Wake Forest heads west Saturday night with a chance to keep rolling and check off a pair of boxes in the process.
The Demon Deacons are 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the ACC, and they’ll face Cal at 10:30 p.m. ET in Berkeley.
A win over the Golden Bears would give Wake Forest four straight victories and make the Deacs bowl eligible in mid-October, a mark that stands out on its own. It would also push Wake to four Power Four road wins, making them the only team in FBS with that many heading into Week 7.
Our staff thinks the streak keeps going.
For the second straight week, the picks weren’t unanimous, though. Andrew is the lone voice calling for Cal to spring the upset, while everyone else is backing Wake Forest.
The staff’s collective read leans toward a two-score Deacs win, with an average margin of 11.2 points and a projected total of 51.6 points. That comes out to an average score of 31-20 Wake Forest.
The individual predictions are split in a familiar way. Alex Gendron is on Wake Forest 35-21, while Andrew Bauhs has Cal 26-24.
Barry Lewis also sees a 35-21 Wake win. Blake Robison, who did not participate in Weeks 1-3, is taking Wake Forest 31-21.
Brandon Oakes has the Deacs 31-10, JD Andress is on 31-20, Justin Kontul picked 42-28, Keylor Piers went with 31-13, Sean Kennedy forecast a 31-24 Wake win, and Seth Dowdle landed on 27-14.
Last week, nearly the entire group had Wake Forest beating NC State, and Brandon was closest with his call of Wake Forest 35, NC State 10. That was his second win of the season and was enough to move him back to the top of the leaderboard.
The game is set for Saturday, October 17, at California Memorial Stadium and will be shown on ESPN2.
In Other News...
Cal Heads Into Wake Forest With One Huge Question Unsettled
California arrives in Winston-Salem with a lot of the same questions teams carry in late October, but two of them loom larger than most. Jake Curtis, who covers the Golden Bears, laid out the main issues facing Cal before Saturday's game against Wake Forest, including the quarterback situation, the defensive approach and which players could tilt the matchup one way or the other.
The uncertainty starts at quarterback and spills into the rest of the game plan, because Cal needs its offense and defense to hold together if it wants to leave with a win. A key piece of the secondary is also in doubt, adding another layer to a road test that already asks plenty of a team trying to sort through availability, matchups and execution all at once. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forest Brings A Major Depth Question Into Berkeley
Wake Forest heads to Berkeley carrying a familiar kind of concern for a road trip: depth. The latest injury report lists six players as out, leaving the Demon Deacons to sort through the usual Week-to-Week uncertainty on both sides of the ball as they prepare for California, with the offense needing to stay balanced and the line play under even more scrutiny than usual.
There is some good news in the form of key names trending toward availability, which matters for a team trying to keep its quarterback clean and avoid leaning too heavily on any one spot. Carlos Hernandez, Langston Hardy and Kadear Dembele are among those listed as probable, and their status will go a long way toward determining how much flexibility Wake Forest has once the game starts. [Read more 🡒]