CHARLOTTE — Given the chance, Wendell Dunn would do it all over again. The senior defensive end remembered the grueling practices and games throughout two 3-9 seasons to start his football career at Wake Forest, when he and some teammates wondered if they were capable of the work required to get here.
Here is the Belk Bowl, a Tier-I bowl berth in which Wake Forest faces Texas A&M at 1 p.m. today at Bank of America Stadium.
And clearly, the Deacons were capable of the work.
“A lot of us when Coach (Dave) Clawson first got here, we were like, ‘Man, I don’t think football is for me. It’s just, if it takes this much work, then it’s not for me.’ And especially not having that success immediately. It was painful, not physically but mentally, it’s like, ‘Man, we’re grinding so hard,’” Dunn said Thursday at the Belk Bowl’s media day. “But the reward of going to a bowl last year, and getting in a bowl this year, you know, I’d go through it again. I would definitely go through it again.”
This is part of what makes those seasons worth it. Dunn has been a starter through it all, and will start his program-record 50th game against the Aggies.
Wake Forest’s leaders, senior captains John Wolford, Cam Serigne, A’Lique Terry, Grant Dawson, Jaboree Williams and Dunn, made it clear throughout the season that this team would “keep building.”
“It’s everything. It’s huge for us. We want to keep building, keep getting better every year. In order for us to do that, we have to win this game,” Serigne said. “It’s not about the shopping spree, it’s not about the bowl trip, it’s about winning a football game. That’s what we came here to do, so now it’s time for us to do it.”
The Deacons are sitting at 7-5 and have matched their win total from last season. But last year was capped by a victory in the Military Bowl, a healing of wounds inflicted from outside of the program.
There are no such wounds to heal this season, though Wake Forest’s captains aren’t interested in only equaling last season’s record.
“It’ll mean a lot, only because our motto this year was ‘keep building.’ Not stay the same. So if we don’t get this win, it’s like we stayed the same,” Dunn said. “I mean, we beat some teams that, you know, we wanted to really, really beat. Teams that were projected to be better than us.
“And then knowing that our senior class, when Coach Clawson and them got here, we weren’t very good. And they literally had to break us down and build us up. So winning that eighth game … it would be that something to show for the amount of work we’ve gone through.”
Wolford, the quarterback who led the ACC in passing efficiency, knows as well as anybody how much work has gone into this turnaround over four years. It’s part of why this one means so much to the senior from Jacksonville, Fla.
“I think we have left something here, I think we’ve really changed the culture, changed the program since we got here as freshmen. But to close it out with an eighth win, to take that next step would also be a big step for us against such a good team in Texas A&M,” Wolford said. “I definitely think the schedule we played this year was a lot harder, so you have to factor that in a little bit.
“But we want to get that eighth (win), we’re hungry for it.”
Last season’s trip to the Military Bowl was the first time any of Wake Forest’s players had experienced a bowl trip. As Serigne pointed out, it was an unfamiliar experience a year ago.
Now, he said, the Deacons’ mindset has to be “we’ve been here before, we know what it takes, let’s focus, lock in, put in the work and be disciplined enough to come in here and succeed.”
The Deacons have been able to take last year’s experience into the Belk Bowl, and that includes a loss in the season finale. A year ago, Wake Forest was already bowl-eligible when it lost to Boston College. A month ago, Wake Forest was already bowl-eligible when it lost to Duke.
“Not only for the senior class, but for the younger guys going into the off-season, having a win, having that momentum going into the off-season,” Dawson said. “It was kind of the same as last year, it was a wake-up call. … This game will humble you really quickly, and so it was like, ‘We need to go back to work, we’ve got a big game ahead that we need to improve on, improve from last year and go out with a win.’”