Wake Forest didn’t just beat Stanford. The Deacs buried the Cardinal from the opening stretch and never let up, rolling to a 57-3 win that marked the biggest conference victory in program history.
For a team that so often ends up in tight, nerve-wracking football games against league opponents, this was the opposite: clean, one-sided, and over long before the final whistle. Wake controlled every phase, and the numbers tell the story.
The Deacs finished with a 519-197 edge in total yardage, held Stanford to 49 rushing yards on 34 carries, and converted 77% of their third downs. Even the lone early blemish - a Wake Forest fumble on Stanford’s punt on the fourth play of the game - barely slowed the avalanche.
Gio Lopez kept stacking up one big play after another. He went 20 of 27 for 265 yards and two touchdowns as a passer, then added 88 rushing yards and three more scores on the ground. That gave him five total touchdowns, a career high, and made him the first Wake Forest quarterback to account for five combined touchdowns since Robby Ashford in the Mayo Bowl six games ago.
The cushion was so deep that Wake could keep pouring it on even after Lopez’s night was effectively done. Backup Steele Pizzella entered in the fourth quarter and stayed on the gas, finishing 2 of 3 for 57 yards while adding 21 rushing yards and his first career rushing touchdown. The touchdown came right after he connected with Devin Goldston on a 51-yard strike.
Wake’s defense made sure Stanford never found a foothold. The Cardinal managed just 197 total yards and three points, and Davis Warren had a night to forget after his huge outing last week against Georgia Tech. He completed 19 of 30 passes for 136 yards and threw one interception while dealing with pressure all game and little room to operate in the secondary.
The Deacs also made Stanford miserable on the ground. Wake recorded four sacks for 37 yards, and Micah Ford was held to 45 rushing yards on 16 carries.
The Cardinals were repeatedly hit behind the line by a swarm of Wake defenders. Davaughn Patterson led the way with 10 combined tackles, while Vincent Firenze and Frank Cusano added eight and six, respectively.
The win pushes Wake Forest to 4-1 overall and sends it into a rivalry game in Raleigh next weekend. The Wolfpack will be coming off a win over Louisville, and Wake heads into that matchup with plenty of momentum after a performance that was never in doubt.
In Other News...
Wake Forest's First Exhibition Exposed Problems Fans Can't Ignore
Wake Forests first exhibition game of the season gave the staff an early look at where things stand, and the picture was a little rough. The Demon Deacons fell to Georgetown 94-77, with Kevair Kennedy pacing Wake Forest with 19 points, but the bigger story was the way the offense bogged down when the shots from deep stopped falling. Against a Georgetown team that handled the perimeter battle better, Wake Forest never really found the kind of rhythm that can make an exhibition feel like a tune-up instead of a warning sign.
Forbes framed the night as useful in the long run, even if the result was hard to ignore in the moment. Early exhibitions are supposed to reveal problems before the games count, and Wake Forest got a clear dose of that here, especially on the outside shooting front. The next stretch will show whether the loss was simply a messy October checkpoint or a preview of issues the Demon Deacons will have to clean up quickly. [Read more 🡒]
Bearcats' First Loss Just Put Their Season Outlook In Question
ESPNs latest FPI update brought a little movement for Wake Forest after a convincing win, with the Demon Deacons among the teams to climb in the projections as the model recalibrated around the weekends results. The broader picture around college footballs metric still reflects how quickly one game can alter the outlook, with Kansas and Missouri also getting boosted while Virginia and Stanford slid after losses.
Wake Forests rise matters because these ratings are doing more than just sorting teams from top to bottom. They feed into playoff and bowl probability estimates, which means every jump or drop changes the conversation around what the rest of the season can still become. For a program trying to build momentum, the latest FPI movement is another reminder that the margin for error in the coming weeks is already shrinking. [Read more 🡒]
Wake Forests First Preseason Look Raised Some Familiar Concerns
Wake Forests first preseason test came with the usual small-sample caveat, but the October 4 scrimmage against Georgetown still offered an early glimpse at where the Demon Deacons have work to do. They were outrebounded and had trouble getting stops, especially when the Hoyas found rhythm from three-point range, which is the kind of familiar concern that tends to travel with a team into the regular season if it is not cleaned up quickly.
There were encouraging signs mixed in, though, including promising showings from the Placide twins and Jamari McDowell. It is far too early to treat one scrimmage as a forecast for what Wake Forest will become, but the outing did reinforce that the Deacons have some real upside and some obvious areas to tighten before the games start counting for real. [Read more 🡒]