BSD Staff Predictions for Wake Forest vs. Florida State

Wake Forest hosts Florida State tomorrow night at 7:30pm at BB&T Field. The Deacs are coming off of their first loss of the season, but have maybe their best chance yet at a win against the Seminoles for the first time in the Clawson era.

Without further ado, here are the picks by the BSD staff for tomorrow’s game.

Elijah (5 Correct-Utah State, Rice, UNC, Elon, BC; 1 incorrect-Louisville)

Florida State 35-Wake Forest 31

The Deacs look to rebound after a gut-punch loss to the Louisville Cardinals. Despite scoring 59 points, the Deacs fell short and Wake Forest has a tough test against a Florida State team that has disappointed so far in the season. FSU continues to play worse than the sum of their parts, further evident by their demise against Clemson last week.

This is an important game for the Deacs as further slippage will only further dent the great 5-0 start to the season. However, the uncertainty of the quarterback situation and defensive injuries to key players like Luke Masterson make me nervous about the matchup. Deacs lose in another heartbreaker, 35-31.

Riley (5 Correct-Utah State, Rice, UNC, Elon, BC; 1 incorrect-Louisville)

Florida State 35-Wake Forest 31

The Deacs are coming of their first loss of the year to Louisville in a crazy game. Wake opened as a four point favorite but that line has been bet down to 1-2 points on most sites. For this game I, for whatever reason, have a bad feeling about the Seminoles coming into town. The Noles have always have a ton of talent and it hasn’t come together for them yet this season for 60 minutes. I am hoping this weekend isn’t that time for them, but it has been in the past few years for whatever reason. The defenses will struggle for both teams on Saturday night and I expect it to be another shootout in Winston. Unfortunately I think the Deacs come up short for the second week in a row.

Samurai (5 Correct-Utah State, Rice, UNC, Elon, BC; 1 incorrect-Louisville)

Wake Forest 35-Florida State 31

Said this in the Q&A, but I’m going the inverse of Riley.

Cam (5 Correct-Utah State, Rice, UNC, Elon, BC; 1 incorrect-Louisville)

Wake Forest 45-Florida State 35

This is a longer one than i’ll have all season.

I feel like this is the same style and level of team we saw vs Louisville. Physical corners, a good RB (Akers is better than Hawkins), rotating QBs each with their own skillset, explosive playmakers. There are two trade offs here: confidence and OL. Objectively, FSU has a bad OL. They have the worst starting LT in all of the P5. They’ve allowed above national average rushing success rate every single game this year.

Wake can not come out here and sleepwalk again. They can not put their defense is a position where they have no room to work with due to special teams miscues or putting the ball on the ground. Offensively they can not continue to drop passes over the middle and get off schedule. Wake has to take advantage of the gifts of advantages that FSU offers. Get the pass rush going, take advantage of a BAD OL and run the damn ball effectively. If they can run the ball effectively and control the line of scrimmage on defense things will work out how they need to regardless of if it’s Jamie Newman or Sam Hartman at the helm.

Wake please.

Edward (5 Correct-Utah State, Rice, UNC, Elon, BC; 1 incorrect-Louisville)

Wake Forest 31-Florida State 27

Based on the weather forecast it looks like much of this game may have to be played solely on the ground. The Deacs will need a repeat performance from Christian Beal-Smith, as well as great outings from Cade Carney and Kenneth Walker III if they have a chance. The defense will have to find a way to contain Cam Akers. In the end, the Deacs avoid a letdown of two straight losses, Nick Sciba does his job well, and the Deacs sneak by with a win to become bowl eligible going into their second bye week.

Adam (4 Correct-Utah State, Rice, Elon, and BC; 2 Incorrect-UNC & Louisville)

Florida State 21-Wake Forest 17

Based on the current forecast of lots of rain, I feel like the team that can run the ball more effectively is going to come out on top. Unfortunately I have to give the edge to Cam Akers on that one. Here’s hoping for clear skies.

Grumpy (3-0)

Bart (1-0)

How do you all think the Deacs will do tomorrow night in their second straight primetime home game? Comment below. Go Deacs!