Wake Forest Was Supposed to Be an ACC Afterthought. Jake Dickert Has Other Ideas

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The Demon Deacons just stunned No. 16 Louisville on the road. With a manageable schedule ahead, it’s fair to ask how far Jake Dickert can take college football’s latest surprise team.

Maybe we should start paying attention to Wake Forest.

The Demon Deacons aren’t supposed to matter much in the modern version of college football. They don’t have a 100,000-seat stadium. They aren’t throwing around the kind of money associated with the sport’s superpowers. They don’t annually sign recruiting classes loaded with five-star prospects.

Yet here they are.

Wake Forest went into Louisville on Saturday as a double-digit underdog and walked out with a 30-27 victory over the No. 16 Cardinals, improving to 3-1 and giving coach Jake Dickert another signature road victory. Louisville had entered the weekend with College Football Playoff aspirations after beating then-No. 16 SMU.

Suddenly, Wake Forest’s season looks a lot more interesting.

The Demon Deacons’ only loss came against No. 5 Miami, 33-20, in a game in which Wake trailed by just six points in the fourth quarter.

They’ve already won at Purdue.

They’ve now won at Louisville.

And take a look at what remains on the schedule.

Stanford. NC State. California. Virginia. Merrimack. SMU. Georgia Tech. Duke.

There isn’t another currently ranked opponent on it.

Wake Forest isn’t a College Football Playoff contender today.

But after what happened Saturday, the idea of the Demon Deacons becoming a factor in the ACC race suddenly isn’t nearly as crazy as it sounds.

Wake Forest didn’t steal this one

Calling Saturday’s victory an upset is accurate.

Calling it a fluke wouldn’t be.

Wake Forest led Louisville 24-21 at halftime and never trailed in the second half. The Demon Deacons took the lead for good on Connor Calvert’s 32-yard field goal with 6:20 remaining, then watched their defense finish the job.

Louisville drove deep enough to attempt a potential game-tying 54-yard field goal with 18 seconds remaining.

Dallas Afalava blocked it.

Game over.

Wake Forest quarterback Gio Lopez completed 12 of 19 passes for 225 yards and a touchdown. Ty Clark III ran for 91 yards and two touchdowns.

And Carlos Hernandez was nearly unstoppable.

The senior receiver caught nine passes for 194 yards, including a 77-yard touchdown.

Wake didn’t survive Louisville.

It beat Louisville.

“It was so far from perfect,” Dickert said afterward. “Matter of fact, it was ugly, but it was so beautiful because our guys found a way to win the game.”

Finding ways to win is becoming something of a Dickert specialty.

Jake Dickert is quietly building something

Saturday wasn’t even Wake Forest’s first surprising road victory under Dickert.

Last season, the Demon Deacons went into Charlottesville and beat No. 12 Virginia 16-9.

That means Wake Forest has now defeated a Top-20 opponent on the road in consecutive seasons for the first time since 1975-76.

Think about that.

Gerald Ford was president the last time Wake Forest pulled this off in consecutive seasons.

Wake is also one of only five teams to win two road games against Power Four opponents this season, joining Miami, Mississippi State, UCLA and Virginia Tech.

Dickert deserves a lot of credit.

Wake Forest hired him after Dave Clawson stepped down following the 2024 season. Dickert came from Washington State, where he had already learned how to operate without the resources available to college football’s wealthiest programs.

That’s particularly relevant at Wake Forest.

The Demon Deacons aren’t going to win many recruiting battles against Georgia, Ohio State or Texas.

They don’t need to.

They need to identify players who fit, develop them and build a team capable of making better-funded programs miserable on Saturdays.

That appears to be happening.

The Miami loss suddenly looks different

Wake Forest’s 33-20 loss to Miami a week earlier could easily have been dismissed as evidence that the Demon Deacons weren’t ready to compete with the ACC’s better teams.

Then Wake went to Louisville.

It’s worth revisiting what actually happened against Miami.

The Hurricanes were ranked No. 5. Wake Forest trailed 26-20 in the fourth quarter and had the football before Miami finally pulled away.

There are no moral victories in college football, and Wake lost the game.

But combined with Saturday’s performance, it suggests something important.

Wake Forest can play with good teams.

Louisville found that out the hard way.

Now look at Wake Forest’s schedule

This is where things get intriguing.

Wake Forest has already played Miami and Louisville.

The Demon Deacons’ remaining ACC schedule is Stanford, at NC State, at California, Virginia, at SMU, at Georgia Tech and Duke. They also host Merrimack in November.

There are difficult games in there.

SMU won the ACC championship in 2024 and has become one of the conference’s stronger programs. Georgia Tech has been trending upward. NC State on the road is rarely comfortable. Rivalry games against Duke have their own personality.

But where is the game Wake Forest absolutely cannot win?

There isn’t one.

That’s what changes the conversation.

Nobody needs to start projecting Wake into the College Football Playoff after four games. The Demon Deacons are only 1-1 in the ACC, and the loss to Miami matters.

But an ACC Championship Game appearance?

That’s a conversation worth having if Wake keeps winning.

Wake Forest might be college football’s perfect underdog

Part of what makes this sport compelling is that every once in a while a program shows up that doesn’t look like the others.

Wake Forest is one of the smallest Power Four schools in the country.

It shares a conference with Miami, Clemson, Florida State and other programs possessing far larger football brands and deeper recruiting pedigrees.

None of that mattered Saturday.

Forty-six thousand people showed up at L&N Stadium expecting to watch Louisville continue building its case as a legitimate ACC contender.

Instead, they watched Wake Forest wreck the party.

Now Stanford comes to Winston-Salem next Saturday.

Then Wake goes to NC State.

Keep winning, and what sounds slightly ridiculous today will begin sounding increasingly plausible.

Could Wake Forest actually find its way into the ACC Championship Game?

We’re not there yet.

But after Saturday, ignoring the Demon Deacons might be a bigger mistake than believing in them.

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