Coaching Carousel (Wake Forest)

Being the smallest FBS school in a BCS conference makes it tough to have sustained success.  And for almost all of their history, the Demon Deacon's have been one of the worst programs in the FBS.  Since 1888 to the present, the school has only been to ten bowl games and won their conference twice.

In 2001 Jim Grobe was hired from Ohio University after firing of Jim Caldwell.  Grobe saw immediate results six and seven games in his first two years.  Grobe also brought with him a philosophy of red shirting every freshman was the intention of their fifth year players together being better than other teams younger rosters.  That strategy payed off in his sixth year when he lead the Demon Deacons to a 11-3 record, ACC Championship and the school's first ever BCS Bowl appearance.  At the end of the 2006 season, Jim Grobe was one of the hottest coaches in the nation.  He interviewed for the Nebraska job, but his desire to bring his entire staff lead to them not fulling considering him.  Grobe ended up staying at Wake.  From then on his win totals fell each year.  And after his 13th season, Grobe resigned as the school's all time winningest coach.

The Wake Forest job is going to be hard to fill.  The ACC is still for the taking and North Carolina is an underrated talent state.  The problem is that Wake Forest hasn't really invested in football and has very high academic requirements, so it's going to take a real special coach to get them to have sustained success. 

Possible Candidates

Pete Lembo (Ball State Head Coach)
Lembo is the school's top target and if all goes right they should get him.  Lembo has done a great job of building the Ball State program back up.  But before that he was the head coach at Elon which is in the same state as Wake Forest.  Lembo has continued to use his connections in North Carolina, with ten players on Ball State's roster from North Carolina.  He brings an exciting brand of football and could get fan base excited.

Dave Clawson (Bowling Green Head Coach)
Clawson would be a great get for the Demon Decans.  He's done a great job at Bowling Green and has them playing in the conference title game.  He's one of the top MAC coaches and will have several schools interested in him.   The problem is that he's one of the favorites for the UConn job which is better than Wake.  Don't look for him to get this job.

Dean Hood (Eastern Kentucky Head Coach)
If the school wants somebody who knows what it's like to coach at Wake Forest, then Dean Hood could be their guy.  Hood was Jim Grobe's defensive coordinator during their 2006 ACC Championship season before he left to be the head coach at Eastern Kentucky.  He's won two Ohio Conference Conference Titles and shown he can lead a program.