Stephen Colbert’s commencement remarks rankle Wake Forest coach

Dave Clawson may be pulling some late nights this season while trying to change the fortunes of a Wake Forest football team that went 3-9 last year.

But the second-year coach definitely won’t be taking any breaks to watch “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” after it debuts in the fall. Not after the crack the comedian made about the Demon Deacons during his commencement speech at the university’s graduation last month.

“I won’t be watching his show for at least a year,” Clawson said on a radio show in North Carolina. “You invite someone like that, and I’m sure they paid him a fairly healthy sum to be our speaker, and it was not needed and not appreciated.”

During his address, Colbert said: “This is a school that respects tradition, traditions like rolling the quad with toilet paper after big wins. And this is actually an eco-friendly tradition because looking at this season’s win-loss record, you guys saved a lot of paper.”

The remark garnered a lot of laughs and even some applause from the crowd, but Clawson didn’t find it funny.

“He got some laughs out of it, which was his goal, but — it is what it is. He spoke the truth,” Clawson said. “We did not have a good record last year. Our students didn’t get to roll the quad as much as we want. The bottom line is that it’s our job to change that, and we’ll get that changed, and I”m fully confident that will happen.

“Did I like that he said it? No, but he spoke the truth. We need to win more football games here, and I’m very confident that we’ll do it.”

Twitter: @chewkiii