2026 Wake Forest Preview: Season Predictions

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The offseason is officially over, because the Wake Forest Demon Deacons play football in exactly 1 week! As always, its time to try to take a guess on how the Deacs will perform this season and where they will end up in the standings. Last season, the Deacs were given a 4.5 game win total by Vegas and were predicted to finish 16th in the ACC—Wake surprised nearly everyone by finishing 8th in the conference with a historic 9-win season under first year head coach Jake Dickert. Hopefully they can buck the expectations again this season.

The ACC media voted Wake Forest to finish 13th this season (a slight improvement!), finishing ahead of just Syracuse, UNC, BC, and Stanford. Of course, with 17 ACC teams and only 8 or 9 conference games, how a team finishes in the standings is going to be heavily influenced by who is on their schedule. Here are my predictions for the season.

• Projected Record: 6-6
• ACC Record: 3-6
• Realistic Ceiling: 9-3
• Realistic Floor: 4-8

Akron: Win

Let’s be honest, there is a reason Wake Forest put Akron on the schedule. The Zips haven’t made a bowl game in a decade, and they haven’t finished with a winning record since 2015—their only winning season in the past 20 years. Likely starting QB Reese Poffenbarger has thrown just 14 career passes in 2 years at the FBS level, and the Zips’ offensive line was picked apart in the transfer portal. Wake should win this one comfortably.

at Purdue: Win

The Boilermakers have won just 7 games total since Jeff Brohm left at the end of 2022, and they haven’t won a conference game since they beat Indiana in 2023. Second year head coach Barry Odom has his work cut out for him again this season after going 2-10 last year with just 1 FBS win over Ball State. Purdue was pretty terrible on both sides of the ball last season, giving up 32 points (117th) and scoring just 19 points (123rd) per game. With just the 48th best transfer class in the nation, I’m not confident that Purdue is going to turn things around that much this season. This game is on the road, which could make it a little more difficult, but the Deacs should win. A loss here would likely mean Wake starts the season 1-3, which would be a very bad sign.

Miami: Loss

I don’t feel like I need to really explain this one very much. Miami was in the National Championship game just a few months ago and then they brought in a top 5 transfer portal class. The Canes arguably upgraded at quarterback with Duke’s Darian Mensah and return both a running back who ran for 1,200 yards last season in Mark Fletcher and a receiver who went for 1,200 yards last season in Malachi Toney. Miami is one of the biggest NIL spenders in the nation, and they are kind of just in a separate class from Wake Forest and most of the ACC at this point. That being said, there is a reason they still play the game.

at Louisville: Loss

The Cardinals are averaging a little over 9 wins per season in Jeff Brohm’s 3 years as the head coach. Former Ohio State backup Lincoln Kienholz joins an outstanding pair of running backs in Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown, who rushed for 8.8 and 7.3 yards per carry respectively last season. Louisville also pulled in the 13th ranked transfer class in the nation according to 247Sports, with 7 4-stars and 26 3-star players. The Deacs are notoriously bad at Cardinal Stadium, having won just one game on the road against Louisville since 2014 with an average margin of -14.4 points.

Stanford: Win

Stanford hasn’t been to a bowl game since 2018, which also happens to be the last time they won more than 4 games in a season. After a mediocre season under interim coach Frank Reich, Stanford hired Andrew Luck’s college backup and Washington Commanders QB coach Tavita Pritchard—Pritchard has never been the head coach at any level of football. The Cardinal was also not very active in the transfer portal, adding just 6 players, including new starting QB Davis Warren. Warren threw for just 1,200 yards with 7 touchdowns and 9 interceptions last season at Michigan, so I don’t really think he’s the type of player that is going to drastically turn around the Stanford offense (123rd in scoring, 125th in yards per game) this year. Stanford is probably in for a multi-season rebuild with a 1st year head coach, but then again, a lot of people thought the same thing about the Deacs last year. The game being at home should put this one in the win column.

at NC State: Toss Up, Lean Loss

Dave Doeren is seemingly always good for about 8 wins and I think the Wolfpack have one of the best QB’s in the country in CJ Bailey. The Pack did lose most of their receivers from last year’s squad, but with a guy like Bailey, who completed 69% of his passes for 3,100 yards and 25 touchdowns as a sophomore, under center, I think NC State will be able to complete passes to just about anyone. The NC State defense will probably be better than it was last season, and they held the Deacs without a first down for basically the entire second half of the game in 2025. With this game being in Raleigh, I give the edge in this one to the Wolfpack.

at California: Toss Up, Lean Loss

The Golden Bears retained freshman phenom Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele (JKS) and added the 14th best transfer portal class per 247Sports to help him this season. As a true freshman, JSK completed 64% of his passes for nearly 3,500 yards and 18 touchdowns. With Wake having so many question marks at corner right now, I am certainly afraid of what a sophomore JKS is going to do. The game being on the entire other side of the country also makes me lean Cal on this one.

