Wake Forest will aim to double its win total from each of the last two seasons on Saturday afternoon when it meets Delaware in Winson-Salem, N.C.
The Demon Deacons (7-3) continued their meteoric rise under first-year head coach Jake Dickert with a 28-12 victory over North Carolina last Saturday.
Dickert is tied with Bill Dooley (1987) for the most wins in school history by a first-year head coach. That’s quite an accomplishment given that Wake Forest was selected to finish 16th out of 17 teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference preseason poll.
For Dickert, it’s not about one player carrying the mail. It’s more about complementary football.
“Football is a crazy game. You bring a different team to the field every week,” he said Monday. “The mentalities of the young people change, the perception of how you look at it changes, and the more consistent you can be to that approach, the better you can be.”
Carlos Hernandez recorded season-high totals in catches (six) and receiving yards (100) while recording his first two touchdowns of the season against the Tar Heels. Hernandez alertly picked up a teammate’s loose ball and rushed 51 yards for a score in the first quarter and was on the receiving end of a 70-yard flea-flicker in the third.
Robby Ashford threw for one touchdown and ran for another, and Demond Claiborne produced 98 rushing yards with a score as Wake Forest picked up its second win in a row.
Delaware (5-5) fell for the fourth time in the past six games with a 26-23 setback at Sam Houston last Saturday.
The Blue Hens nearly overcame a 26-10 deficit early in the fourth quarter, but a successful onside kick led to an unsuccessful 36-yard field-goal attempt with 21 seconds to play ended their threat.
“Hard to wrap my head around, to be honest,” Delaware coach Ryan Carty told Blue Hens Radio. “Obviously, we had a slow start, worked our way down in the red zone, got a penalty, worked our way back out of it, kept getting more penalties.
“Too many turnovers, too many mistakes, too many sacks. Too little, too late.”
Sean Wilson had career-best totals in catches (nine) and receiving yards (162) vs. the Bearkats. He has at least 100 receiving yards in three straight games.
