Wake Forest comes home for Family Weekend with momentum after knocking off ranked Louisville on the road, and the 3-1 Demon Deacons now find themselves in a familiar but welcome spot: drawing attention in the ACC. Jake Dickert’s team is just outside the Associated Press Top 25, and Saturday’s matchup with Stanford gives Wake Forest another chance to reinforce what it showed last weekend.
The biggest reason for Wake Forest’s surge has been the play of quarterback Gio Lopez. Through the four games he has started, Lopez has given the offense steady production and built clear chemistry with Carlos Hernandez, who has emerged as the team’s breakout receiver at WR1.
Stanford arrives in Winston-Salem with a little confidence of its own after picking up its first conference win of the season. The Cardinal rallied from a 20-10 halftime deficit to beat Georgia Tech 34-27 last week, and Michigan transfer quarterback passed for a career-high 396 yards and three touchdowns in the comeback.
That win matters for a Stanford program still trying to prove something in Tavita Pritchard’s first season as head coach. With former Stanford quarterback and current general Manager Andrew Luck helping guide the rebuild, the Cardinal are pushing for a turnaround and their first winning record in a full season since 2018.
Weather shouldn’t create much drama at Allegacy Financial Stadium, though there is some rain in the forecast. Kickoff is expected to come with a 20% to 30% chance of rain, and that number is set to climb as the afternoon goes on. Temperatures should sit around 70 degrees with partly cloudy skies.
Wind should stay manageable, too. A sustained southwest breeze of 10-12 miles per hour is expected, a factor that should not have major impact on special teams. Wake Forest kicker Connor Calvert has a career-long field goal range of 50 yards, while Stanford kicker Emmet Kenney has a career-long of 52 yards.
In Other News...
Stanford Faces A Brutal Road Test At The Worst Time
Stanford heads into Wake Forest still chasing something it has not found away from home in a long time. The Cardinal will try to snap a program-record 12-game road losing streak in an early kickoff that has forced a different kind of preparation this week, while also piecing things together without starting cornerback Brandon Nicholson after a leg injury.
There is at least some momentum to carry, with quarterback Davis Warren providing a steady lift lately and the team coming off recent home success. But the setting is unmistakably tricky for a group already battling a stubborn road trend, and this trip arrives at a time when Stanford could have used a cleaner runway. [Read more 🡒]
Stanford's Reset Feels Real But One Road Problem Still Looms
Stanfords first year under Tavita Pritchard has brought a noticeably different feel, one built on basic competence and a little more resilience. Davis Warren has given the offense steadier quarterback play, Matt Rose has become a reliable presence at linebacker, and Kris Richards defensive tweaks have helped the unit look more organized than it did a year ago. For a program trying to climb out of the flat spots that have defined too much of the recent past, those are meaningful signs.
The problem is that the progress has not fully traveled. Stanford still has to prove it can carry that reset away from home, where the margin for error shrinks and the defense has not always matched its better stretches. With the offense looking more functional and the defense showing flashes, the Cardinal now face the harder question of whether this version can hold up on the road, where consistency has been the missing piece. [Read more 🡒]