Wake Forest is most disrespected team in college football

Heading into and now during the 2026 college football season, everyone has been talking about who is “this year’s Indiana,” or who is the “next Indiana” as a team that comes out of nowhere to find massive success. The simple fact is that, most years, there’s no Indiana.

Most of the best teams in college football are programs that are consistently near the top of the sport, and breakthrough teams, especially ones that go 16-0, rarely happen. So while there may be no 2025 Indiana this season, there is a team that has extreme parallels to 2024 Indiana – Curt Cignetti’s first team in Bloomington.

That team is the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and they continue to be disrespected by the college football media while they are in the middle of their breakout.

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Wake Forest builds a winning program with limited resources

Through the 2010s, Wake Forest was an average-to-above-average ACC program under Dave Clawson. From 2016 to 2024, they averaged 6.8 wins per season (with the 2020 COVID season bringing that down slightly), and reached 7 straight bowl games from 2016 to 2022, winning five of them. They were always a program that had done more with less.

Wake Forest, one of the smallest Power-4 institutions by enrollment and alumni base, was never going to be flush with cash or have the best resources and facilities. The high academic standards also limited the types of players Wake Forest could recruit. When Dave Clawson retired after the 2024 season, it was natural to question if Wake could continue this “winning with less” formula in the transfer portal and NIL era.

In comes Jake Dickert. He was tabbed as the next Wake Forest head coach after an 8-4 regular season at Washington State (where his quarterback was John Mateer, which is not relevant to the story, but a cool factoid). Dickert had no East Coast connections, and the media questioned whether he was a one-year wonder in Pullman.

But he immediately found success in Winston-Salem. He retained star RB Demond Claiborne, brought some key players from Washington State like WR Carlos Hernandez, and brought in QB Robby Ashford from the transfer portal. The Deacs surprised everyone in Dickert’s first year, finishing 9-4 with a Bowl Game victory. It was a career renaissance for Ashford, who Auburn and South Carolina fans will remind you was not good at all in the SEC. But heading into year two of the Dickert era, things weren’t looking optimistic.

Jake Dickert rebuilds the roster and exceeds expectations

Most of Wake Forest’s best players from 2025 either graduated or were poached in the transfer portal. Stalwart tackle Melvin Siani went to Texas, and run plugger Mateen Ibirogba went to Texas Tech. Explosive wide receiver Chris Barnes went to Oklahoma State. Robby Ashford and backup Deshawn Purdie, gone. Dickert was going to have to be masterful with his roster construction if he wanted year two to be a success.

It did not inspire a lot of confidence when he brought in Gio Lopez to be his quarterback. The same Gio Lopez that was awful for Bill Belichick at North Carolina, ending the season on the bench. But this version of Gio Lopez was going to be different. Wake Forest’s offensive coordinator, Rob Ezell, coached Lopez when he was productive at South Alabama. He knew his strengths, his weaknesses, and how to get the most out of him. And when WR Carlos Hernandez returned to Winston-Salem, the dynamic offensive duo was set to carry the Deacs into 2026.

The national media and bookmakers were not impressed with the new-look Deacs, as their preseason win total was set at 5.5. But Wake Forest would pass that mark by the middle of October. Lopez and Hernandez have been excellent, powering one of the ACC’s best offenses. Dickert’s Deacs haven’t just been winning; they’ve been dominating. They’ve won 8 games by an average margin of 32 points per game. Their lone loss was an early-season 33-20 loss to top-10 Miami.

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CFP committee continues to overlook Wake Forest

Yet, sitting with this 8-1 record, and the loss being a reasonable one, the College Football Playoff Committee had Wake Forest #16 in their initial rankings last week. This week, after numerous contending teams lost, the Deacs only moved up to #13. This ranking is incredibly disrespectful.

The Strength of Record (SOR) rating, which the committee has cited as being a key factor in rankings, has Wake Forest at 10th. They are not outside the top-15 in any of the 4 biggest power rating metrics (SOR, Sagarin, FPI, and SP+), whereas UCLA, BYU, Kentucky, and Texas Tech all have one metric where they are outside the top-15.

How quickly has the committee forgotten about 2024 Indiana? Their path was very similar to this Wake Forest team. Come into the season with no expectations, have a very respectable loss to a top team, and thoroughly dominate everyone else on your schedule. In 2024, Indiana drew a very easy path through the Big Ten. For Wake this season, they actually drew a tough schedule in the ACC, but the ACC’s poor performance in non-conference play doesn’t help the Deacs gain any impressive wins.

The bottom line is this – Wake Forest might actually be this year’s Indiana, but they are being disrespected by the College Football Playoff committee. If the season ended today, the Deacs would not be in the playoff. They can go a long way toward earning respect and clinching a playoff spot by beating SMU this Saturday in Dallas.

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