WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Jake Dickert had talked about two things frequently in the preseason as he prepared for his Wake Forest debut: the importance of doing everything with boundless energy and leaning on Demond Claiborne.

Both plans went awry early.

Yet all that mattered to Dickert was his team fought its way through to win anyway, offering a successful — if ugly — start to the latest stop in his long coaching climb that has reached all the way down to the Division II ranks .

“We did enough to win a game," he said after surviving a 10-9 win against Kennesaw State that included losing Claiborne early to rib injury. "We came in here with one mission. That's to win a game. We did that.”

Indeed, the Demon Deacons (1-0) won on a night when they scored their lone touchdown in the fir

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