Yea John, I could remember your plot from years past and is exactly why I think it is still salvagable if you desire. And I have pics of my old clover plots that looked like that, but not anymore. And although not as picture perfect, the deer are in there just as much, if not more as I manage them today.
Shawn, if you read my suggestion, I did suggest using Cleth to maintain with mowing and perhaps a no N fert. But lets look at the yard thinking. I agree it is more maintained. And I did plant it 25 years ago myself with fescue, rye, and WC. Now theres my farm. 15 acres of fescue once managed with cattle. Those fields are never mowed for the last 9 years I've owned. Fescue and weeds are 3-6 feet tall. Yet what is underneath? Clovers. We have this misconception that everything must be nearly a monoculture. Why does nature never ever plant that way? That's why we have to fight to maintain our plantings. Yet the deer don't care. They will graze my clover whether it be in my grass free plot, or weeded plot, or what lies within the fallow fescue fields. My point is we don't need be annal about the grasses and weeds within a plot. We might have to keep them within reason for our own sake, but if we aren't managing for profit, then I seriously doubt grasses in clover will have any impact on the number or quality of deer present.
Now with all that said, I do spray at times with Cleth or Gly. And I do fert yearly with 0-20-20. And mow a few times a year. But I'm sure if I showed my ugly plots on hear there would be a gasp by many of how ugly they were. It doesn't hurt I suppose to make them like a golf course, but my point, is don't feel guilty if you choose not to.