The good news for Wake Forest is that they are getting back their top pass catcher from a season ago in senior Carlos Hernandez. The bad news is that almost every other player on the team who caught a pass last season is gone—outside of Hernandez, the only returning wide receiver who caught a pass last season is Jack Foley, who’s only catch of the year came on a bomb in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. That means that for the second straight season, the coaching staff was forced to build a wide receiver corps
basically from scratch. They did a pretty good job last year, so let’s hope they can repeat that success this season.
At a Glance
- Key Returns
- Carlos Hernandez (Sr): 40 catches, 611 yards, 3 touchdowns, 1 PR TD, 1 FR TD
- Jack Foley (R-Fr): 1 catch, 64 yards, 1 TD
- Key Additions
- Kam Shanks (Arkansas): 9 catches, 101 yards, TD
- Wondame Davis (UTEP): 26 catches, 610 yards, 6 TD
- Drayden Dickman (Rice): 37 catches, 323 yards, 3 TD
- Antonio Meeks (Louisville): 17 catches, 189 yards, 1 TD
- Ny Carr (Miami): 3 catches, 45 yards
- Chase Tyler (Duke): 4 catches, 120 yards
- Key Losses
- Chris Barnes (OK St): 39 catches, 547 yards, 3 TD
- Sterling Berkhalter (Texas): 30 catches, 416 yards, 2 TD
- Micah Mays (Florida): 18 catches, 302 yards, 2 TD
- Sawyer Racanelli: 18 catches, 315 yards, 1 TD
Carlos Hernandez
Carlos Hernandez, the 6-0 senior, should be the guy Wake fans are most familiar with on this list. The Washington State transfer came into Wake Forest and immediately made an impact, leading the Deacs in receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns last season. He finished the year with 40 catches for 611 yards and 3 touchdowns, and added 2 touchdowns on a punt return and a fumble recovery. While he played on the outside a lot last season, Hernandez was mostly used like a slot receiver—the vast majority of his catches came on 5-10 yard outs and hitches around the middle of the field or bubble screen style plays that just let him create something in space. He is a very good runner after the catch, tough as nails, and never gives up on a play. With the improvement at the QB position, Hernandez could be poised for a monster senior season.
Kam Shanks
Shanks is a 5-8, 170 pound receiver who transferred to Wake Forest from Arkansas. Before his 1 season at the Razorbacks, Shanks played 2 seasons at UAB, where he caught 62 passes for 652 yards and 6 touchdowns as a redshirt freshman. His 1 season at Arkansas did not go as well—Shanks caught just 9 passes for 101 yards last season for a Razorback team that finished the season 2-10 and lost all 8 SEC games. Shanks appears to be pretty similar to former Wake Forest receiver Chris Barnes in that he is undersized, but very quick and great at evading tacklers. Based on that, I would expect him to play mostly in the slot and be used in a very similar manner to what we saw from Barnes last season.
Wondame Davis Jr.
Wondame Davis is 6-1 redshirt Sophomore that transferred to Wake from UTEP. Last season, Davis caught 26 passes for 610 yards and 6 touchdowns. His 23.5 yards per reception were 2nd in the entire nation last season, and his ability to get behind the defense for big plays was one of the few bright spots for a UTEP team that finished 2-10 and scored just over 23 points per game.
With Hernandez and Shanks more suited to working the middle of the field, Davis should give the Deacs a deep threat on the outside that can take the top off of the defense and open up things for the underneath routes or the rushing attack.
Drayden Dickmann
Drayden Dickmann is a 5-11 redshirt Junior who played at Rice last season. He was the second leading receiver for the Owls, catching 37 passes for 323 yards and 3 touchdowns—those numbers probably don’t justify his abilities, considering Rice was 135th out 136 teams passing the ball last season (only Army was worse), completing just 11 passes for 97 yards per game. He was 1 of 2 receivers on the team who finished the season with more than 8 receptions, and he caught at least one pass in all 12 regular season games.
Dickmann was also a member of the Rice track team, where he placed 6th in the 4x100m and 13th in the 100m (10.47) at the American Outdoor Championship in May. Speed kills, so having an collegiate sprinter on the team is always a bonus.
Antonio Meeks
Antonio Meeks is a 6-1 redshirt senior who comes to Wake Forest after 2 seasons at both Tuskegee and Louisville. For the Cards, Meeks finished 2025 as the 3rd leading pass catcher among wide receivers with 17 receptions for 189 yards and 1 touchdown.
Alongside Kam Shanks, Meeks is the only other transfer the Deacs picked up in the portal that has played significant time at the power 5 level—his experience is a solid addition.
Ny Carr
Ny Carr, a 6-0 redshirt sophomore, is another one of those high-potential but unproven prospects that the Deacs have taken a swing on in the offseason. Rated as a 4-star prospect and the 21st best receiver in the 2024 recruiting class, Carr didn’t get much playing time at Miami—in 2 seasons at the U, Carr played in just 7 games and recorded 4 total receptions for 53 yards. That is pretty understandable considering he was playing for a team that has won 23 games over 2 seasons and just played for the National Championship a few months ago. Miami is simply stacked with talent.
Carr will get his chance to show why he was so highly recruited out of high school this season with Wake Forest.
Chase Tyler
Chase Tyler is a 6-2 redshirt sophomore who transferred to Wake from right down the road at Duke. Last season, Tyler played in 13 games for the Blue Devils, catching just 4 balls for 120 yards—half of those yards came on a 62 yard catch and run against Illinois in the 2nd game of the season. All four of his catches came in August and September, meaning that Tyler did not catch a single pass in the final 8 games of the season. Despite that, Tyler still finished 5th among Duke WRs in receiving yards last season behind a pretty solid receiving corps that combined for 2,700 yards. Like Carr, an increase in playing time should give Tyler a chance to show his stuff this season.
Jack Foley
Jack Foley followed Jake Dickert to Wake Forest after committing to play at Washington State in 2024. The 6-4 redshirt Freshman played in just 5 games last season (preserving the now irrelevant redshirt) and only caught 1 pass. That 1 pass was a pretty good one though, as it was a 64 yard touchdown bomb to start the 2nd half of the Duke’s Mayo Bowl to give the Deacs a 23-9 lead.
Being 6-4 can be a big advantage for a wide receiver, and it will interesting to see what Foley can bring to the Wake Forest offense this season with a season of experience under his belt.
The Rest
The rest of the receiver corps is composed of the true freshman—Elijah Otieno, Walker Bryson, Devin Goldston, Kobe Adeleke-Hokes—and guys who redshirted last season—Hugh O’Brien, Braxton Winston III, and Bryce Kania. With the receiver room so full of transfers, I doubt we will see much action from either of these groups barring a ton of injuries.
The Deacs have a solid #1 receiver returning in Carlos Hernandez—we all know what he is capable of. The rest of the depth chart is a little up in the air at this point. Between the guys who played well at lower levels and the players who didn’t get to see the field that much in the power 4, it’s hard to know exactly who is going to step up for Wake Forest this season.
