Going to throw some preview nuts and bolts in here, as I've run out of time to cobble together a legit preview.

Programming note out of the way: I'll have remote coverage -- crazy Saturday means watching WF football, tracking WF basketball, going to Duke for a night football game.

Here’s what to know ahead of Saturday's game against Detroit Mercy:

Time: 4 p.m.

Location: Joel Coliseum.

TV: ACC Network Extra.

Announcers: Chris Lea (play-by-play) and Stan Lewter (analyst).

Series; last meeting: First meeting.

Records: Detroit Mercy 3-2; Wake Forest 5-1.

Stat to watch: 33-for-123 (26.8%) | 12-for-31 (38.7%).

The first one is Wake's 3-point shooting through the first five games; the second is what the Deacons shot against Western Carolina on Tuesday night.

Titan to watch: Guard Orlando Lovejoy (No. 5).

This is the hot-hand pick; Lovejoy had 19 points, seven rebounds and five assists in Detroit Mercy's win at Ball State on Wednesday night.

Deacon to watch: Center Efton Reid III (No. 4).

Coach Steve Forbes said Reid is typically OK after a day or two of suffering from a migraine, which is why he didn't play after about six minutes on Tuesday night. Still, Reid will be worth keeping an eye on -- both from a health perspective and to see if the Deacons look to him in the low post, as they have early in the last few games.

What’s on deck: Wake Forest plays its third power-conference opponent of the season next, with a Thanksgiving game against Florida in Orlando as part of the ESPN Events Invitational, and then will play either Minnesota or Wichita State on Friday. Detroit Mercy is also headed to Florida to play some neutral-court games; the Titans play Tulsa in the Jacksonville Classic on Tuesday and Rhode Island on Wednesday.

KenPom prediction: Wake Forest wins 79-61.

Preview for Tuesday night's game can be found here.

Programming: I'll be there with full coverage.

Predictions:

- WF commits fewer than 12 turnovers.

- WF makes at least eight 3-pointers (I'm just going to die on this hill, I think).

- Cameron Hildreth leads WF with at least 20 points.

As the November wheel spins on for Wake Forest.

I don't have all that much to add for this one. The Deacons are 4-5 with what I think is a guaranteed loss, at Miami, next weekend. So if they're going to make a bowl game, in all likelihood Wake Forest needs to win at UNC this week and beat Duke in the regular-season finale (or win one of those games and scrape into a bowl game at 5-7 if there aren't enough bowl-eligible teams).

UNC has been better of late, too, so this one is going to need a strong game for the Deacons to pull it out.

Here was the story on Wake's loss to Cal.

Preview for Saturday's game at Xavier can be found here.

Programming: I'll be monitoring remotely as best I can -- Duke has a home game at the same time.

Predictions:

- This is the game WF breaks free of the shooting slump, makes at least 10 3-pointers and does so while shooting at least 35%.

- Hunter Sallis has another 20-point game.

- Xavier scores its lowest point total of the season (previous is 78).

I like the way that's written out, Week 11 ... 8 p.m. ... on 11/8.

Freaky Friday type stuff.

Wake Forest comes out of its second off week with a game against Cal on Friday night. The petition to move this game to Berkeley must have fallen flat because the Deacons are playing at home, where they've lost 4 straight.

Cal was also off this past weekend and might have the worst luck of any team this season, at least in the ACC. All four losses have come by a combined 9 points, including a blown 25-point lead at home against Miami and FG woes that cost them wins against FSU and N.C. State.

As I've alluded a couple of times -- and wanted to write about this past week when I thought I'd have enough time -- this month sets up as a crucial one for the future of Wake's program. Not to heap too much importance on four games. Winning 2 of 4 and making a bowl game would, IMO, accomplish the main goal of this season, which was reestablishing positive trajectory for this program and setting it back on an upward trajectory. Questions have been answered about Wake's offense, the QB play is decent, they like their future with Jeremy Hecklinski after Hank Bachmeier and Michael Kern depart. Wake's defense has to improve but, in the last two games, it has survived for road wins. That is ... something that can be a building block to take into this month.

Going 2-2 or better in this month would be a great turnaround after a 1-3 first month, and it'd be a wave worth riding into December. Going 1-3 or 0-4 this month would, IMO, bring about some discussions about the future of this program with Dave Clawson as its coach.

Programming note: I'll be there with full coverage.

ICYMI links:

Pre-November grades for Wake's offense.

