Wake Forest vs Cal Preview: The Expectations Game
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Wake Forest battles the expectation game this week while it also plays Cal in Berkeley on Saturday night.
Wake Forest vs Cal Preview: The Expectations Game
Wake head coach Jake Dickert now spends some of his time with the team trying to preach about staying in the moment and keeping the focus. That is while the team is 5-1, in second place in the ACC, and ranked 21st in the current AP Poll. Dickert is now on the candidate list for the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year Award. His players are winning ACC awards each week. It’s pretty heady stuff for a team that was picked to finish 13th in the conference before the season started. Conceivably, they still could, but you would have to believe they will lose all six remaining games.
“There’s an attitude to it. You’ve got to stay hunters. You’ve got to stay aggressive,” Dickert said at his weekly press conference on Monday. “This is what Built in the Dark has always been built off of. The moment the spotlight finds you, you’ve got to stand on your process.”
And the expectations have changed now that there is a new taste of elevated success. Last weekend, after the win at NC State, defensive back Braylon Johnson addressed being 5-1 by saying he felt the team should be 6-0. Weeks later, the first half against Miami is still hovering. “I’m not a ‘should have won’ guy. It’s like nails on a chalkboard to me,” Dickert said. “I appreciate his comments because there is some confidence level that I think we are playing with right now and I think that is important.”
Dickert emphasized that he is telling his team that the last six games don’t matter because each week you have to bring a new team in for the competition.
Dickert seems to not be buying into the expectations either. He did not know he was on the Dodd Coach of the Year candidate list until we told him in our one-on-one Wednesday morning.
The Focus on Cal
The Golden Bears (3-3 overall and 2-1 in ACC play) bring an interesting dilemma to the preparations that goes beyond the cross-country travel and a game where halftime will be at around midnight on the body clocks of the Wake players.
As of this article’s publication, the Cal quarterback situation lacks clarity. The starter, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele (JKS as he is commonly referred to), is listed as questionable on Cal’s initial injury report. He had a concussion two weeks ago. It was backup Jackson Brousseau who guided the win over Virginia Tech.
JKS was a spotlight player early in the season. He has 1,180 yards passing with eight touchdowns and five interceptions. But Brousseau’s game against VA Tech was big time. He was 29 of 43 for 321 yards passing with a touchdown.
So which one will it be? It’s not an easy answer. Cal head coach Tosh Lupoi switched offensive coordinators at halftime of the UNLV game on the first weekend of October. Technically, Jordan Somerville is still the offensive coordinator, but only in title. At halftime of the UNLV game, Lupoi made the switch with passing game coordinator Pat McCann now calling the plays.
Dickert knows Brousseau well. He recruited him when he, Dickert, was at Washington State. “He’s an absolute winner. All he’s ever done in his life is win football games.” That having been said, Dickert said he expects JKS to be the quarterback as soon as he clears concussion protocol. “He’s a first-round pick two years from now.”
There are also challenges with Lupoi being in his first head coaching job, and the Wake coaches looking for tendencies in the type of game he likes to run. Dickert said you go back to when Lupoi was the defensive coordinator at Oregon, and the aggressive style he brings to games.
Cal is tied for ninth in the country in interceptions with seven. Sophomore defensive back Kingston Lopa has five of them. He is also listed as questionable for this week’s game. But the guessing game says he will play.
“Third and long is a danger zone. Got to stay out of it,” Dickert told us Wednesday. He said Cal’s tendency to blitz from multiple points on any down keeps you off-balance. “Every catch is a contested catch,” he said, stressing he anticipates a physical game.
The Family Business
While Wake defensive end Gabe Kirschke is trying to get to whoever is playing quarterback for Cal, his dad is going to be honored in Southern California. Travis Kirschke is being inducted into the 2026 class of the California High School Football Hall of Fame. This year’s class, which includes Keyshawn Johnson, James Washington, and Pat Tillman among others, is being honored at the Rose Bowl Saturday night at halftime of the UCLA-Wisconsin game.
The elder Kirschke was in the class of 1993 at Esperanza High School in Anaheim, before going on to start at UCLA for three of his four years there. He went on to an NFL career with Detroit, San Francisco, and Pittsburgh, where he won two Super Bowl rings.
“Gabe’s dad was a really good player,” Dicker said. “When we recruited Gabe, his dad was heavily involved. But you can also see why Gabe is the way he is. He possesses a lot of the same tough traits and the ability to want to be coached and want to be great. And he was raised that way.”
The Style Section
Social media has been busy with the wardrobe for Cal this weekend. The Golden Bears are doing a tribute to Bay Area music icons, the Grateful Dead. The Grateful Dead logos will play a prominent role on Cal’s helmets Saturday night.
We showed the pictures to Dickert. He seemed disappointed it was not a whole tie-dye look on the uniforms; something Bill Walton would have liked, as he told us. Although he acknowledged he was never a Dead Head, as their fan base is called, opting instead for a heavy stream of country music.
Main Image: Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images
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