Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Fri Nov 20 · 11:00 PM CT
By Pablo SanchezUpdated 4d ago·2 min read
WAKE
GT
AT
11:00 PM CT
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Two teams that each won 9 games a year ago collide in Atlanta as Georgia Tech wraps up a loaded home slate against a Wake Forest squad that nobody in the ACC wants to sleep on anymore.
Bush’s Picks
WAKEGT
WAKEGT
OverUnder
Best BetGeorgia Tech
Georgia Tech's the more talented roster on paper with Justice Haynes in the backfield, and hosting a late-season ACC game at home is real value in a matchup like this. The swing risk is how green the new pieces look by November — a shaky Mendoza start or a defense on its fourth coordinator since 2023 could erase that talent edge fast.
Wake Forest
+Coming off a 9-win debut season under Jake Dickert
+Six Demon Deacons on Athlon Preseason All-ACC teams
+Full staff and system continuity into year two
−2026 slate ramps up hard: Miami, Virginia, Duke, Purdue
−Some early projections have Deacons under 5.5 wins
−Following up a breakout season is historically tough
Georgia Tech
+Finished 9-4, 2nd in ACC, best 3-year start in decades
+Landed Alabama transfer RB Justice Haynes
+Seven-game home slate plays in Tech's favor
−Brand new starting QB in Indiana transfer Alberto Mendoza
−Fourth defensive coordinator under Brent Key since 2023
−Haynes still working back from a foot injury
Georgia Tech enters this one with a new engine. Alberto Mendoza, the Indiana transfer, is expected to take over at quarterback after Haynes King moved on to the NFL, and Alabama transfer Justice Haynes gives the Yellow Jackets a home-run threat at running back if he's fully past the foot injury that cut short his 2025 season. That's a lot of new pieces for Brent Key to have humming by late November, and how they've gelled over 10-plus games will say a lot about whether Georgia Tech is still the team that started 8-0 a year ago.
Wake Forest, meanwhile, is the team trying to prove last year wasn't a fluke. Jake Dickert's first season in Winston-Salem ended in 9 wins and a bowl trophy, and six Demon Deacons already showed up on Athlon's Preseason All-ACC teams. But the schedule got meaner — Miami, Virginia, Duke and Purdue all show up before the Deacons ever get to Atlanta, so this game likely finds Wake Forest either battle-tested or banged up, with not much in between.
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WAKE Wake Forest
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By the time these two kick off, Georgia Tech will have already hosted Colorado, Tennessee, Duke and Louisville as part of a stacked seven-game home slate, and Wake Forest will have absorbed its own gauntlet. Neither program's actual form is knowable in July, but the pedigree on both sidelines — a Yellow Jackets team that's finished top-4 in the ACC three years running and a Deacons team that overachieved its way to nine wins — sets up a game with real ACC standings implications, whatever the odds end up saying closer to kickoff.
Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Nov 13?@ SMU—
Nov 7?vs Merrimack—
Oct 30?vs Virginia—
Oct 16?@ California—
Oct 9?@ NC State—
Oct 2?vs Stanford—
Sep 25?@ Louisville—
Sep 18?vs Miami—
Sep 12?@ Purdue—
Sep 3?vs Akron—
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Nov 13?@ Clemson—
Nov 6?vs Louisville—
Oct 30?@ Pittsburgh—
Oct 16?@ Virginia Tech—
Oct 9?vs Duke—
Sep 26?@ Stanford—
Sep 19?vs Mercer—
Sep 12?vs Tennessee—
Sep 3?vs Colorado—
Recent form.
The bigger swing factor is continuity, or the lack of it. Georgia Tech is breaking in a new starting quarterback, a new offensive coordinator after Buster Faulkner left for Florida, and a defensive coordinator who'll be the fourth Key has had since taking over in 2023. Wake Forest, by contrast, returns a coaching staff and system that just posted the program's best season in years. That gap could matter more in Week 12 than it does in Week 1, once game-planning and injuries have had all season to expose the thin spots.
Wake Forest Demon Deacons
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
Kickoff is set for 11:00 PM local per the current schedule, closing out a Friday night slate, with Georgia Tech looking to protect its home turf one more time and Wake Forest looking to prove its breakout season carries into year two of the Dickert era.
