[washingtonismoney]

I am no recruitnik, but 24/7 puts Wake as having fringe top 60 classes most years.

Also—and this should apply to any coach—when you take out his best year, what do you have,

Excluding the outstanding 11-3 season in 2021, Lawson would be 47-50 at Wake with a 22-41 conference record.

Of course, even with that exclusion, Clawson's still about 8 percentage points better than Wake's program record. That said, to me, you should probably also exclude Clawson's worst season as  well as his best, which gets you to a state about 10 pp above Wake's record. So to me, Clawson's pretty comfortably above Wake's general average -- he seems to be bringing something to the table. 

That said, I'm not totally convinced by Clawson either. I think media members tend to condescend to Stanford as a football school; they see all the obstacles but none of the benefits. To wit, Shaw recruited very well (by a class rankings standard) and could've done even better with a hint more aggression. Recruiting prowess should absolutely be a priority quality for Shaw's successor. What we don't know about guys like Clawson is whether his middling rankings are reflective of recruiting to Wake Forest, or it's due to lack of skill on his part. If the latter, I'm significantly less enthused about Clawson.

[washingtonismoney]

I am no recruitnik, but 24/7 puts Wake as having fringe top 60 classes most years.

Also—and this should apply to any coach—when you take out his best year, what do you have,

Excluding the outstanding 11-3 season in 2021, Lawson would be 47-50 at Wake with a 22-41 conference record.

Of course, even with that exclusion, Clawson's still about 8 percentage points better than Wake's program record. That said, to me, you should probably also exclude Clawson's worst season as  well as his best, which gets you to a state about 10 pp above Wake's record. So to me, Clawson's pretty comfortably above Wake's general average -- he seems to be bringing something to the table. 

That said, I'm not totally convinced by Clawson either. I think media members tend to condescend to Stanford as a football school; they see all the obstacles but none of the benefits. To wit, Shaw recruited very well (by a class rankings standard) and could've done even better with a hint more aggression. Recruiting prowess should absolutely be a priority quality for Shaw's successor. What we don't know about guys like Clawson is whether his middling rankings are reflective of recruiting to Wake Forest, or it's due to lack of skill on his part. If the latter, I'm significantly less enthused about Clawson.