Pre-November grades for Wake's defense.

Preview for tomorrow night's game can be found here.

Programming is ... up in the air. I'm in Atlanta tonight for Duke's game, staying overnight. If I can make it out of Atlanta in the morning, get home relatively early in the afternoon tomorrow, I'm going to make it to the Joel. But if I get bogged down in traffic, I'm going to be watching from home.

Predictions:

- Maybe I'm a sucker, but I think this team gets hot from 3s at some point, so give me one of two things: They either make 12 of them or shoot 40% (or better).

- Parker Friedrichsen hits two 3s.

- WF scores 90 points for the first time this season.

Realize how late this is but here's the thread for today's game against Michigan.

Between dealing with a bug that's had me sidelined most of the last 3-4 days and going to a wedding yesterday, I wasn't able to complete the preview. But I got a chunk of it done and will throw it into this thread.

Preview for Wake's second game can be found here.

Programming note: I'll be there with full coverage.

Predictions:

- Wake Forest makes double-digit 3-pointers and its percentage is at least 12 points higher than Monday night (which was 24.5%).

- Parker Friedrichsen makes at least three 3s.

- Tre'Von Spillers has a double-double.

Thank God, IT'S BASKETBALL SEASON.

Preview for tomorrow night's game -- including a My Take to start things off.

Programming note: I'll have remote coverage of this one as best I can.

Predictions:

- Hunter Sallis scores at least 18 points on fewer than 10 shots.

- WF outrebounds Coppin State by at least 12.

- Deacons make at least 10 3-pointers.

Wake Forest arrives at its second off week 4-4 and 2-2 in the ACC.

As go things in moderation, a couple of ways to look at that. One, given the narrow losses to UVA and Louisiana, the Deacons could be 6-2 and already bowl eligible with remote chances of really throwing a wrench into the top of the ACC standings. Even if they had won one of those, they're 5-3 and with a decent November, would have one of the better seasons in program history.

But on the other side, WF has had some true escapist moments in the last couple of weeks and this could also be a 2-6 team with little hope for the future.

At risk of repeating myself: This season has always been about getting the program back on track. There were no illusions of competing for an ACC championship after last year's debacle. The goal was simple: Win 6 or 7 games, get back in a bowl game, reset the trajectory, move forward into 2025. After this week, I kind of think that goal will either be achieved or it'll fall flat.

As a programming note for off week coverage: I'll have PFF game grades up sometime tomorrow (hopefully morning but my Mondays get bogged down in a hurry). I think I'll write something along the lines of a My Take about resetting the board entering November for this team. I missed doing mid-term PFF grades in between the Clemson and UConn games and with basketball season fast approaching (here already, really), I'm going to knock out a PFF season grades check-in this week. It'll be wonky, having quarter-season PFF grades and then two-third PFF grades ... but it's just kind of what I'll have to do, given the schedule.

Here's the story on Wake's win over Stanford.

And here's one note from Twitter on WF in one-score games:

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I know you said there wouldn't be much baseball until Jan or Feb.

But after watching all the fall schedule I have a couple of questions you may be able to shed some light on.

Jimmy Keenan caught today against WV but did not hit. As best as I can tell, he didn't take an at bat all fall. Is there some injury there?

Also Chris Levonas, unless I missed it, he didn't pitch any this fall. He ran through PFP yesterday and he was doing long toss during pitcher warmups (where he looked AMAZING), but no pitches. What's the situation with him?

Winnay didn't run today. Lewis didn't play all weekend.

I assume all of this is health related. Is it possible to get a health update on the team at large going into winter offseason?

You can't win five coin flips in the second half of a season if you don't win the first one.

Wake Forest started the second half of its season with a win at UConn over the weekend. The Deacons have several more winnable games over the next 6 weeks, including one this week at Stanford. And hey, for a team that's 2-0 on the road this year, hitting the road again might give you some faith.

Programming note for this week: I'm not heading out west, so I'll have a remote story on the game.

ICYMI, remote recap of Wake's win at UConn.

Alright, here goes ...

I'm just back from Wake's open-to-media practice this afternoon. I've got one story I want to get up tonight, kind of a theme/overview type, and then I've got content for several others in the days to follow.

But I want to get something up in the meantime, so I'm going to bullet point some general thoughts. Some of them might wind up getting repeated with stories; if so, oh well. I'm trying to juggle a lot of things right now and just want to get *something* posted about today before moving forward on other things.

