FSU football: Ranking top offenses Noles will face in 2023
By Kelvin Hunt
Wake Forest
- 36.1 PPG
- 5.89 YPP
- 46.2 percent third down conversion
- 67.1 pecent Red Zone TD percentage
- No. 15 FEI
Sighs, but it’s the offense that does more with less. One would think Wake Forest would take a step back since they’ll have a different starting quarterback for the first time since 2017. Sam Hartman transferred to Notre Dame, and Wake Forest will likely turn to sophomore Mitch Griffis. Griffis started the 2022 season opener against VMI with Hartman dealing with a health issue. It’s VMI, but he passed for 288 yards, completing 72 percent of his passes for three touchdowns. He’ll have a year under his belt in Dave Clawson’s offense, which will be invaluable. Wake Forest lost two of their top three running backs to the transfer portal.
The leading rusher, Justice Ellison, returns and had 707 rushing yards and six touchdowns last year. He rushed for 100 yards once last year, and it was against FSU football. Wake Forest lost leading receiver A.T. Petty to the NFL Draft but added a former three-star receiver from Tennessee (Walker Merrill) from the transfer portal. They also return a trio of productive junior receivers in Donavon Green, Jahmal Banks, and Taylor Morin. All three had over 500 receiving yards and combined for 24 touchdowns. While I expect Wake Forest to fall back to earth as a team, it’ll likely be more because I expect their defense to continue to decline(it wasn’t good last year) as their COVID super seniors exhaust eligibility.