The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are making their presence felt in the ACC one game at a time. Their latest statement came against No. 16 Louisville, where an unranked Wake Forest team entered as a 12.5-point underdog and walked out of L&N Stadium with a 30-27 win. Louisville even had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds, but Dallas Afalava blocked the field goal attempt and sealed Wake Forest’s move to 3-1.
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For Jake Dickert, though, the win carried a lot more weight. As he praised his staff and players after the game, he became emotional and revealed that his wife’s father had passed away a couple of weeks earlier. While his wife was with her family, Dickert was on the sideline coaching one of Wake Forest’s biggest games of the season. He had every reason to celebrate, but the moment made it clear that football was not the only thing on his mind.
“You want me to be honest?” he asked in reply to the reporter, who questioned where the emotion was coming from. “My wife’s dad passed away a couple [of] weeks ago. And she’s there today, and I’m not there for someone I love. Everyone thinks coaching is this perfect thing. My heart was with her today. She knows I love her. Honey, I love you. Thank you.”
Dickert’s revelation also says a lot about the character behind Wake Forest’s rise. Even while dealing with a painful family loss, the second-year head coach still had to turn his attention to the challenge Louisville presented. He gave everything to the game, then used the postgame moment to send a message directly to his wife, Candice.
Candice has long been one of Jake’s strongest sources of support. The two met while attending Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where Jake played football before beginning his coaching career. Since then, they have built their lives around his journey through college football. Now parents of three, they have already gone through 11 moves together, which made Saturday’s separation hit even harder.
Wake Forest entered the game as a 12.5-point underdog, though at this point, that label is starting to look a little questionable. The Demon Deacons improved to 3-1 with the 30-27 win and continued building momentum away from home. But this was not a game they had wrapped up early. Wake Forest committed 10 penalties, weathered Louisville’s second-half push and still had to survive one final possession. The Cardinals eventually lined up for a potential game-tying field goal before Afalava blocked the 54-yard attempt with 18 seconds remaining.
That made the response even more meaningful after Wake Forest’s only loss of the season, a 33-20 defeat against Miami. Losing to one of the country’s stronger teams was not necessarily disastrous, but the loss left Wake Forest with something to prove. If this team wanted to be taken seriously in the ACC, it could not allow one rough afternoon against Miami to become the beginning of a slide.
“We talked about having a hard edge coming off the Miami game,” Dickert told the ACC Network. “Our program is built in the dark. You know, so we trained this way. Our guys kept believing. Great job by our coaches.”
Dickert clearly believed his team could respond, and this time, it did. “Great job by our players. Just really proud of our program right now. We came in to get this win,” he added. “Confidence we could win the dang game, and our guys pulled it out.”
Wake Forest made life difficult for Louisville from the opening possession. The defense forced a three-and-out on the Cardinals’ opening drive and continued putting pressure on the Louisville backfield from there. Wake Forest finished with nine tackles for loss and four sacks, making quarterback Lincoln Kienholz work throughout the afternoon.
On the other side, Gio Lopez delivered an efficient performance, completing 12 of 19 passes for 225 yards and a touchdown. Wake Forest also got important production from Ty Clark III, who rushed for 91 yards on 21 carries and scored two touchdowns, giving the offense another way to hurt Louisville.
But even Lopez had to take a back seat to Carlos Hernandez, who finished with nine receptions for 194 yards and a touchdown, including a 77-yard scoring connection with Lopez.
“He seemed to be everywhere,” Dickert said of Hernandez. “It needs to start being talked about as one of the best receivers in the country. But a year ago, we benched Carlos. And to see the kid pull through, practice, and believe in himself. Gutsy performance by our offense.”
That development probably says as much about Dickert’s Wake Forest as the upset itself. Hernandez went from being benched a year ago to becoming the most dangerous player on the field against a ranked opponent. Wake Forest went from licking its wounds after Miami to beating No. 16 Louisville on the road despite an imperfect performance and one final Louisville comeback attempt. And Dickert went from carrying a deeply personal loss into the game to walking away with a victory his team refused to let slip.