The Deacs are going bowling! Wake Forest went into Charlottesville and knocked off the 14th ranked Virginia Cavaliers to get their 6th win of the season. The Deacs did exactly what they needed to do in this
one to pull off the upset—turn the game into a defensive slugfest and capitalize on big plays.
The offense today was once again pretty awful–in the first half, the Deacs had just 123 yards, converted on 1-8 3rd downs, punted the ball 3 times, and got stopped on 4th down twice. Wake had only one drive that went anywhere in the 1st, and it resulted in 0 points after Demond Claiborne fumbled a pitch on 4th down after the Deacs were stuffed on 3 straight plays at the goal line. The farthest drive among the 5 other possessions Wake had in the half was a whopping 24 yards. Thankfully, the defense and special teams showed up once again to pick up the slack. In danger of another scoreless half, Carlos Hernandez finally got Wake on the board with an 88-yard punt return TD with just 1:33 remaining in the half.
Hernandez has struggled a little bit returning punts this season, so it’s great to see that the staff’s faith in him paid dividends.
Just 4 plays later, Dallas Afalava forced a fumble on backup QB Kaelin Daniel, which allowed the Deacs to kick a field goal and take a 10-6 lead into the half. The biggest story of the half, however, was the loss of Virginia starting QB Chandler Morris. Morris was injured on a late hit with 8 minutes remaining in the 2nd quarter and did not return to the game.
With Morris out of the game for Virginia, Wake Forest was no longer the only team with an anemic offense and quarterback issues. The 2nd half was truly ugly, with the 2 teams combining for under 300 yards of offense and 9 points, all coming from field goals. The Deacs only had 80 total yards of offense in the half, but 46 of them came on the biggest drive of the game. Clinging to a 4-point lead with 13 minutes remaining in the game, the Deacs went on a 16 play, 48-yard drive that lasted over 9 minutes of game time and ended in a 49-yard Connor Calvert field goal. That time-eating gave the Deacs a 7-point lead with a little under 4 minutes remaining.
It looked like Wake was going to put the game away when they recovered a fumble at midfield with 3 minutes remaining, but the Deacs never make things that easy for us. After going 3 and out in under a minute, Wake punted the ball right back to the Hoos, who started the potential game tying drive at their own 42-yard line with over 2 minutes to go. The Virginia offense that hadn’t done anything the whole half suddenly came alive, and the Cavs worked right down the field on a 9 play 52-yard drive that got them to the 5-yard line. In dramatic fashion, the game came down to 1 play on 4th down, and the Wake Forest defense once again stood tall.
This is a huge win for Jake Dickert and the football program, who are now bowl eligible for the first time since 2022. The turnaround of the Wake Forest defense has been so much fun to watch this season, and it allows the Deacs to win even when the offense is completely non-existent. It is pretty crazy that the Deacs can go on the road against a top 15 team and win when their offense has 203 total yards and their QBs go for a combined 9-23 for 64 yards. Outside of Iowa, I can’t think of many teams that can do that. Coach Dickert has done a phenomenal job in his first season, and he is realistically a good QB away from having an ACC contender.
It might have been ugly, but the only stat that matters at the end of the game is the score.
Go Deacs!
