Wake Forest football’s Donavon Greene healthy after missing last year: ‘I’m ready to go’

Donavon Greene sustained a knee injury on the first day of fall practice last year, ending his 2023 season before it started.

If the Wake Forest wide receiver was apprehensive in his return to the field for the first day of fall practice this season, it didn’t show.

Greene wasted no time getting involved from the start of Monday’s session, catching multiple passes from quarterback Michael Kern during the Demon Deacons’ first 11-on-11 drill of the day.

It was his first full practice after missing last season and sitting out of spring camp while rehabbing.

“It feels pretty good, it feels the best it ever has,” Greene said of his knee. “I’m ready to go.”

Greene also missed the entire 2021 season after a torn ACL, but the redshirt junior has shown huge flashes of talent when healthy.

Entering his sixth year in Winston-Salem, Greene will be a key piece in a revamped wide receiver room as Wake Forest aims to bounce back from its first season without a bowl game appearance since 2015.

“It’s good to see (Greene) out here and moving well, and now the goal is to keep them out here,” head coach Dave Clawson said. “He’s a high-end player. Clearly we’re going to be a better team if we can keep him healthy and he looked good today, had a smile on his face, and I’m just happy for him. He’s been through a lot.”

Greene has only played 25 games in five seasons with the Demon Deacons due to his knee injuries in 2021 and 2023, but he’s shined when he’s taken the field donning the black and gold.

The wide receiver broke out with seven catches for 172 yards and a touchdown at Syracuse in only the third collegiate game of his freshman season, when he only played four games in order to retain his redshirt.

Greene played in eight games in 2020 and put on some more big performances, returning a kickoff for a 96-yard touchdown against Campbell, catching eight passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns at UNC and making six receptions for 122 yards in a Duke’s Mayo Bowl loss to Wisconsin.

The Mount Airy native started all 13 games in 2022 after coming back from an ACL tear and was the team’s second-leading receiver behind A.T. Perry, catching 37 passes for 642 yards and six touchdowns. Last year’s knee injury saw him miss his second full season while at Wake Forest, but his return to the field could provide a needed spark for the Demon Deacons’ offense.

“It’s huge having a guy like Donavon who is as explosive as he is and is able to make as many big plays as he does,” wide receiver Taylor Morin said at ACC media day on Wednesday. “We have a lot of weapons on offense.”

Greene’s return will be a boost to a wide receiver room that lost three of its top four pass catchers by receiving yards last year. Morin, who caught 41 passes for 617 yards and two touchdowns last season, is the only returnee of those four. Greene’s experience, past success and big-play ability will be essential to a group of exciting but inexperienced receivers.

The Demon Deacons will look toward redshirt junior Horatio Fields, former Tennessee transfer and senior Walker Merrill as well as redshirt freshman Deuce Alexander among others to fill the remaining gaps at the position, but Morin and Greene will be the only receivers on the roster who have recorded more than 116 receiving yards during a collegiate season entering 2024.

“Between Donovan, Taylor, Walker and Horatio I think we have really good top line guys. And then I’m really, really excited about Deuce Alexander, Micah Mays, Jeremiah Melvin,” Clawson said at ACC media day. “I feel like ‘OK, we’re gonna get back on track at receiver.’”

Greene and his fellow wide receivers will look to improve a Wake Forest offense that struggled last year and is currently undergoing a battle for the starting quarterback spot between Louisiana Tech transfer Hank Bachmeier and Kern, a redshirt senior.

“We got to open up our deep ball game again and just get back on schedule,” Greene said. “I feel like that’s something that we lacked in this past season but we should be good to go with that.”

The redshirt junior will aim to do so with a group of teammates he’s closer to than ever before, something he achieved in another season lost to injury.

Greene finally put that season behind him with his return to the field on Monday, completing the first day of this year’s fall practice with a smile.

“It’s never easy to prepare for a season and then right when it’s time to pick up you just get hurt,” Greene said. “Going to the games, watching the games knowing you want to do so much for the team, but you can’t. You really just bottle all that up and once you’re back on your feet, give it all you can. That’s what I’m gonna do.”