Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson isn't putting too much stock in last year's 41-10 beatdown of Boston College.

After all, the Eagles had 32 players affected by the flu, including quarterback Phil Jurkovec, who was still missing grip strength on his throwing hand that he fractured earlier that season.

BC turned the ball over three times, and the Demon Deacons pulled away, not long after Zay Flowers' potentially game-altering 73-yard touchdown run was called back because of a bad blind side block call.

Clawson said Tuesday that Wake caught BC at the right time last year, considering how many players the Eagles were down. He knows the Deacons will get a different version of BC this time around.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, they are far from injury-free in 2022, either. Regardless, they do pose some challenges to a Wake defense that has struggled with the big play.

Clawson talked about BC's offensive talent and a lot more. Here's what he said:

"Boston College has always been a very competitive football game. I think it starts with their head coach. I’m a big fan of Jeff Hafley. I’ve known Jeff for a lot of years. He started his career at Albany like I did. I think I’ve got a few years on him. But he was on Greg Schiano’s staff for a long time. And I used to always go visit Tampa Bay when Greg was there, and I used to sit in Jeff’s meetings because I just loved the way that he taught. I thought he had a great relationship with his players. And I really think he’s one of the good guys in college football. He’s doing it for the right reasons.

"And I think they have a talented football team. It starts with their offensive skill. The collection of offensive skill they have is one of the very, very top of the ACC. The quarterback, [Phil] Jurkovec, who probably would have got drafted last year, came back. Zay Flowers might be as good of a skill player as we’ll play all year. He can start for anybody in the country. He is elusive. They play him everywhere. They’ll line him up as No. 1, as a slot, as a wing, in the backfield. They’re going to get him the football. And he is really hard to get down. He makes people miss in space. He’s one of the very elite players in the country, not just the conference. And the one thing he’s doing this year, even better than a year ago, is making contested catches. He’s going up and competing for the football. And the other receivers—[Jaden] Williams, [Joe] Griffin, Jaelen Gill—these guys are all really high-level ACC players. They got a big tight end transfer from Notre Dame: 6-foot-6, 250 pounds, George Takacs. He’s very impressive, too. They’ll line him up as a receiver.

"They just have so many weapons. [Pat] Garwo is a really good tailback. And they can spread the ball out. Their challenge this year has been they just have a younger offensive line. BC’s always had a great offensive line. They graduated a fair number of guys. They have had a couple of injuries. But I think it’s a unit that’s improving, when you put on the Louisville game. And they’re very athletic. These guys can move their feet. They have the makings of a very good offense.

"Defensively, they have nine starters back. The other two guys were part-time starters. It’s an older, experienced group. And they know what they’re doing. Jeff’s very involved with the defense, and it’s a different style of defense than we normally see. They play a lot more single-safety coverage, which presents new challenges to us."

"A year ago, half their team had the flu. I don’t know this for sure—I had heard the quarterback had the flu. And I thought he played really gutsy just to play. I think we caught them at a good time last year. They weren’t at full strength. They had a flu strain going on. They were down a lot of players. Jurkovec is a really good player. What they do on their offense is they want to run the ball, but they want to take shots. And he has a strong arm. He can make plays with his feet. I think he’s a really strong competitor. And he willed them back into that game last year. We were covering them pretty good, and they were down some people, and he took off on a couple of runs that put them right back in the game.

"We didn’t get the best version of him a year ago because of illness. He was also coming off that hand injury. So he wasn’t the same quarterback for our game that he was at the beginning of last year or he is now. It’s a different challenge. We’re getting him closer to full strength."

"Well, we’ve had a little more time to get ready for it, which helps. But it’s a challenge. They try to dictate things to you. They know exactly what they’re doing in the defense. This is the same defense that Coach Hafley ran when he was the defensive coordinator at Ohio State with a lot of success. And now they’re into their third year with it, and they really know what they’re doing. They kind of present similar looks and then play multiple coverages. The blitz package is very complementary to their base looks. And so it’s a lot of looking the same, but it becomes different. It requires a lot of post-snap reaction.

"When you know what a team’s in, it’s always easier. With these guys, what you see isn’t always what you get. I’d say they’re very good at disguise. And, again, because of what they do, they dictate certain things that they’re going to take away from you."

"[Takacs is] a big target. So part of the problem is they line up there with Flowers—if you said, ‘Who are the top one, two or three receivers in the ACC?,’ he would be certainly on that list, whether he’s the best, second best, third best. He’s a returning first-team All-ACC receiver who’s gotten better. And then the Ohio State transfer, Jaelen Gill, has really, I think, gotten better. He’s bigger, physical, kick returner. And then the Jaden Williams guy, who was a freshman last year, is almost a younger version of Zay Flowers. He is going to be a high-end player, too. So the problem is, you have these three really good receivers, and then when they’re in 11-personnel, they have this tight end who’s 6-foot-6, 250 pounds who’s an excellent pass catcher who they can line up as a receiver.

"There’s times that they put the three receivers to the field, and they split him out to the boundary, and it presents some matchup issues. It’s not just the tight end position, but it’s the fact that you’ve gotta give those other receivers so much attention that you can’t double everybody. And he can beat you. And then you start playing all nickel coverages and all two-highs, and Garwo’s a really good back. He was good last year. He’s downhill, and he’s physical. They’ve got five tailbacks. They’ve always been able to recruit good tailbacks there. A lot of times it’s been those 230-pound guys that run you over. But these guys are downhill, one cut—they can make you miss, and they can run you over.

"And so this is where the challenge of defending them is—Zay Flowers is who is, he’s elite. But all those other guys are really good players, too. And, at some point, they’re going to have a single matchup. … They’ve made big plays against everybody. They made big plays against Clemson and Louisville and good football teams."