The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are 6-0 in football for the first time since 1944. That’s how impressive Dave Clawson’s body of work has been this season, and that’s how rare the Deacs have tasted gridiron success at the highest level. Wake Forest has a very good chance of replicating the ACC championship it won in 2006, when the Demon Deacons beat Georgia Tech in the ACC Championship Game and lost to (then-Big East school) Louisville in the Orange Bowl.
How far can this go? There are many ways to answer this question. Let’s not try to overcomplicate the answer in what figures to be a very complicated ACC season.
The Wake Forest profile is clear: The Demon Deacons play close games and win them. This invites the possibility that in 2021, Wake will continue to pull close games out of the fire. Maybe this is the year which defies all the odds. It has happened in sports. It will happen again. Maybe Wake can keep hitting blackjack at 16 or 17.
The odds say that when a team keeps playing close games, it will eventually lose a few times. Given that Wake still has to play North Carolina State and Clemson in the ACC Atlantic Division, a few losses are likely to occur.
Then again, why should the word “likely” contain any real meaning right now.
It was LIKELY that Clemson would not be held to three points by Georgia.
It was LIKELY that D.J. Uiagalelei would play moderately well (if not better) this season.
It was LIKELY that North Carolina would be in the ACC Coastal title hunt on October 13.
It was LIKELY that North Carolina would finally beat Florida State this year.
It was LIKELY that Clemson would have no more than one loss heading into October.
So much for the word LIKELY. It hasn’t meant a lick this year. Few things about this season make any sense.
It is LIKELY that Wake Forest will eventually pay for cutting it close so many times, but maybe this is a year in which the surprises will never stop.
The fun is only starting in the ACC. So many more wild plot twists await.
