Stanford heads to Wake Forest on Saturday with both teams trying to turn one good ACC result into something more lasting.
It will be a familiar trip for Andrew Luck and Tavita Pritchard, who return to Winston-Salem, N.C., for just the second Stanford visit to Wake Forest. Their first one still stings. In 2009, with Luck at quarterback and Pritchard backing him up, the Cardinal watched a 17-3 lead disappear in a 24-17 nonconference loss - one of the tougher defeats in a season that still featured wins over three nationally ranked teams.
The schools have met only a few times since, and the series has split cleanly on Stanford’s field. The Cardinal opened that run with a 68-24 blowout in 2010, when Luck started his Heisman Trophy push by throwing four touchdown passes. Wake Forest answered in the most recent meeting, taking a 27-24 win in the teams’ first matchup as ACC opponents on Matthew Dennis’ field goal with 1:48 left.
This time, both sides arrive with some real confidence. Wake Forest is 3-1 overall and 1-1 in the ACC after a 30-27 road win at then-No.
16 Louisville. Stanford is 2-2 and 1-2 in conference play after what was easily its sharpest showing of the year, a 34-27 home victory over Georgia Tech.
Wake Forest’s offense was driven by Carlos Hernandez, who caught nine passes for 194 yards and a 77-yard touchdown against Louisville. That performance has Jake Dickert looking for ways to keep the wideout moving around against Stanford’s mostly man-to-man look.
"We've got to find ways to move Carlos around and find opportunities to get him open," Dickert told reporters this week. "(Quarterback Gio Lopez) and him got to be in sync this week."
Lopez threw for 225 yards in the win, but Stanford quarterback Davis Warren has been on a bigger statistical climb. The Michigan transfer had never topped 204 passing yards in a game before throwing for 310 in the season-opening win over Hawaii, then raised the bar again with 396 yards against Georgia Tech.
Even with that surge through the air, Pritchard said Stanford still needs a more credible run game than the 86 yards it managed last week if it wants to keep building in the ACC.
"It's not necessarily, hey, we've got to have equal number of yards running and throwing, or we have to have equal number of attempts," Pritchard said. "It's more you have to have the threat of running the football and throwing it. That's the place we've got to get to."
In Other News...
Wake Forest Fans Finally Get A First Look At This New Roster
Wake Forest fans will get their first chance to see the new mens basketball roster in action on Sunday, when the Demon Deacons host Georgetown in an exhibition game at LJVM Coliseum. Tipoff is set for 12:30 p.m., and the afternoon is being set up as an easy entry point for supporters to get a look at the team before the games begin to matter.
The exhibition will not count toward official records, but it does bring a little extra intrigue to the building since the two programs have not met since 1997. Tickets are priced at $10 for general admission, children 12 and under are free with a family-friendly plan in place, and it should give Wake Forest an early read on what this group looks like in a game setting. [Read more 🡒]
Louisville Just Saw Why Wake Forest Looks Like A Real ACC Threat
Wake Forest went on the road and left with a win over one of the ACCs better teams, and the biggest reason was the way Gio Lopez handled the moment. The quarterback helped set the tone by getting the run game going early, then kept Louisville from settling in by reading coverages cleanly and delivering accurate throws when the pocket tightened.
Lopezs performance gave the Demon Deacons a reminder that they can travel and still look composed against quality conference opposition, which is usually the first real test of whether a team belongs in the ACC conversation. Stanford is next on the schedule, and Wake Forest will be looking for Lopez to keep that same rhythm as the season moves forward. [Read more 🡒]
Davis Warren Is Rising Fast As Stanford Faces A Real Week 5 Test
Through four weeks of the 2026 season, the ACC quarterback picture has already started to sort itself out, and that matters for Wake Forest as it keeps an eye on how the league stack-ups are forming around it. The latest review of the conferences passers leaned on recent game performances, individual production, and where each team stands heading into a busy Week 5 slate, giving a clearer sense of which quarterbacks are moving the needle and which matchups could reshape the conversation.
The upcoming schedule brings several tests that should tell us even more about the leagues pecking order, with quarterback play again set to drive the biggest outcomes. For Wake Forest, the value is in tracking not just who is rising right now, but who might keep building momentum when the pressure gets heavier next week. [Read more 🡒]