{"id":77412,"date":"2025-09-10T14:00:55","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=77412"},"modified":"2025-09-20T14:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T18:44:11","slug":"77412-wake-forests-first-test-of-the-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/09\/10\/77412-wake-forests-first-test-of-the-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Wake Forest’s First Test of the Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

ACC play starts Thursday night when North Carolina State travels down the road to Wake Forest. NC State has already proven its merit to some degree. But for Wake Forest, the Demon Deacons have a lot to prove still, and the Wolfpack will be the first test.<\/p>\n

How They Got Here<\/h3>\n

Both teams are 2-0, but they are a very different 2-0. NC State beat a down-turning East Carolina team in week one. But then they beat a seemingly improved Virginia Cavaliers team 35-31 last week.<\/p>\n

Wake\u2019s two wins include a hugely overwhelming 10-9 win over Kennesaw State and then a blowout win against a winless FCS Western Carolina. So if the Jake Dickert era at Wake is a real change in football fortunes, Thursday is the first time to prove it.<\/p>\n

NC State head coach Dave Doeren comes into the game with a renewed level of confidence in his team, much of it stemming from last year\u2019s losses. \u201cWhen you win six games and lose five one-possession, you\u2019re pretty close to having a helluva season,\u201d he told the media earlier this week. He said there was a lot of film study and greater attention to detail during the off-season to get over the hump in those close games.<\/p>\n

That attention to detail got him an offense that committed zero penalties on offense and had zero turnovers in the win over Virginia. And the offensive line gave up no sacks, giving plenty of protection to quarterback CJ Bailey<\/a>. \u201cHe\u2019s playing at a high level,\u201d Doeren said of Bailey. \u201cHe\u2019s in command of the guys around him. He challenges people. He challenges himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey is throwing at a 70% completion clip so far this season with 518 passing yards, two touchdown passes, and one interception.<\/p>\n

NC State’s Quarterback A Challenge for Wake<\/h3>\n

But he is the first mobile quarterback Wake will have faced this season. The Deacs\u2019 defensive line has been strong, getting a lot of pressure on the opposing quarterback. But Dickert says that it is going to be harder against the NC State quarterback. \u201cBailey has taken a big step forward,\u201d Dickert said at his weekly press conference. \u201cHe is playing quarterback now. Last year, they were very cautious with him. He is playing quarterback. He has the keys to the car, and he is driving it. It\u2019s the old deal of let\u2019s get pressure on him and let\u2019s keep him in the pocket. Those are two things that are really hard to do and say in the same sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickert said that with Bailey presenting a unique challenge<\/a>, some of the early film study and game prep for week three of the season started during the Summer. You need not look much further than last season\u2019s 34-30 Wake Forest win over NC State. Bailey threw for 272 with two touchdowns.<\/p>\n

Doeren has spent much of his time putting away what he knew about the old Wake Forest slow mesh offense and watching the films on Dickert\u2019s power spread offense. \u201cIt\u2019s nothing like what it was,\u201d Doeren said of the 2025 version of the Wake Forest offense. \u201cIt\u2019s a more traditional college football offense.\u201d He added that the thing that stands out is in the style of play at quarterback. \u201cWhat\u2019s the biggest difference besides that, [the change in offensive style] is that they\u2019ve got a really, really fast, athletic quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wake’s Answer<\/h3>\n

Robby Ashford has a rushing touchdown in each of Wake\u2019s first two games. That makes him an added threat, according to Doeren. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to be really disciplined in everything we do to make sure you\u2019ve got him hemmed up in the pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dickert knows that even at 2-0, his Deacs have a lot of work ahead to get where he wants them to be. The scoring and big-play offense were fun for the fans last Saturday, with a plethora of scoring drives that were under one minute. \u201cIt\u2019s good, but I don\u2019t want them to rely on it,\u201d Dickert said of the Wake Forest offense. \u201cWhen you watch the tape, there is so much more out there,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to make sure our guys know, we\u2019re going to have to grind some things out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The explosiveness in the Wake Forest offense was due in large part to running back Demond Claiborne<\/a>. Having him back and healthy enough to play after an apparent rib injury in week one was a game-changer. He had 193 yards and three touchdowns on 10 carries.<\/p>\n

Doeren is familiar enough with Claiborne. Last season in Wake\u2019s win over NC State, Claiborne ran for 136 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries. The new offense strives to get him the ball more in the open field.<\/p>\n

It is one of the headlines for Thursday night\u2019s game, as both coaches agree. \u201cHe\u2019s got speed. He\u2019s got vision. He can break tackles. He can make you miss,\u201d Doeren said of the ACC Running Back of the Week. \u201cWhen you\u2019re defending a great running back, it takes everybody. It\u2019s gap accountability. And it\u2019s beating blocks. It\u2019s leveraging the football. And then it\u2019s gang tackling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Availability Report<\/h3>\n

All major conferences are now imposing an availability report from each team two days before kickoff, similar in concept to the NFL injury reports that come out on Thursdays. There is then an updated report the night before the game. And then there is a game day report two hours before the game.<\/p>\n

The rules for the ACC apply only to conference games, so this is the first time either team, or any team in the conference, has had to do it.<\/p>\n

Wake Forest lists 13 players as being out for the game, but they are no one who would have been on the two-deep chart. Defensive back Rushaun Tongue is listed as questionable after leaving the WCU game with what was described as a minor injury. Defensive back Ashaad Williams and defensive linemen B.J. Williams and Mateen Ibirogba are all slightly banged up but listed as probable.<\/p>\n

NC State lists 11 players as out of the game, but like Wake, no one who would have been on the two-deep roster this week.<\/p>\n

Main Image: Grace Sorrells (Shot with Grace)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ACC play starts Thursday night when North Carolina State travels down the road to Wake Forest. NC State has already proven its merit to some degree. But for Wake Forest, the Demon Deacons have a lot to prove still, and the Wolfpack will be the first test. How They Got Here Both teams are 2-0, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":77419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2,35635,17,35643],"tags":[4461,9582,3634,1249],"class_list":["post-77412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acc","category-featured","category-nc-state-wolfpack","category-news","category-wake-forest-demon-deacons","tag-dave-doeren","tag-jake-dickert","tag-nc-state-wolfpack","tag-wake-forest-demon-deacons"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77412"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77420,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77412\/revisions\/77420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}