Wake Forest Looks to Break Through Against No. 16 Louisville
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Wake Forest didn’t quite get the breakthrough it was looking for against Miami, though the Demon Deacons left the game with considerably more reason for optimism than the final score might suggest.
The 33-20 loss still counts all the same, and moral victories only carry so much weight for a program trying to establish itself as something more than interesting. There were stretches, particularly in the second half, when the gap between Wake Forest and one of the best teams in the country looked considerably smaller than many expected entering the night. The Demon Deacons hung around, which shouldn’t be discounted.
It wasn’t enough to formally break through another barrier under Jake Dickert, but there was enough there to provide some proof of concept. Wake Forest can compete with that level of opponent. Now comes another opportunity to prove it.
Wake Forest Set to Battle No. 16 Louisville
Unfortunately for the Demon Deacons, that opportunity comes against a Louisville team that looks perfectly capable of creating many of the same problems.
The Cardinals are coming off a 41-31 win over a quality SMU side and have already shown they can hang around with some of the better teams in the country, losing their opener to Ole Miss on a walk-off field goal. Yes, the same Ole Miss team that just welcomed a certain former head coach back to Oxford and sent him away like a scorned lover.
Having to play Louisville immediately after everything Wake Forest poured into the Miami game isn’t exactly ideal. Then again, very little about Dickert’s first season and a half in Winston-Salem has been particularly easy. He inherited a down program, immediately won nine games, and now gets another shot to show that last year’s improvement wasn’t a nice first-season mirage.
Louisville Players to Watch
Lincoln Kienholz is the obvious place to start because he has quickly become one of the more surprising quarterbacks in the ACC. Louisville entered the season with a backfield talented enough that Kienholz didn’t necessarily need to become the centerpiece of the offense, yet he’s completed nearly 66% of his passes for 816 yards and six touchdowns without throwing an interception through three games.
He’s also been dangerous enough with his legs to make Wake Forest account for him there, which becomes especially inconvenient when considering everything else the Demon Deacons already have to worry about. Most of that concern begins with the brotherly duo of Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown, who remain capable of taking over a game without requiring Louisville to completely build its offense around them.
Keyjuan Brown ran for 163 yards and two touchdowns on only 10 carries against SMU, including scores from 58 and 53 yards, while Isaac Brown added 67 yards on 10 attempts and scored from 27 yards out in the fourth quarter. Louisville finished with 265 rushing yards, with the Browns accounting for 230 of them despite combining for only 20 carries.
That’s probably where this game starts for Wake Forest defensively. Completely shutting down a backfield this talented isn’t especially realistic, but Louisville can’t be allowed to turn ordinary running plays into 50-yard touchdowns with any regularity.
If Wake Forest can’t do that, watch out, Demon Deacon nation. This one could be a doozy.
Another Opportunity in the ACC
The loss to Miami already put Wake Forest behind in the ACC race, and a second conference loss this early would make the path to Charlotte awfully difficult. Winning the ACC championship was never necessarily the expectation for the Demon Deacons in Dickert’s second season, but the hope will remain for as long as the math allows it.
There is also something larger at stake for a program still trying to establish where it belongs in the ACC. Wake Forest showed against Miami that it can compete with one of the conference’s best teams, providing another glimpse of the progress made under Dickert even without the result to show for it. Louisville provides another chance to push that progress forward, only this time the Demon Deacons will hope the encouraging performance comes with a victory attached to it.
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Seth Dowdle is a 2024 graduate of TCU, where he earned a degree in sports broadcasting with a minor in journalism. He currently hosts a TCU-focused show on the Bleav Network and has been active in sports media since 2019, beginning with high school sports coverage in the DFW area. Seth is also the owner and editor of SethStack, his personal hub for in-depth takes on everything from college football to hockey. His past experience includes working in the broadcast department for the Cleburne Railroaders and at 88.7 KTCU, TCU's radio station.
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