Wake Forest goes into Saturday’s Wake Forest Vs SMU game at 8-1 overall, 5-1 in the ACC and No. 13 in the College Football Playoff rankings. The Deacons are riding a six-game winning streak, and the trip to Dallas now carries real weight for both the ACC race and the CFP picture.
Jake Dickert has helped make that possible. Wake Forest announced a long-term extension for him on Thursday after he had gone 17-5 since arriving in Winston-Salem, and the program followed on Friday by extending Rob Ezell’s tenure as offensive coordinator. Those moves came after Wake Forest beat Merrimack 77-0 last weekend, another reminder of how far the offense has come this fall.
The numbers explain why Wake Forest has spent the season building a championship case. It is averaging 43.3 points per game in Ezell’s second season and is on pace to set a school record for points per game, which is the kind of production that can change a conference race in a hurry. A win in Dallas would keep an appearance in the ACC Championship Game within reach and preserve the path that has opened for the Deacons.
SMU makes that path harder. The Mustangs have not lost an ACC home game since joining the league in 2024, and that streak is the sort of detail that keeps a highly ranked road team honest. Wake Forest’s offense has been explosive enough to make Saturday matter, but it now has to do it away from home against a fellow conference contender that has protected its own field.
That is the friction in this matchup: Wake Forest arrives with momentum, stability and a ranking that makes the stakes clear, while SMU brings a home record that has not bent in the ACC. For Dickert, the extension and the results have given Wake Forest more room to think beyond one Saturday, but the next step still depends on what happens in Dallas. The Deacons can stay in the ACC title conversation only if they keep winning games like this one.