- Today was the last day of summer practices; they're off for about 2 weeks before coming back for the fall semester. Two of the guys we talked with -- Cam Hildreth and Parker Friedrichsen -- were thrilled to be going home.

- Hildreth talked about his wrist injury not needing surgery, thought that was interesting. I doubt anyone other than staff and teammates has a full grasp of how much pain he was in last year, but he said it hasn't bothered him for a while.

- Talking to Hunter Sallis about his decision to come back was interesting. What exactly he has to improve on has been alluded to and such -- ball-handling and initiating offense -- and there was more of that today. But there was also a little more directness, I think Hildreth mentioned that Sallis will be playing some point guard.

- Also on the agenda for Sallis to improve is leadership/vocality. That's not really who he is ... but it's what WF needs him to be.

- Today was the *first* day that Omaha Biliew could participate in contact stuff and that was just in halfcourt drills. "He moves different" was a Forbes quote, referring to his athleticism and size. Forbes lauded how much he attacked his rehab, which is why he was able to get back today.

Biliew hit a corner-3 and Forbes had everybody on the court clap to show him love, able to finally participate in practice.

- Juke Harris had probably a better summer entering his freshman season than any other incoming freshman has had under Forbes. That's not the largest sample size, given how many transfers have entered, but it does mean he's been as good, possibly better than Friedrichsen was last year.

Not to break my arm patting myself on the back ... but I tried to tell yall as often as I could that Juke wouldn't be coming in and riding the bench for a season. He's 6-7, can score at all three levels, is long and athletic, has some really good basketball IQ, and has a lot of coachable characteristics. I doubt he's a starter, but he's also not on the very end of the bench.

- Speaking of ... I don't know if this team is going to be as deep as it appears now. But the indications -- AT THIS POINT, can't stress that enough -- are that they'll have 11 playable players. Every time today I found myself thinking that Churchill Abass or Marqus Marion would be difficult to find minutes for, they'd do something good.

- They're not going to replace Demetris Nichols on staff, nor are they going to sign a player for the 13th scholarship. So the assistant coaches are Jason Shay, Matt Woodley, BJ McKie and Antanas Kavaliauskas, and director of player relations Darnell Harris (has been in that role for a year, played one season at Northwest Florida for Forbes) will be the team's fifth coach on the floor in practices.

**********
That's all I've got for now. Check in later tonight for an in-depth story and keep checking in the following days for more content.

Welllllllllllllllllll,

Things obviously went from bad to worse with Wake Forest's loss to Louisiana. It felt like a game WF needed to win to have a halfway decent shot at making a bowl game. Instead, the Deacons lost to a Sun Belt team and have lost 8 straight games to FBS teams.

I don't know where things go from here. Pretty quickly, WF is staring down the barrel of a 1-5 start, given how scarce wins in Raleigh have been for this program given Clemson has made its opener look like an aberration.

But we'll press on with coverage here. And in Raleigh, as the programming alert comes that I'll be there for Saturday's game against N.C. State. Here are some links to get you caught up -- and as a reminder, the PFF grades and input will come Monday morning and be posted on the Louisiana game thread.

Preview of the Louisiana game.

Story off of the Louisiana loss.

Here comes a third straight noon kickoff, in Wake's seventh game of the season ... and the first time the Deacons are leaving N.C.

What a weird scheduling quirk. Wake Forest takes its first flight of the season, heading to UConn, and then next week will fly across the country for an ACC game against Stanford. Four of Wake's last six games are on the road, three of those requiring flights (Miami on 11/23 is the other).

And where this team is, I think a bowl is well within reach.

If you remove the Miami game, each of Wake's remaining games looks like a toss-up. Now, winning 5 straight coin flips is difficult; so is winning 4 of 5 -- but hardly impossible. To get the ball rolling on a strong second half, WF needs to beat a UConn team that has already exceeded last season's win total (3-9 last year, 4-2 this year) but has also lost both games to P4 teams (50-7 against Maryland, 26-21 at Duke).

ICYMI, here are links from coverage of the Clemson shellacking:

Buzzer story.

Analysis story.

Hey guys! Richie O'Leary here, publisher of The UConn Report aka the UConn-Rivals site. Just wanted to drop by and post our video from UConn Football HC Jim Mora's press conference today.

There is only a couple of Wake Forest questions / answers in there, so ENJOY!
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Let there be life!

