the most successful tenures in program history.
Clawson, 57, went 67-69 overall with six winning seasons and seven consecutive bowl berths from 2016-22. Struggling to maintain a foothold in a competitive ACC without ample resources related to name, image and likeness, Wake Forest went a combined 8-16 the past two years.
In retirement, Clawson will serve as a special advisor to athletics director John Currie, the university said.
“Coaching at Wake Forest has been the honor of my career,” Clawson said in a statement. ‘This is a special place with extraordinary people, and I am deeply grateful for the relationships I’ve built over the last 11 years. Together, we achieved things that many thought impossible, and I step down knowing I gave everything I had for this program and university.”
The seven bowl bids and five bowl wins are the most of any coach in program history. Wake tied a school record with 11 wins and reached the ACC championship game in 2021, earning Clawson ACC coach of the year honors. That team rose as high as No. 9 in the College Football Playoff rankings.
He inherited a program in 2014 that had not posted a winning record since 2008 and had just three winning seasons since 2003. Clawson’s 67 wins rank third in program history, 10 shy of the record shared by Peahead Walker (1937-50) and his predecessor Jim Grobe (2001-13).
This marked the fourth rebuilding project in a career that left Clawson as the only coach in Division I history to win 10 or more games in a season at four different schools.
Hired at Fordham in 1999, Clawson’s first team went 0-11 but his final two went a combined 19-6 with one Patriot League championship. At Richmond beginning in 2004, Clawson finished 3-8 in his debut but went 11-3 in 2007 and reached the Championship Subdivision playoff semifinals.
At Bowling Green, his first Bowl Subdivision stop, Clawson went 32-31 overall but 18-8 in his final two seasons, winning the MAC in 2013.
“Dave Clawson has been the epitome of integrity, innovation, and excellence in college football,” said Currie. “He elevated Wake Forest football to unprecedented heights, not only through success on the field but also by fostering the development of young men as leaders in life. Quite simply, Dave Clawson’s leadership, competitive drive and strategic instincts have made football at Wake Forest important, and a flagship program for our entire community and University at a scale that might have been unimaginable to most when he arrived 11 years ago.”
