When Wake Forest heads to Death Valley this Saturday for a noon kickoff with second-ranked Clemson, it knows what’s coming – a heavy dose of Kelly Bryant.

The Tigers’ do-everything quarterback leads the team with 362 yards and seven touchdowns. Bryant has carried the football already 85 times this year, 37 more times than any other player on the team. Last year, Deshaun Watson ran the football just 166 times in leading Clemson to its first national championship since 1981.

“I know they run their quarterback a lot, and their play action is what they’re known for,” Wake Forest safety Jessie Bates said. “They’re pretty good and if we fit our runs and do what we do, we’ll be fine.”

That is easier said than done.

Though Virginia Tech slowed Clemson’s running game down to 146 yards, Bryant rushed for 94 and averaged 4.9 yards per carry and that was with three sacks included. The junior rushed for 106 yards against Boston College the week before and averaged 4.8 yards a carry.

Against the Hokies, it appeared they had Bryant contained, but once he made one man miss, he was off to the races. He had runs of 24 and 18 yards in the game as well as a steady dose of three and four yard carries.

“Kelly Bryant is playing at a really high level,” Wake head coach Dave Clawson said. “A lot of the Clemson offense is designed that the quarterback has to run the football. I felt last year, with Watson, they were only going to run him when they had to. Now, they want to run Bryant and he is a really good back.

“He has carried more than any tailback on their team.”

And when a team tries to stop him from running the ball and tries to get an extra hat in the box, Bryant plays off the action and throws the ball over the top like he did with big pass plays of 68, 35, 27, 20 and 16 yards to Tavien Feaster, Deon Cain, Ray-Ray McCloud and Hunter Renfrow against the Hokies.

Bryant is completing 66.2 percent of his passes for 1,059 yards and three scores.

“He throws a great deep ball,” Clawson said. “Their skill players, they are as good as we will see all year. This is the best their offensive line has ever played. They are really well-coached.

“When you are breaking in a new quarterback and your offensive line is playing that well … that makes the transition easier. They haven’t missed a beat.”

And like Wake Forest is expecting, it all starts with Kelly Bryant.

“Just knowing when you’re playing a good team like that, the margin for error is very small,” Bates said. “You have to focus for all four quarters and just have that short-term memory and continue to play, play after play.”