Wake Forest Demon Deacons quarterback Jamie Newman (12) drops back to pass against the Duke Blue Devilsat Wallace Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit:

Redshirt junior Jamie Newman finished the 2018 season with a ton of momentum, leading Wake Forest to wins in three of its final four games to claim a bowl win for a third-straight season for the first time in program history.

That momentum carried through for Newman during spring and fall camp, and he's edged out sophomore Sam Hartman for the starting quarterback role when the season kicks off at 8 p.m. Aug. 30 against Utah State at BB&T Field.

Wake Forest head coach Dave Clawson announced the decision after practice Sunday afternoon.

"We made a decision today that Jamie Newman is going to be the starting quarterback," Clawson said. "We met with Jamie and Sam (Hartman). That’s the direction we’re going with it moving forward. They both played well. There’s the old adage that if you have two, you have none. In the case of Wake Forest in 2019, we really do have two good quarterbacks.

"We haven’t had a lot of luck making it through an entire season with one quarterback. Obviously we hope we do. But we’re going to continue to give Sam reps and prepare him in the event that we need him."

Inheriting a 4-5 record when Hartman went down with an injury late in the loss to Syracuse, Newman led the Deacs to a emotional come-from-behind victory at North Carolina State, then Wake went on to demolish Duke in Durham 59-7 to achieve bowl eligibility. From there, Newman won Birmingham Bowl MVP honors as the Deacs once again rallied late to top Memphis 37-34 in what was ranked one of the top bowls of the 2018 season.

Newman finished the season 62-for-101 passing, for 755 yards and eight touchdowns against three interceptions. At 6-foot-4, 245 pounds, Newman offers a big, strong body to bang in the quarterback running attack. He contributed 247 yards on 64 rushing attempts last season, with four touchdowns on the ground. Newman threw for a career-best 328 yards in the Birmingham Bowl victory, completing 22-of-40 passes, while leading a two-minute drive for the victory that culminated in a one-yard rush himself for the winning score with 34 ticks left on the clock.

Hartman started the first nine games of the 2018 season, finishing 161-for-291 passing for 1,984 yards and 16 touchdowns against eight interceptions. He added 439 rushing yards and two scores on 107 attempts. He broke a bone in his leg toward the finish of a 41-24 home loss to Syracuse and missed the rest of the 2018 season. Hartman has since gained 20 pounds of muscle, playing at 203 pounds during Fall Camp.

"Whenever you tell the starter that he’s the starter, that’s the easy meeting. Sam took it maturely and professional," Clawson said. "He’s disappointed and is a competitor, but certainly indicated that he’ll continue to compete and if we needed him he’d be ready to go knowing that he’s a play away from the football needing him. I thought Sam took it extremely maturely. It wasn’t a result of him not playing well. We just felt the overall body of work — Jamie gives us the best opportunity to win, but we can certainly win with Sam as well."

The news came from Clawson Sunday as the Deacs prepared for the final scrimmage of fall camp the following day.

"Once we knew what we were doing with it, there was no point in waiting," he said. "Tomorrow night, instead of making the reps 50-50, if Jamie is the starter we want him working with the starting offensive line and receivers to get all that timing down. We’re still going to give Sam reps, but Jamie will probably get two-thirds of them.

"This is something (offensive coordinator) coach (Warren) Ruggiero and I talk quite often about. We talked once or twice a week about where we saw things. We didn’t think, based on what we’ve seen, that no matter what happened in the scrimmage, it wasn’t going to change the decision. So if we knew it, there was no point. It’s hard for those guys to go through that every day. This let’s them settle into their roles, and let’s the team know."

Combined, the two quarterbacks led the second-most prolific offense in Wake Forest history, as the Deacs scored 427 points while piling up 5,847 yards in the season — both marks are second all-time in program history for a season.

Newman will have a trio of redshirt senior offensive linemen to protect him in Justin Herron, Nate Gilliam and Jake Benzinger, along with a deep, yet largely unproven wide receiver group. Leading the group of pass catchers are senior Scotty Washington, sophomore Sage Surratt and converted quarterback Kendall Hinton — who is a redshirt senior, but entering his first full season as receiver.

While there's preseason consensus toward Clemson, who nearly everyone picks to win the ACC Atlantic, national perception on Wake Forest this coming season is all over the board. Brad Crawford from 247Sports picked the Deacs to finish 8-4 this coming season, but Wake was picked sixth in the Atlantic by the media attending ACC Kickoff last month.

In addition to hosting Utah State to being the season, Wake Forest also hosts all three other members of the famed 'Big Four' in Winston-Salem for the first time ever, with UNC coming to BB&T Field for a non-conference contest on Sept. 13, NC State set for a trip on Nov. 2 and Duke visiting on Nov. 23.