The Biggest Test For Wake Forest

Wake Forest has its biggest test of the season this weekend as the Demon Deacons travel to Charlottesville, VA to face the number one team in the ACC. And it comes on the heels of Wake head coach Jake Dickert saying his team needed a reset week and the thumping it took at Florida State last Saturday.

Last Saturday, Wake took a 42-7 beating at the hands of Florida State. Now they are on the road again, this time at Virginia to play the Cavaliers. Virginia is the lone ACC team undefeated in conference play at 5-0. They are 8-1 overall. If it weren’t for the College Football Playoff committee’s admitted disapproval of ACC out-of-conference scheduling, UVA would be in the top 12 of the first playoff rankings. Instead, they are at 14 and clearly looking to get into the playoff with the ACC conference champion’s automatic bid.

Rebuilding UVA Football

The resurrection of the football program at Virginia is the kind of content movies are made of. Tony Elliott was in his first year as head coach in 2022, having previously been Clemson’s offensive coordinator. In mid-November of the year, four UVA players and another student were fatally shot. Three of the players died. The last two games of Virginia’s 2022 season were cancelled, and the team finished 3-7.

Elliott spent the next season with his arms wrapped around the program, trying to find some path to recovery. The Cavaliers finished 3-9. In 2024, they went 5-7 with some signs of progress as Elliott started working the transfer portal with some fresh financial commitment for the program. The university stood by Elliott through rough waters, and he is repaying the school with a potential playoff team.

UVA is ranked 18th in the country in scoring offense, averaging 36.4 points per game. Quarterback Chandler Morris is not having the biggest year of his six-year college career. But he is having one of his more efficient seasons. Morris used his Covid exemption in 2020 when he was at Oklahoma. He redshirted in 2021 at TCU. His third freshman year and his sophomore year were also spent in Fort Worth. In 2024, he was putting up big passing yardage numbers at North Texas.

The Cavaliers’ Offense

This year at Virginia, he has just over 2,000 yards passing with 12 touchdowns and five interceptions. They aren’t eye-popping numbers, but he is doing it at a 67% completion rate, the best of his college career.

Jamari Taylor is leading the rushing attack with 686 yards (just under five yards per carry) and 11 touchdowns. The two combined have given Virginia an offensive potency they have not seen around there for many years.

The Cavaliers’ only loss came back in the first weekend of September to NC State. And Virginia has won three of its last four games this season in overtime. The total margin of victory in those last four wins is 13 points.

The Wake Forest Reset

They face a Wake Forest team that was thriving off its defense until last weekend. The Deacs went into Tallahassee as the #23-ranked defense in the country. They dropped to 34^th after the loss. Wake is now 5-3 overall and 2-3 in ACC play. They are still just one win away from becoming bowl eligible for the first time in three years. But first comes the effort to erase the sting of last week.

“I’m proud of our football team. But it’s always making sure that we’re understanding the process it takes of how we got there,” Dickert said earlier this week. “It’s just one day at a time, and we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves.”

Elliott said in his press conference this week that he is not swayed by Wake’s big loss last weekend. He does not think that was representative of what Wake Forest is this season, compared to prior years. “You’re starting to see them formulate an identity under the new staff. They play really hard. And they play a physical brand of football. They have some very dynamic weapons on offense that can score at any time.”

Among the specifics that Elliott is impressed with is something that Dickert is also quite fond of with his own team: the defensive line. “They really, really challenge you up front, because they can just create havoc with all of the movement and the personnel that they have on the D line.”

Wake’s Quarterbacks

The quarterback position at Wake continues to be a fluid situation. Even after getting banged up in the second half at Florida State, Robby Ashford is expected to be available. But it is just as possible that Deshawn Purdie gets the call. Dickert said he intends to evaluate the position on a week-to-week basis for the remainder of the season.