By Will Vandervort.

Imagine being Cole Stoudt for a second.

After patiently waiting your turn for three years, you finally get to be the guy and you open the first three games of your senior year as a starter.

But things don’t work out, primarily because the guy behind you is the kind of quarterback a program sees once every 40 years. By Week 4 you are delegated to backup status once again. But instead of crying like a baby and threatening to leave the team, you choose to act like an adult and accept things the way they are.

You stay a good teammate and leader on a team that desperately needs one on the offensive side of the football. Then in mop up duty against NC State, you bang up your non-throwing shoulder. You are in pain, but you know your team needs you to be the backup and to be prepared just in case something happens to the freshman sensation that is making headlines all over the country.

And then it happens. You are thrust into the game against the nation’s top defense and you find a way to get it done. Then you do it again for three more weeks after that despite playing through the pain the entire time.

And you do it all with little or no appreciation from a fan base that can wait to get the other guy back.

That perhaps is not exactly how Cole Stoudt sees it to be, yet once again he stood tall on Thursday night in Winston-Salem. N.C., and led No. 19 Clemson to a 34-20 victory over Wake Forest – the team’s sixth straight win overall.

“He did a really good job handling some adverse situations in the last month,” Clemson offensive coordinator Chad Morris said.

What Stoudt did was lead the Tigers (7-2, 6-1 ACC) to four straight victories in the last five weeks. And though they were not pretty, they were still victories, but his performance against Wake Forest was probably his best of them all.

He made a nice 45-yard throw down field to tight end Stanton Seckinger in the second quarter that led to the Tigers’ first points of the game. He found Mike Williams and Artavis Scott on third down plays to keep drives alive as well as finding Scott for a four-yard touchdown pass just before halftime.

“I thought Cole did a really good managing the game,” Morris said. “He had a bad ball early that he was late on. I thought we had a chance to pick up a first down. They were sitting on the chains and we knew they would be. We were a little late on it.

“But he did a great job late in the first half of hitting his check downs, and keeping drives alive. He had a big throw to Artavis Scott on our sideline on third-and-long and then to be able to find Wayne Gallman on a check down was big too.”

Stoudt finished the night 27 of 42 for 282 yards and three touchdowns. Not bad for a guy who was playing hurt and nearly came out of the game. The senior took a hit in the second quarter on a blitz that got backup Nick Schuessler warming up on the sidelines.

“I wasn’t sure if he was going to continue to play, but man he gutted it out,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said. “He threw three touchdown passes and we made some big plays.”

Stoudt also made some big runs, using his legs to pick up 36 yards on five runs or scrambles, including a 16-yard run on the second-quarter drive that was concluded with the touchdown pass to Scott.

“He ran the ball well. When we had to have him run the ball, it was great to see him run.” Morris said.

Not bad for a guy that has to receive a cortisone injection in the left shoulder before every game.

“It is getting better. There is still a little bit of pain, but I fight through it,” Stoudt said.

And luckily for Clemson he has fought through it just enough to keep the Tigers in the running for a possible Orange Bowl bid as long as they and Florida State can win out.

“He has played hurt the last few weeks and that is a tribute to him,” Morris said. “He is a senior and he has been battling, scratching and clawing. I’m really proud of him.”

And so should Clemson.