NASHVILLE, Tenn.—Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman threw for 300 yards and four touchdowns as the Demon Deacons handled Vanderbilt, 45-25, at FirstBank Field on Saturday.

Wake, coming out of halftime with a 21-10 lead, got a 49-yard throw from Hartman to A.T. Perry in double coverage. It scored on that drive when Hartman hit Taylor Morin on a 9-yard throw.

After Vanderbilt quarterback Mike Wright fumbled—his third turnover of the day—Wake needed two plays before Hartman hit Cameron Hite with a 17-yard scoring toss, the point-after making it 35-10.

Vandy’s AJ Swann, making his collegiate debut, led the ‘Dores on a touchdown drive that ended with 14-yard scoring strike to Will Sheppard.

But Wake answered on Quinton Cooley’s 24-yard rushing score with 14:28 to play, making the lead 42-18.

Vandy’s Joseph Bulovas hit a 35-yard field goal with 8:48 left in the first quarter for the game’s first points. After Vanderbilt got a stop at its 1, Wright made an ill-advised throw that resulted in a 31-yard interception touchdown return by the Deacons’ Coby Davis.

After Vanderbilt’s three-and-out, Hartman spotted Perry behind BJ Anderson and lofted a 68-yard scoring throw.

Hartman hit Christian Turner for a 2-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter for a 21-3 advantage.

The Commodores finally stopped the bleeding after Wake fumbled a punt that Cooper Lutz recovered at the Demon Deacon 24. Ray Davis ran in from the 2 to cut the lead to 21-10.

Mike Wright did to inspire confidence in the passing game.

Wright’s interception was a bad one and he missed a number of short to intermediate throws. His first-half stat line (7-of-13, 46 yards, no touchdowns, one interception) told the story. He also lost a pair of fumbles before being benched with about five minutes left in the third quarter.

And because of that, we got our first lengthy look at AJ Swann.

Swann entered with the ‘Dores down 35-10 with about four minutes left in the third quarter, and hit a short pass to Jayden McGowan that went for 50 yards. Swann threw a touchdown later on the drive and then ran in a 2-point conversion.

Swann later added a touchdown throw to Gavin Schoenwald with 2:09 left against what was mostly Wake's third-team defense.

So… do we have a quarterback controversy?

My guess is “no” because I think the staff wanted to make a bigger commitment to the starter following last year’s uncertainty, plus, Wright is a team captain who was terrific the first two weeks. That isn’t going to stop the fans and media from talking about it all week.

And here's the hard truth: Wake loaded the box and sat on the run because Wright couldn't make short to intermediate throws, and there's going to be no way around that barring either major improvement from Wright or a change.

The game flipped on a six-minute stretch at the end of the first quarter.

Wright made an awful throw and after a three-and-out-Wake scored on Hartman’s pass to Perry. Wright then fumbled away the next snap at the Vanderbilt 32 and on Wake’s next snap, cornerback Tyson Russell missed a tackle that led to a first down at the Commodore 2. Hartman flipped a short throw to Turner on the next play for a third touchdown in that span.

Once again, Vanderbilt is paper-thin at running back.

With Rocko Griffin out again with injury and Patrick Smith apparently suspended, and Maurice Edwards suspended and now in the transfer portal, the Commodores were again without their No. 2, 3 and 4 options from fall camp. That left Davis, Chase Gillespie and Dylan Betts-Pauley (who’s more of a fullback) as their only three scholarship options for Saturday.

This was a game when the 'Dores really could have used Griffin or Smith, who are probably both quicker than Davis. There looked to be large swaths of field open when Davis got the ball, and he just couldn't turn those into big plays.

This loss was more on the offense than anyone but there were lapses in all three phases. Special teams play wasn't great outside Lutz's fumble recovery; twice, the Deacons snapped the ball over punter Ivan Mora's head. Instead of getting a block or some kind of turnover, the Commodores couldn't get enough of a presence to make a big play. The defense missed a lot of tackles and the secondary, just like last week, struggled to cover in the downfield passing game.

The Commodores went away from having Matt Hayball hit his punts high and long.

Everything Hayball did today seemed designed to hit low, bouncing kicks that special teams could cover. Maybe that was the right call given last week's coverage breakdowns, but the Commodores could really use the booming kicks that Hayball can give them to flip the field given deficiencies elsewhere.