Wake Forest's season undertook a different tone with a 4th quarter comeback in Raleigh. This was a game I said in the 3 glass-half-empty predictions would be a blowout loss, so I'll own that L.

I'd stop short of declaring Wake's season saved or anything but it's a good first step. More than anything, you can't help but feel good for the players who have maintained they knew they were close to getting one of these close games to go their way, that they weren't a fractured locker room, that they knew all it'd take was one or two big plays to score a win.

Now the focus shifts to a Clemson team that's righted its ship, blowing out three teams and winning the Grant of Rights Bowl last night at FSU. The Deacons are 20ish-point underdogs and it's hard to disagree, given Clemson's offense has been lighting people up through the air and Wake's defense has been gashed there.

I'll have full coverage this week -- albeit, basketball media days are in Charlotte on Wednesday and Thursday, so time is a bit constricted. And I'll have coverage of Saturday's game.

Here was the story from yesterday.

So, you just blew a two-touchdown lead in the 4th quarter. Who do you want to play next?

No. 5 Ole Miss probably doesn't rank too highly in the desired opponents.

This will be the thread for this week's game. Wake Forest has a 64-game losing streak against top-10 teams, the last such win coming in 1946.

Programming for this week will be pretty normal, coverage-wise. Player interviews via Zoom on Tuesday morning, Clawson presser Tuesday afternoon. I'll be at Saturday night's game for full coverage.

Getting you up to speed on links going into the week:

Buzzer story about the UVA loss.

My Take on the players who made the costly mistakes.

(PFF grades are coming Monday morning and those links will be in the UVA game thread.)

Wake Forest emerges from a newsier-than-expected off week to play Louisiana on Saturday. The Ragin' Cajuns are 2-1 and lost to Tulane 41-33 this weekend.

At risk of sounding too dramatic: This is about as much of a must-win game as you can have in September. At 1-2 and with a game in Raleigh and against Clemson in the next two, I'm not sure Wake Forest recovers from a 1-5 start to make a bowl. At 2-4, at least, there's a path to winning 4 of 5 between UConn/Stanford/Cal/UNC/Duke (and the game in Raleigh, I think, is not quite a foregone conclusion in the way the Clemson and Miami games are).

As a programming note: I've struck out on finding a stringer to cover this game. Since it's not an ACC game and I'll be in Durham for UNC-Duke, we'll have a remote story on Wake's game. It's not ideal, I hate missing home games ... but it's just where things landed, given the schedule.

Here are some links to get you up to speed:

My Take on the Ole Miss game

My Take on Wake's initial silence about scheduling | My Take to wrap up the scheduling of Ole Miss/Oregon State

PFF quarterly grades for Wake's offense | PFF quarterly grades for Wake's defense

Alright alright alright, time for a thread for a week that won't have a game at the end of it!

There's not exactly going to be a dearth of Wake Forest football coverage this week. I'll have PFF grades from the Ole Miss up tomorrow (and posted on the game thread), and have quarterly PFF grades up later in the week. I want to get a state of the program My Take done (time-pending, per usual) sometime this week.

Links to get you caught up until there's fresh content:

Buzzer story on last night's game.

My Take on a few different topics from last night.

News that Wake Forest has bought out next year's trip to Ole Miss.

Alright alright alright, firing up the Week 2 thread.

Kind of feels like a return to normal with the schedule -- player interviews and Dave Clawson's press conference will be on Tuesday this week and I'll be there. So I'll have something off of the presser, maybe a mini-feature on Wednesday, a Q&A with somebody who covers UVA on either Wednesday or Thursday, and then a comprehensive preview of Saturday night's game. Followed by full coverage of the game.

Getting you up to speed on links from the past few days (film review still pending):

Buzzer story on Wake's win over N.C. A&T.

My Take on Wake's QB battle.

PFF's grades for Wake's offense | PFF's grades for Wake's defense.

Firing up a thread for coverage leading up to Thursday night's game, and then for coverage afterward, too.

As something of a programming note for today and the week: Dave Clawson's press conference will be today at 2 p.m. and I'll miss it. I think this is the third straight year I've got to miss the opening presser, but Duke's is at 1 and they have a new coach. I'll still have *something* up later today/tonight on WF. And then I'll have a 5 things to know about N.C. A&T, a comprehensive preview of the game, maybe another story squeezed in (it's a short week, so I might not get to everything). And then I'll be at Thursday night's game for full coverage.

I'm on the record with a My Take, I think this season will be better for WF than a lot of prognosticators think.

