+9.0829128 (LW: #9)

1.874

92.46 | +3

Speaking of teams with less-than-revealing schedules, what do we make of Wake Forest? They've certainly looked the part of a highly-ranked team; if you told me that, say, Texas Tech would have the same results against this slate of foes, I wouldn't be surprised. But it's certainly possible this is just a decent team that punched above its weight against Miami, caught Louisville early enough to get a ranked win and top-25 consideration out of it, and has played its way into the middle of the rankings as a result. I'm not entirely sure, and I don't know if a road win at SMU in a few weeks will prove enough to be any more sure.

#2 in the ACC, Wake Forest's best win is Louisville...

They've got a good offense, but a quality loss being the best thing on a resume can only do so much.

-1

+4; give it up for Wake! I thought the Cal away game would be a trap but shows what I know

74.3%

Up 4

3.61

+10

(+4) Gio Lopez making waves after leaving UNC was not on my radar. Jake Dickert is also about to get a serious payday. If SMU steps on another rake (likely) they are 100% getting another shot at Miami in December

Score 76.20 (▲ 1.19) | Place Change: None | Previous Rank: 14th | Wins Composite Rank: 7th | SoS Composite Rank: 17th | Margin of Victory Rank: 14th | Penalties Composite Rank: 134th | Yardage Composite Rank: 17th | Turnover Composite Rank: 45th | 3rd/4th Down Conversion Rank: 10th | Other Stats Rank: 34th

Dickert is one of the only coaches that is keeping me from declaring Will Stein is the COTY. I know it was only Cal, but traveling coast-to-coast and just bullying them is not nothing.

D E A C S ! ! !

+8

16. Wake Forest — Score: 0.179 | Results: 1.189, SOS Rank: #66, Quality: 0.051, Recency: 0.000 | T10W: 0, T25W: 0, T50W: 1, Off Rk: #26, Def Rk: #13

(6-1) (up 5)
W: 41-7 @ California (3-4)
Next Week: Bye
Projected Bowl: Pop-Tarts Bowl vs Oklahoma State

6-1; road win at Louisville and dominant win at California; only loss is to Miami.

0.75654

LW: #26

A second ranked ACC team! Do they have quality wins? No. Have they at least looked the part of a dominant team...yes. Loss to Miami was close-ish at least.

GippyRank expected rank: 16.5. Central 80% interval: 7–29. Top-25 probability: 85%.

Wake Forest has a top-15 defense and a win against Louisville that offsets a third of losing to Miami.

NR (Dropped: 16 Mississippi St, 25 Oklahoma)

122-1-14

+7

(−4½) GS .873, TS 841.

1 loss to #3 Miami (FL), best win At #51 NC State

+2

(14)

1719 points

Destroyed Cal. As mentioned in previous weeks, I am really enjoying this Demon Deacon offense. Gio Lopez threw for 4TDs, no INTs, and 267 yards on 16/23 throws. Wake also had 3 50+ yard rushers with 2 rushing TDs. They look good out there. Although they weren't enough to compete with Miami, they still played the Hurricanes fairly well and, looking at their schedule, there's no reason the Demon Deacons can't win out. They have some decent teams in Virginia, SMU, and Duke still left on the schedule, but none of these are teams I would currently consider to be scary. Worth taking seriously, but not scary.

1 okay loss to Miami, dominant win over NC State, close win over Louisville.

↑8

+5.

72.33

(+8)

Maybe their close loss against Miami wasn’t a fluke?

6-1 (20-33 vs. Miami)

(-2)

Wake Forest’s best win is likely over Louisville, as they are the only team over .500 that Wake Forest defeated. With their lone loss being to Miami, they have an opportunity to hang around.

Tier 4.

I've been sleeping on this team for some time now. Convincing wins against a lot of ACC teams, with only loss coming #2 Miami. I like this team.

Who have they beaten? Not really anyone, but at least they showed that they can dominate a bad team in Cal. Benefitting from Big 10 weakness (dead horse) to get ahead of USC and Nebraska. Plus the ACC probably "deserves" a second ranked team.