Wake Forest Is Going Bowling

With a wholly unexpected and sometimes not-so-pretty 16-9 win at Virginia Saturday night, Wake Forest is bowl eligible for the first time in three seasons.

A more cynical, and perhaps equally as correct, headline might have read “Good Wake Forest Defense Overcomes Inefficient Wake Forest Offense.” But then a couple of things come to mind. This Wake team was picked to finish last or near last by nearly everyone who took part in the ACC poll in July. And the Deacs were 4-8 the last two seasons. And then you go back and rewatch some of what happened and see the nine-minute-long drive in the fourth quarter. It only got the Deacs a field goal, and it did not put the game out of reach. But it gave an indication that Wake was going to fight through this game against the ACC’s top team, a Virginia team that was ranked 14^th in the first College Football Playoff ranking this week.

“I’m really proud of our team.  No one thought we could go to a bowl game,” Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickeert said after the game. “These guys fought with resiliency. They kept punching, and we found a way to win.”

Defense Good, Offense, Well…

It does have to be said. The offense was lacking. Quarterbacks Robby Ashford and Deshawn Purdie were a combined nine of 23 passing for 64 yards and no touchdowns. The offense as a whole only managed 203 yards.

But there was the drive. In the fourth quarter, up 13-9, Wake Forest drove 48 yards on 16 plays, eventually getting a 49-yard Connor Calvert field goal to go up by a touchdown. But the key was that the drive burned 9:16 off the game clock. Wake had been its usual anemic self on third-down conversions up to that point, going one for 11. But the Deacs converted on four third downs on that drive. Three of them were runs by Ashford. The other was a six-yard pass to tight end Eni Falayi.

The defense was the story of the night. A unit that got shredded for 42 points last week by a moribund Florida State team gave up only three field goals to a Virginia team that is in the hunt for the ACC championship game.

How They Got There

Virginia’s first field goal came in the first quarter on a 35-yarder by Will Bettridge. Those were the only points of the entire first quarter as the two teams combined for 114 yards of offense.

Things got more troubling for Virginia early in the second quarter. Quarterback Chandler Morris was scrambling, and as he went into his slide, he suffered what appeared to be a lower leg injury. Wake’s Trevon West was also flagged 15 yards for the hit on Morris, even though the replay showed West made more contact with his teammate than he did the UVA quarterback. Morris was taken to the locker room and never returned.

Virginia took a 6-0 lead in the second quarter. The Cavaliers drove 91 yards, but the offense stalled out there, and UVA settled for a 22-yard Bettridge field goal.

Wake got the only touchdown of the game for either team a couple of series later. Carlos Hernandez took a punt off the bounce at his own 12-yard line. He sprinted to his right and then weaved his way through a crowd. As he picked up more blocks on the outside, he moved back toward the middle of the field and finished an 88-yard touchdown run to give the Deacs a 7-6.

Wake added a 40-yard Calvert field goal for the 10-6 halftime lead.

Each team added a field goal in the third quarter, and then Wake got the only score in the fourth quarter at the conclusion of that nine-minute-long drive.

The Defense Was Decisive

Coming into the game, the Cavaliers had fumbled 10 times this season but lost none of them. Wake Forest ended that streak as the Deacs forced three turnovers on fumbles. One of them came on Virginia’s drive following Wake’s nine-minute-long escapade. On first and 10 at the Wake Forest 32-yard line, Virginia was driving. But Wake linebacker Dylan Hazen completely stripped the ball from UVA running back J’mari Taylor as he was making the tackle.

As Wake had to punt the ball back, UVA had one more shot at tying the game. Virginia went 53 yards in 10 plays. But again, as needed, the Wake Forest defense stood firm. UVA managed only five yards on its last four plays and turned the ball over on downs at the Wake Forest five-yard line with just 13 seconds left in the game.

After the game, Dickert said he was not surprised by the effort of the defense coming off last week’s drubbing at Florida State. “I have a different view than most people. I don’t just get to them every Saturday. And I get to see the resiliency and the response every day of the week.”

The Bounceback

After ticking off a list of things that need to improve over the last three weeks of the regular season, Dickert talked about how impressed he was with the nine-minute drive. “Robby Ashford, the toughness that he showed. The playmaking was there. It’s not sexy. It doesn’t get you all these accolades. But that’s how you win football games,” the coach said. “We need to be more explosive. We need to do bigger things. But I thought there was some gutty performances out there by a lot of different people on our football team.”

Virginia falls to 8-2 overall and 5-1 in conference play. That puts them in a three-way tie for first with Georgia Tech and Pitt.

Wake Forest moves to 6-3 overall and 3-3 in ACC play with three games left. And if you think the university is not excited about the uptick in fortune…they started sending out emails within an hour after the game, making the pitch for deposits for 2026 season seats.

Last Word will have more post-game coverage from the Wake Forest win over Virginia later Sunday morning.