Virginia: Toss Up, Lean Win

Wake beat the Cavaliers last season, but they played most of the game against the backup QB and came about 5 yards away from going to overtime. If that happens this year, Virginia will be slightly more prepared, as the UVA backup this season will either be Missouri transfer Beau Pribula or Pitt transfer Eli Holstein. Neither are superstars at the position, both have played enough football to be able to step into the game and hold their own. Along with 2 veteran QB’s, Virginia boasts a roster with more combined starts and snaps than any team in the country. I personally thought UVA was a little overrated last season—their resume was fabricated by beating at the time #8 FSU (finished 5-7), and they lost to a 7-5 Duke team in the ACC Championship Game. They have experience, but they significantly downgraded at QB. The home field advantage gives the edge to Wake in this one.

Merrimack: Win

This should be over by halftime. Rest the starters and finish the game with no injuries.

at SMU—Loss

The Mustangs still have not lost an ACC game at home since joining the conference. With Kevin Jennings (6,900 yards and 49 TD passes in 2 seasons in the ACC) returning at QB and a transfer class that includes Cal running back Kendrick Raphael (943 yards, 13 TDs) and a couple of 4-star pass catchers, the Mustangs should be in contention for the ACC Championship Game again this season. The Deacs handed SMU their first ever ACC loss last season at the buzzer, so I expect them to be looking for some revenge this season.

at Georgia Tech: Toss Up, Lean Loss

Veteran QB Haynes King is gone, and the Yellow Jackets season will probably come down to how good of a replacement Alberto Mendoza can be for GT. Alberto may be related to the #1 pick in the NFL draft, but he really hasn’t show much in his 2 seasons of college football, though he did throw 5 touchdown passes last season in 40+ point blowouts. The Yellow Jackets’ identity under Brent Key has mostly been a tough, run-oriented team that likes to dominate the trenches and just blow the opposition off the line of scrimmage, so I expect that to be that to continue this season. Tech has not had a losing season yet with Key at the helm, and they’ve only lost 2 home games in the past 2 seasons. I would feel better about this one if it was at home, but since it is on the road I am leaning loss here.

Duke: Toss Up, Lean Win

Duke won the ACC Championship last season, but theyalso lost 5 regular season games. Now, they have lost star QB Darian Mensah to Miami and replaced him with San Jose State transfer Walker Eget. Mensah threw 34 touchdown passes with 6 interceptions last year—Eget has thrown just 30 touchdown passes in the last 2 seasons to go along with 19 interceptions for the Spartans. That is a significant downgrade at the most important position on the field. The Blue Devils also lost their top 3 receivers from last season (Cooper Barkate, Sean Brown, Samhir Higgins) and added the 62nd best transfer portal class in the nation. Manny Diaz typically has a strong defense, but I expect the Duke offense to take a huge step back without Mensah and Barkate.

While 6-6 may seem like a bit of underwhelming prediction after the Deacs went 9-4 last season, half of those losses I have as toss up games. If the Deacs can catch some breaks and win a majority of those, as they did last season, they definitely have a chance to have another great season. I feel like the defense is probably going to take a slight step backwards with the losses at all 3 levels—especially Hazen, Andersen, and Prunty. On the offensive side, the Deacs don’t have a super star player like Demond Claiborne, so their ability to score is probably going to come down to whether or not Gio Lopez is a legit Power 4 QB. When we know the answer to that, we will probably have a much better idea of how the rest of the season is going to unfold. I had Wake going 5-7 and missing a bowl last season, so obviously don’t take what I think too seriously.

Offensive MVP: Carlos Hernandez

Hernandez was just kind of always in the right spot to make plays last season, and now he has a QB who has been much more accurate throwing intermediate routes than either QB last season. I expect Lopez will be looking for him anytime the Deacs need to convert a 3rd down to move the chains or anytime he gets flushed from the pocket and needs somewhere to go with the ball.

Defensive MVP: Davaughn Patterson

Moving to safety and taking over for Nick Andersen means that Patterson is going to be in position to make a ton of tackles this season. He had 80 tackles and last season while playing Nickel, so I expect him to hit triple digits this season. Combine that with his coverage ability, and he will likely be the most important player on the defense. Langston Hardy was the other option here, but I fully expect him to be a focus on opposing team’s gameplans in 2026. I suspect he will spend a lot of the year being double teamed or chipped with backs and tight ends on passing plays.

Breakout Player: Kam Shanks

The last time Gio Lopez and Rob Ezell were together, a 5-8, 175 pound slot receiver named Jamaal Pritchett caught 91 passes for 1,127 yards and 9 touchdowns. The Deacs now have 5-8, 170 pound slot receiver in Arkansas transfer Kam Shanks—you do the math.

Those are just a few of my guesses on the upcoming season—thankfully we do not have to guess for very much longer. The Deacs kickoff the season next Thursday at 7:00 PM against the Akron Zips in Winston Salem

Go Deacs!

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