Also, as to QB, I posted this on OGB last night and might as well put it here, too:

I think Hank Bachmeier and Michael Kern will get equal opportunities/drives and whoever plays better will be the starter going into the UVA game.

Game plan/offense doesn't change based on which one plays. If it's Bachmeier the ball gets pushed downfield more often but also gets put into harm's way more often; if it's Kern, a little more conservative in terms of what throws are made but also better ball security.

I think Kern will be the starter against A&T for basically those reasons -- Clawson is pretty obsessive with ball security and Kern provides that. It's not like he's Captain Checkdown, he'll take shots; just doesn't try to force balls into tight windows very often.

And honestly? I kind of find myself rooting for Kern. He might be the nicest guy I've ever covered at WF. He clearly loves the school and seems to be respected/liked by his teammates. He was behind Griffis at an inopportune time (Hartman being out to start 2022), which kind of set WF on the path to last year's train wreck. Kern hasn't had a chance to compete for the starting job until his 6th year. He's looked more consistent and made some throws I don't ever remember seeing him make (mostly on the move) in the last 5 years.

I don't think there's a wrong decision to be made.

Click to expand...

In case you've missed any of the main things to know so far, some links to catch you up:

My Take on Wake's season.

3 glass-half-full predictions | 3 glass-half-empty predictions

Final camp report.

Camp report after the second scrimmage.

It's time to pass the time!

We're in the doldrums of 95-degree days and the college sports slowdown. Naturally, that means it's time to crank out some summer football preview content.

Here's the first entry: 5 breakout candidates for Wake Forest.

I'll have more in the coming days and weeks. One programming note I want to get out there now: ACC media days are set for July 22-25 and I will *not* be there. Think it's the first time I'll miss the kickoff event since, well, before I had a fulltime job covering ACC teams, which would've been 2011. But my family scheduled a vacation for that week and honestly, ACC media days have lost a lot of value over the last 5-6 years, so it was an easy decision to pick the beach over 4 days in Charlotte.

Let's dive right into fall camp!

Here's the first practice report of the year.

Something of a programming note/update: WF practices again Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and I'm planning on being out there again, with detailed reports like this one to follow. They're off Thursday and then have four straight practices before the next off day, so these types of stories are going to be coming often over the next few weeks.

Let me know of any questions you have in this thread -- pertaining to what WF looks like out there, who's standing out, etc. I can cover a lot of ground in those practice reports but I know I can't write about EVERYTHING, so drop a line and I'll answer as best I can, as quickly as possible -- or I'll find somebody at the next practice who can answer.

Welcome to the offseason! You're all miserable that Wake's season ended after two losses in the regional -- I get it.

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

There is a silver lining here: Wake Forest has 3 more weeks to evaluate and work the transfer portal than it did last year. So let's track who's going out, who's coming in, who might come in, etc. I'll do my best to keep this top post up to date and will sort departing players into tiers.

Going to be drafted so high, they'll sign no matter what:
1B Nick Kurtz
RHP Chase Burns
INF Seaver King

Didn't have a great season, still will be drafted and almost guaranteed signs:
RHP Michael Massey
LHP Josh Hartle

Curious how draft works out:
OF Jack Winnay (draft-eligible sophomore)
RHP Cole Roland (has been in college for 6 years but only played 3; if the waivers clear, he *could* return)

Out of eligibility:
OF Jake Reinisch
C Tate Ballestero
INF Adam Tellier*
RHP Chase Walter
RHP David Falco Jr.
C Cameron Gill
(note: Mitchell Salvino initially appeared here, but have been told he has another year because he came from D3, and those players were granted a second COVID exemption.)

Transfer portal exits:
RHP Will Andrews
1B Pirmin Brechbuhl
UTIL Jeter Polledo
LHP Levi Strahm
RHP Andrew Koshy
LHP Hudson Lee
RHP Ben Shenosky

Incoming transfers:
RHP Cole Zaffiro (Penn, 1 season eligibility)
RHP Luke Schmolke (GT, 3 seasons eligibility, eligible for 2025 draft, was with WF this season but ineligible)

* Tellier miiiiiight have a case for a medical redshirt. He only played 16 games in 2022 and I'm a little fuzzy on baseball's redshirt rules (some conflicting information on the Google search) but I don't think you can rule him out completely from getting a waiver approved and an extra season. Of course, if he gets drafted and/or signs, or wants to transfer, that becomes a moot point.