NC State and Wake Forest collide after turning a corner at the same time

Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports If you remember the 1990s, as I do on occasion, it’s wild to think about how Wake Forest basketball and football have gone in completely different directions. Without question, Wake has been a football school for the majority of this century.

The Deacs made two shrewd football coaching hires that changed that program’s prospects dramatically for the better; the Deacs have also made two basketball coaching hires that threw the entire 2010s down the drain.

The second of those shrewd football hires was Dave Clawson, who joined the ACC from the MAC a year after Dave Doeren joined the ACC from the MAC. Clawson’s initial struggles were more prolonged—Wake went 1-7 in…