2026 Wake Forest Preview: Defensive Backs

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The Wake Forest secondary had one of, if not the, best turnarounds in college football last season. The Deacs held opponents to a 59% completion rate (down from 70% in 2025) for 207 yards (down from 279 in 2025) and 0.9 touchdowns per game (down from 1.9 in 2025) through the air. Unfortunately for the Deacs, they’ll have to replace both starting corners—3rd Team All-ACC DB Karon Prunty and Lardarius Webb Jr.—and First Team All-ACC safety Nick Andersen, who finished his career 8th in program history with 368 tackles.

Safety

If there was an All-ACC position for the Nickel defender, Davaughn Patterson would probably be a First Team All-ACC player (they really need to add one since a ton of teams have gone to a 4-2-5 to combat the 3 and 4 WR looks of the spread offenses). Patterson played the 6th most snaps of any DB in the ACC last season, finishing with 80 tackles, 4 tackles for loss, and 9 passes defended. He was named ACC DB of the Week after putting up 7 tackles and 3 passes defended in Wake’s win over SMU and only allowed 2 touchdowns all season. His versatility as both a coverage corner and run-stopper is one of the reasons why the staff has made the decision to move him to strong safety this season in an effort to “get him more into the action”. Replacing the output of Nick Andersen (228 tackles in last 2 seasons) is not the easiest thing to do, but Patterson certainly has the skill set to pull it off.

At free safety, the Deacs will have the returning Rushaun Tongue. Tongue was poised for a sophomore jump last season before a season ending injury in the Western Carolina game. As a redshirt freshman, Tongue played in 12 games at free safety and finished the 2024 season with 35 tackles, 1 interception, and 1 forced fumble. In 2025, he finished with just 4 tackles and 1 pass defended in 2 games before a shoulder injury ended his year. Hopefully he will be able to have the breakout season that was taken from him in 2025.

The backups here will likely be Myles Turpin and Josh Patterson. Turpin, a redshirt sophomore, played in all 13 games last season and finished with 24 tackles. Josh Patterson—the brother of Davaughn—is a transfer from Iowa State who played in 4 games last season before redshirting. He had 4 tackles and an interception against TCU.

Star (Nickel)

Braylon Johnson played in all 12 games last season, and was thrust into a larger role due to a season ending injury to starting free safety Rushaun Tongue. Johnson, a transfer from VT, took advantage of the opportunity and finished the season with 44 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, 0.5 sacks, and 5 pass deflections. Like Patterson, his versatility both in coverage and in run support make him an asset for the Wake Forest defense. At ACC kickoff, Head Coach Jake Dickert said of Wake’s defensive philosophy, “we take a bunch of talented athletes, we find the best place that they can be.” Dickert suggested that Johnson would be taking over at Nickel (Wake calls it “Star”) so that Patterson can move to safety where he can have the most impact.

Backing up Johnson should be senior Zamari Stevenson. Stevenson played in all 13 games last season behind Patterson and finished with 18 tackles and 1 interception. He has played in 33 games in his 3 year Wake Forest career so far.

Cornerback

Cornerback is where the Deacs have the biggest question marks on the defensive side heading into the season. Redshirt sophomore Travon West seems like an obvious choice for one of the starting roles, as he appeared in all 13 games last season (7 starts) and finished the season with 31 tackles and 2 passes defended. From there, I’m not sure what else to expect from this group. William and Mary transfer Sascha Garcia seemed like he was going to have a big role for the Deacs last season, but he got hurt in spring practice and didn’t play in a single game. North Alabama transfer Ashaad Williams also suffered an injury last year and played in just 4 games, finishing with 4 tackles and 1 pass defended.

The Deacs brought in 2 transfers for the CB position in FIU transfer Brian “Deuce” Blades II and Georgia State transfer Bernard CauseyIII. Blades was All-CUSA Honorable Mention in 2025 with 26 tackles, 1 interception, and 5 passes defended—the interception and 4 of the 5 PD’s came against 4-8 FAU and 3-9 MTSU. Causey transferred from LSU to Georgia State in 2024 and finished the 2025 season with 19 tackles and 6 passes defended. While the Panthers finished the season 1-11, Causey finished the season with one of the highest forced incompletion rates in the country.

The Deacs also have some younger guys that have played little or none coming up the pipeline. The big name is 4-star DB AJ Marks—with the new 5 year eligibility rule, we could see him get plenty of playing time this season. Redshirt freshman Freddie Gillens and freshman Somad Eaddy sound like they are doing well in fall camp as well.

With Patterson moving positions and Tongue returning from injury, safety should not be a concern for the Deacs this season. I am far less confident in the corners, where we just haven’t seen much from any of the players in Wake Forest uniforms.

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