2025 Wake Forest Football Predictions: Demon Deacons Ranked 77th in RJ Young's Ultimate 136

This isn't your average college football ranking.

My Ultimate 136 is a set of rankings that is fluid, but it's my job to look ahead and make a claim for all FBS teams based on what I know and why I know it. Here are the three pressing questions I started by asking when putting together this list:

• Who do I think is good?
• Why do I think they're good?
• What are the chances they will finish above or below my expectations?

Here is a look at where Wake Forest lands in my Ultimate 136.

Team ranking: 77
Last year’s ranking: 86
Top player: RB Demond Claiborne: Finished sixth in the ACC in rushing yards with 1,049 and tied for fifth in rush TDs with 11; selected to All-ACC Third Team last season as an RB and all-purpose player.

[Wake Forest's 2025 schedule]

RJ’s take: Not even former coach Dave Clawson can finish 4-8 in back-to-back seasons and feel good about his future in the sport, especially when his success was predicated on slowly developing redshirt upperclassmen into damn good ball players. With the portal, NIL funding necessities and immediate eligibility now part of the sport, his system for success became as obsolete as the floppy disk.

But incoming coach Jake Dickert cut his teeth as a change agent at Washington State at a desperate time for the folks in Pullman. He aims to do the same for a Demon Deacons program that might get left behind in a bloated ACC.

I'm not at all sure what kind of juice journeyman QB Robby Ashford has left, but Karate Brenson and Reginald Vick are a couple of HBCU gems who will get open for him. Get to six wins someway, and call that a winning season.

Wake Forest Win Total Odds: Over 4.5 (+118) Under 4.5 (-144)

Have an issue with my rankings? Think your alma mater is too low, or your school's rival is too high? Get at me on X, @RJ_Young, and I'll select my favorite tweets and respond to them in a future article.

RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young.

[Check out RJ Young's Ultimate 136 College Football Rankings here]

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